The First Week of Our Archive’s 10 Year Celebrations

Followers of Rock & Pop music will be well aware that every few years a legendary group reforms. Over the past decade Pink Floyd, Cream, Blur, The Stone Roses & Take That all made impressive comebacks. Well today my blog friends, at 10.00 GMT, the Museum of London’s Archaeological Archive & Research Centre had not one but TWO of their very own legends reunite.

Today, Alan Thompson, LAARC’s Archaeological Records Officer when it opened in 2002, worked alongside his then colleague (and current LAARC archivist) Cath Maloney for the first time since retiring 9 years ago. And their reunion was all due to the second and perhaps even cooler reunion.

Today, also at 10.00 GMT, Alan was reunited with the excavation GPO75 – 1975’s General Post Office excavations at Newgate Street – of which he was the site director. From 10am – 4pm, he and Cath were sharing their knowledge, experiences and indeed memeories of the site with museum visitors at our Archaeological Records table in Archaeology in Action. And our visitors (were you one?) loved it as they showed people the original documents that the team of archaeologists wrote on site, photos from the excavation, the various elements that go towards a publication, xrays of mysterious objects that were dug up and of course… the matrix…

And this was just one example of the awesome time we’ve been having this week as we continue to celebrate 10 years of our archaeological archive. On Tuesday, our volunteers from our Osteology section spoke to over 150 people about skeletons dug up from the site (for more follow this link – GPO75 SKELETONS ), whilst on Monday, archaeological conservators from both our museum and those studying at UCL shared their knowledge and expertise about how we preserve our archaeological material.

All three will be returning over the next 9 weeks; Conservation every Monday, Skeletons every Tuesday and the Archaeological Records every Friday – all from 10am – 4pm in Archaeology In Action. Find out more by visiting our website – EVENTS

As well as that our volunteers have been interacting with hundreds of visitors at our two other tables too. Also in Archaeology In Action, Volunteers have been working their way through boxes of pottery, animal bone and building material, improving the way they’re stored and their packaging whilst chatting to visitors. Best of all visitors can handle the material, literally coming into contact with the past.

Outside our London Before London gallery, you can also meet LAARC staff and volunteers and find out what it is that we actually do in an archaeological archive and why this needs to be done. You can handle some amazing artefacts, search for archaeology in any part of London, find out about some of our award winning projects and, should you get the urge, dress up as an archaeologist.

And the number one question that was being asked this week? How can we get involved? The answer is simple. Come along to a free Hands-On Archaeology workshop which takes place in our Clore Learning Centre each Monday, Tuesday & Friday from 3.15 – 4.15. If you’ve ever wanted to get your hands on real archaeology, this is your chance. The workshops allow you to learn about London’s archaeology by getting your hands on it and in the process you get to help us improve the way we store our collections! Check out these pictures from some of the sessions that have already taken place.

For more information about the Hands-On Archaeology sessions visit our events page – EVENTS.

We’ll be around every Monday, Tuesday & Friday for the next few weeks. Hope to see you soon!

Each Week we’ll be posting Volunteer Profiles to let you know a bit more about our excellent volunteers. First up for this project is Jon:

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
Joined for VIP9 because I’m interested in archaeology and future museum work

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
I particularly remember the leather workshop – great winklepickers

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
A horse leg bone. It was massive. Noone was nearly as impressed as I was.

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
London before London. I find flint tools fascinating

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Upper

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
1381 – the peasant’s revolt

7) Favourite Londoner?
Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Wheeler for the ‘tache

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
Marine Archaeology in the Mediterranean, I love diving

10) What’s next for you after this project?
MA in Museum Studies. Hopefully.

Day 1 of the Archaeological Archive’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations

If you happened to visit the Museum of London today, did you spot us? The staff and volunteers at the London Archaeological Archive & Research Centre (LAARC) have begun our 10 week residency at the Museum to share our work with you! And if you weren’t at the museum today, here’s what you missed:

Outside our “London Before London” gallery, our archive manager had a selection of goodies:

• Visitors handled objects made in London almost 2000 years ago
• Visitors looked at the original records sheets that archaeologists wrote whilst they were digging up sites.
• School groups had fun trying to figure out a mystery object whose identity was revealed by an  x-ray
• Teachers admired a range of artefacts dug up by school children during our 2005 community project
• Londoners searched our online catalogue to find out what’s been dug up in their area
• One budding young archaeologist tried on a hard hat and held a trowel for the first time!

Meanwhile, a bit further on in “Archaeology In Action” all this was going on:

• Conservation students from University College London were showing people how a piece of wood deteriorates if not looked after.
• There was more guessing of mystery objects using x-rays for answers
• Visitors were handling, comparing (and sniffing) pieces of leather, all conserved in different ways.
• You could take a look at how conservators remove very fragile objects from an excavation

Alongside the conservators were LAARC volunteers:

• Packing archaeological finds, they were chatting to visitors about what they were doing.
• Visitors were able to pick up and handle real objects
• You could discover how we store artefacts at the museum and why we do so

To cap things off several visitors joined us for our afternoon workshop – Hands-On Archaeology – where they learnt a bit about London’s Archaeological history, got their “hands on” some real roman pottery, worked alongside volunteers and sorted pots into different types and helped us improve the way these pot sherds are stored.

So all in all it was a pretty awesome day. It was great to meet so many visitors and share a bit of our work with them. And if you weren’t there today, don’t worry, we’re doing it all again tomorrow and on Friday and indeed, we’ll be around for the next 10 weeks, so come along and say hi.

For more information about our various events visit our website’s events pages: events pages link

London’s Archaeological Archive celebrates its first decade

In a unassuming building along Hackney/Islington’s Regents Canal borders a team of museum archaeologists are getting quite excited. The reason being, us staff at the London Archaeological Archive & Research Centre are soon to celebrate our 10th anniversary and we’re only days away from the starting the celebrations.

Since opening in 2002 we’ve really focused on 4 main things: To make sure London’s archaeology is stored in an space efficient way that is accessible to all; to encourage and facilitate research into London’s history using the objects and information people left behind; to promote learning and enjoyment by discovering London’s heritage and finally; to be ambassadors of archaeology and leaders in our field of expertise.

That may all sound a little grandiose so put in another way, for the past 10 years we’ve been looking after things that have been dug up, sharing them with as many people as possible and generally have a lot of fun with archaeology along the way.

AND NOW WE’RE COMING TO YOU!

For the next 10 weeks from January 16th to March 23rd, every Monday, Tuesday & Friday, from 10.00 – 16.00, we’re heading to the Museum of London itself to share London’s archaeology with museum visitors. Part of the celebrations will see our Award Winning “Visitor Inclusion Project” return, only this time on a much larger scale.

Joining LAARC staff will be a team of volunteers spanning the past decade, from those who have only just completed a volunteer project, to those that were here from day 1. You can meet them at the “Archaeology Exposed” tables and find out what they’re currently working on every Mon, Tues & Friday in the Archaeology in Action Exhibition.

In addition, on Mondays you can find out about archaeological conservation and meet student conservators from University College London who’ll be sharing the techniques they use to preserve artefacts.

On Tuesdays come and meet our volunteers from the Centre of Human Bioarchaeology and find out how they use skeletal remains to understand past Londoner’s lives.

On Fridays join our archivists who will reveal the importance of recording archaeological data and the wealth of information that site archives can reveal.

And if this wasn’t enough, you can directly GET INVOLVED by coming to a “Hands-On Archaeology” workshop where you’ll have the opportunity to handle real pieces of pottery that were excavated during the 1970s, learn how the museum stores its archaeological collections and help us improve the way these important artefacts are stored.

Each session lasts just an hour (3.15 – 4.15) and are completely free of charge (though you have to get a ticket from the front desk when you arrive).

As the weeks progress, we’ll be keeping you updated with our happenings, sharing stories from the past 10 years and introducing you to some of our excellent volunteers, right here on the blog pages.

We really hope you can drop by and join us as we’re sure it’s going to be a blast. For more info about how you can get involved in the Hands-On Archaeology sessions, visit the events page by clicking here: Hands-On Archaeology event

Results, Results, Results

As the end of another year approaches, we once again have to say goodbye to another Volunteer Inclusion Project. VIP9 has been a whole lot of fun, with some really excellent people having joined our volunteer team for the past 10 weeks. We’ve worked our way through some important archaeological material and now have much better organised and accessible finds archives.

So a huge thank to everyone who’s helped make this project a success; all the specialists and curators that led the workshops and of course the 38 volunteers that gave up their time to help improve the museum’s collections. It’s been a blast and here are a selection of images showing why:

New volunteers improving the collections

And having fun "reinterpreting" the objects

Checking the smell of history

Site archives effeciently reboxed and organised

Specialist Workshops

University of The 3rd Age fun

Home educated children mixing learning and enjoyment

Experts sharing their knowledge

Activities such as medieval shoe making

Right then, one more thing before we sign off VIP9, the result of the Object of the Competition. This project’s best object as voted by you is…. (click anywhere within these brackets to find out)

Was that the one you went for?

Ok then, that’s it for now, we’re off to enjoy the festive festivities. But VIP will be back come January. And trust me, you definitely don’t want to miss VIP10.

Merry Christmas from The LAARC!

Daytripping, Dip making and “Didn’t they do well”

And so we come to the end of our ninth Volunteer Inclusion Project. The task this week was to make a start with the reboxing of all the animal bone from VIP9’s major site, Seal House.

The teams cracked on with organising the animal bone boxes into one long sequence based on their context numbers (the numbers relating to the layer in the ground they were found in). They also recorded the shell from the site, quantifying the material before disposing of it.

However, as with all our projects the real focus of the final week is our afternoon visits to the Museum of London itself where we wrap things up with behind the scenes visits.

This project we started with our fabulous friends in the Centre For Human Bioarchaeology.

We then were treated to a tour around our Conservation Labs.

And to top things off, Caroline McDonald, the new Senior Curator of Prehistoric & Roman collections took us on a trip around the Roman Gallery, highlighting key artefacts she would like to explore in more depth for the forthcoming 2015 gallery redesign (Mon & Tues)

whilst Inclusion officers, Lucy Fitton & Lowell Black gave us an insight into the forthcoming Our Londinium 2012 exhibition.

And if that wasn’t enough, we had even more fun on Wednesday for the last sessions with our friends from the University of the 3rd Age, who presented their final creative pieces inspired by an aspect of their 10 week experience.

And to cap this blog off, I’m going to finish with images from possibly the most fun we’ve had with any group on any VIP project – the Family Groups made authentic Roman cuisine, prepared using replica roman mortarium, then we made super wintry scented pomanders and ended with a look at everyone’s comics that they produced last week.

Our final photo of the week is our brilliant security guard Sami, checking the quality of the kid’s garlic dip:

The VIP9 project has been brilliant. From the feedback, all our volunteers, young and old, have not only enjoyed themselves, but learnt lots about archaeology too. And on top of all this the museum now has much better stored archives which are much more accessible for all. Very. Very. Satisfying.

All that leaves me to say is if you haven’t voted for your favourite object from the project, there’s still time to do so (and then you will have been a part of VIP9 as well). Click anywhere in this sentence to link to the voting page. Cheerio!

The Final Four

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to vote for their favourite objects during he course of this week. Each day you’ve been voting in your droves and have narrowed the original 16 objects down to just 4. Are you ready for one last vote. It’s time for

THE GRAND FINAL

On Monday you chose the Squirrel Token excavated in 1979 at Newgate Street and audited by Wednesday volunteer Alan during week 2. This copper token depicts a squirrel eating a nut surrounded by fleurs-de-lis. Such depictions have also been found on seal matrices with the legend ‘I CRAKE NOTIS’ – ‘I crack nuts’ – referring to the breaking of the seal. This token may relate to the furrier trade, squirrel pelts being in huge demand in the medieval period. The tale of Cinderella may  have involved her losing a squirrel fur-lined-slipper as opposed to a glass slipper, the pronunciation of vair (meaning fur) and verre (meaning glass) in old French being identical!

On Tuesday the winner was the medieval purse. The ‘medieval’ style of wearing a purse was for it to be hung from the waist, attaching to a belt or girdle. Later types would thread through the belt as an anti-bandit mechanism. This one was excavated from the medieval waterfront at Vintry, hence its fantastic survival condition. It was found alongside dress fittings, trade seals, metalworking waste and coins…but none were found in the actual purse! It was audited by Wednesday volunteer Hannah during week 7

Wednesday’s winner was excavated at Rectory Grove in 1980 and was audited during week 9 by Friday volunteer, Mary. This is a rare, late 17th Century ‘bird pot’ designed to be hung on the side of a building for nesting sparrows. A hole at the back of the pot, known as a ‘robbery hole’, allowed access to the sparrow eggs or indeed fledgling sparrows themselves. The LAARC holds only 61 examples and they are a London phenomenon to Britain. Their discovery in relation with wealthy households has led to an interpretation of them as supplying live sparrows for hawking – a privileged pastime. However, sparrows were also used as a dietary supplement by the poorer classes, which questions their context…sparrow pie anyone?

And the last finalist you opted for were these rare examples of Roman sandal rosettes from 1990’s Bull Wharf investigations. The Y-shaped sandal strap would be secured between the toes with a leather peg holding the functional rosette piece – hence the two slits. The additional rosette piece would have been appliquéd to the top and is purely decorative. It is interesting that such detail has been applied to such a small piece of leather. This footwear fashion was popular across the empire (especially Egypt) with examples having been found at military sites including Vindolanda (Hadrian’s Wall), Germany and Switzerland. They were audited by Monday volunteer John O C during week 7.

Only one can win and it’s up to you to help pick the best of the best. If you don’t play, you don’t get a say! For the Grand Final, voting will stay open for 6 days until noon on Wednesday 14th Dec. Plenty of time to tell your friends to take a look and see if they fancy the same one as you. And should you fancy, you can always leave a comment saying why you made your choice by clicking on the title of  this blog in the right hand navigation panel and leaving a comment a the bottom of the blog.

To cast your vote, click on the word VOTE! below:

VOTE!

Voting has now closed.

Big thanks to everyone who has taken the time to play along – we’ve hoped you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have. Huge thanks to my colleague Glynn for the photos and captions. And a massive thanks to all the VIP9 volunteers whose hard work helped us rediscover these fantastic objects!

4th Time Round

And so we come to the last of our daily competitions to determine the best object from our ninth Volunteer Inclusion Project based at the Museum of London’s Archaeological Archive & Research Centre.

On Monday you chose the Squirrel Token as the first daily winner and then selected the Leather Purse as Tuesday’s victor. Yesterday you decided that the best object was…

THE BIRD POT!

There’s only one more space left in tomorrow’s Grand Final. Which one will you go for today?

We kick off with an object from week8. Audited by Monday volunteer John W, this is a 17^th Century copper-alloy coin weight, specifically dating to 1612 – 1632 during the reign of king James I. Coin weights were produced to check the weight and quality of coins in circulation – forgery being as great then as it is now. This square type of coin weight (as opposed to round) was introduced at the beginning of the 16^th Century with the addition of the coin value in Shillings (S) and Pence (D). This weight marks twenty-two (XXII) shillings, equivalent to the gold coin known as a unite that was minted at the Tower of London. This object however was originally discovered at Albert Embankment excavations in 1980

Next we’ve a silver Edwardian hatpin originally dug up in 1979 at Wall Garden Farm, but rediscovered during week 6 by Tuesday volunteer Jon. The long pin is actually missing, which led to the object being erroneously interpreted as a ‘mount’. The reverse of the pin has the hall mark ‘P&T’, in addition to three hall marks of an anchor, lion and the Roman numeral ‘I’. This identifies the makers as Pearce & Thompson of Birmingham. Hatpins remained a standard accessory for women throughout the Edwardian period. Unfortunately we have no additional context for this particular pin as it’s unstratified – perhaps accidentally lost by the owner one windy day.

Third up are these rare examples of Roman sandal rosettes from 1990’s Bull Wharf investigations. The Y-shaped sandal strap would be secured between the toes with a leather peg holding the functional rosette piece – hence the two slits. The additional rosette piece would have been appliquéd to the top and is purely decorative. It is interesting that such detail has been applied to such a small piece of leather. This footwear fashion was popular across the empire (especially Egypt) with examples having been found at military sites including Vindolanda (Hadrian’s Wall), Germany and Switzerland. They were audited by Monday volunteer John O C during week 7.

And the final object is the decorated glass head of a mid 18^th Century bird feeder, for caged birds. The tricorn hat may indicate the Duke of Marlborough – a well known soldier and statesman of the time. The head would have faced outward from the cage, so to quote a report on this object: “the anthropomorphism of the feeders was not for the delectation of the pet, but of the owner”! The object was found in a brick-lined pit from the Crosswall in City of London and the contents of its domestic rubbish included the bone of a linnet (song-bird) – perhaps the very bird that the feeder had fed. Friday volunteer Natasha had the pleasure of auditing this object during week 6.

Only one object can make it through to tomorrow’s Grand Final and it’s up to you to decide. Vote for your favourite by clicking on the word VOTE! right here:

VOTE!

Voting has now closed.

Voting closes tomorrow at noon when the winner will join the others in the Grand Final!

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to play along. We’ve hoped you’ve been enjoying it as much as us. Feel free to leave a comment below. See y’all tomorrow.

Ready for Round 3

We’re back for Round 3 of the competition that gets YOU deciding which object has been the best of the current Volunteer Inclusion Project based at the Museum’s Archaeological Archive.

Yesterday’s competition had some really strong candidates but again one object was miles ahead of the others. The winner with the highest number of votes was…

THE LEATHER PURSE

It joins Monday’s winner, the SQUIRREL TOKEN, in Friday’s Grand Final

Here’s Round 3’s selections:

The first option was only rediscovered last week by Friday volunteer Jane. Although uncertain, it is likely that this is the end of a scissor arm – specifically from a pair of grape scissors. Grape scissors were used during the dessert course of a Victorian dinner and tend to be ornately designed, which this fragmentary object displays evidence of. Dining etiquette was an important part of the Victorian code of polite society – only after the grapes had been correctly cut was it permissible for the diner to use his or her fingers. It was originally recovered from Rectory Grove excavations in 1980.

The second artefact also comes from Rectory Grove, was also audited during week 9 and was done so by another Friday volunteer, Mary. This is a rare, late 17^th Century ‘bird pot’ designed to be hung on the side of a building for nesting sparrows. A hole at the back of the pot, known as a ‘robbery hole’, allowed access to the sparrow eggs or indeed fledgling sparrows themselves. The LAARC holds only 61 examples and they are a London phenomenon to Britain. Their discovery in relation with wealthy households has led to an interpretation of them as supplying live sparrows for hawking – a privileged pastime. However, sparrows were also used as a dietary supplement by the poorer classes, which questions their context…sparrow pie anyone?

The third choice was audited by Monday volunteer Paula during week 3 and is a late Saxon – 10^th Century – whittle tang knife blade found in 1979 at Peninsular House. The handle, now lost, may have been made from animal horn or even ivory. This particular blade is especially interesting because of the wire inlay, producing the gold coloured decoration. Copper and brass wire would have been laid side to side in paired grooves in the iron and then hammered. A similar knife has been found a very short distance away in an excavation at Poultry. Saxon London was a major centre for trade but these commonly found knives are English made.

And the final candidate today was audited by Tuesday volunteer Benji during week 4. This is a fine example of a tassel of the Elizabethan era, dating between 1580 and 1600 from its contextual pottery assemblage. It is rare for fibre to survive archaeologically but is due to the material being dumped and buried in a pond that related to the House of Sir John Fastolf (Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff) in Southwark (the excavation was at Unicorn Passage, Tooley Street). It is unknown as to what the tassel would have attached to…perhaps clothing, or something more functional such as curtains. We suggest that maybe it adorned a Shakespearean throw cushion!

Well we don’t make it easy for you. Will the scissors seduce you? Will you be blown away by the bird pot? Knocked out by the knife? Or will the tassel tickle your fancy? There’s only one way to decide:

VOTE!

Voting has now closed. Click any part of this sentence for today’s competition.

Voting will close at noon tomorrow when the winner will be announced and you’ll get to vote in the last of the daily rounds before Friday’s Grand Final.

Thanks to everyone for voting and supporting us!

Get Your Voting Fingers Out

Each day this week we’re celebrating the success of our ninth Volunteer Inclusion Project, by putting the best objects that we’ve seen over the past 10 weeks up in daily competitions to decide which is the best.

Yesterday saw some tough choices but there was one clear winner. The object you voted as your favourite was…

THE SQUIRREL TOKEN!

This now enters Friday’s Grand Final. And here’s today’s options:

First up is from week 3 and was audited by Tuesday volunteer Carl. This 16^th–17^th Century copper-alloy figurine depicts the English Patron Saint, George, defeating the legendary dragon. It has been interpreted as a dress or belt fitting although the suspension rings at each end suggest that it may have been part of a more complicated mount. If the object did not have these attachments it could be interpreted as a toy. The object is detailed with plate armour, which is a common depiction of the Saint as a Roman soldier (Georgius). An interesting item considering its discovery in 1979 was outside the Tower of London postern gate excavations – perhaps it was lost by a guard…or deliberately discarded?

Next is this late medieval or early post-medieval wooden chess piece audited by Monday volunteer Norma during week 2. Earlier chess or gaming pieces are non-figurative and usually made of bone. Chess originated in India, known as shatranj, with the gaming pieces represented military divisions. The ‘bishop’ was originally an elephant and the later design of these pieces with a split head may be representative of the elephant’s tusks. Chess became very popular across Europe in the Middle Ages, the deep groove in the piece at this time representing a bishop’s mitre. It was originally discovered in 1979 at Miles Lane.

Third up is a well preserved example of a medieval purse. The ‘medieval’ style of wearing a purse was for it to be hung from the waist, attaching to a belt or girdle. Later types would thread through the belt as an anti-bandit mechanism. This one was excavated from the medieval waterfront at Vintry, hence its fantastic survival condition. It was found alongside dress fittings, trade seals, metalworking waste and coins…but none were found in the actual purse! It was audited by Wednesday volunteer Hannah during week 7

The last object was audited by Friday volunteer Susan during week 5. This is the base of a Roman samian cup dating to 160 – 200 AD and discovered at Seal House in 1974. On the base’s interior is the stamp of the pot maker: one Saturninus of Lezoux in central Gaul (Roman France), from where a huge amount of samian was exported to the wider Roman Empire. The potter Saturninus shares his name with the Roman winter festival the Saturnalia – in honour of the god Saturn – at which Roman social norms were inverted. Considering Winter has now kicked in, this seemed an appropriate object to include as an object of the week!

And now it’s your time to choose today’s best object. Which will you go for? To vote, click on the word VOTE! below:

VOTE!

Voting has now closed but you can vote in Round 4’s competition

Voting will close at noon tomorrow, when the winner will be announced and Round 3 will open.

Thanks for playing!