The working life of Museum of London

Like a number of my colleagues in the Museum of London’s Department of Archaeological Collections and Archive, I belong to the Society of Museum Archaeologists (SMA). 

At last year’s annual SMA conference, I (along with many others!) enjoyed an excellent presentation from Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley about the work of the Metropolitan Police Service’s Art and Antiques Unit. D.S. Rapley discussed several recent cases of fakes and forgeries, such as the infamous case of Shaun Greenhalgh.

D.S. Rapley’s talk provoked a lot of interest and discussion amongst SMA members, and we recently had the privilege of learning more about the world of fakes and forgeries with a guided tour of the ‘Fakes and Forgeries’ special exhibition put together by the Metropolitan Police Service’s Art and Antiques Unit at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Of particular interest to me were the archaeological artefacts that had been forged, including a number of Anglo-Saxon coins.

Walking around the exhibition and listening to our guide, Detective Sergeant Ian Lawson, you couldn’t help but be struck by the lengths that people had to gone to in order to establish a history or ‘provenance’ for the objects they had created. In many cases, documentation ‘proving’ the authenticity of the objects had been forged, including letters from Museum curators.

The special exhibition and work of the Metropolitan Police Service’s Art and Antiques Unit has really brought home the need to work closely with other museums, particularly in London, to tackle fakes and forgeries.

In my previous blog article – Archaeology and the Digital World, I mentioned that archaeology often generates a wealth of digital records in addition to the traditional paper records you would expect to find in an archaeological archive such as context sheets, site notes and plans and sections.

More archaeologists than ever are using digital technologies to record on site. The most obvious example of this is the use of digital cameras, particularly during standing building recording investigations. As a result, we are finding that archives often now contain a significant proportion of ‘born-digital’ records, for which there is no paper equivalent. 

Despite significant advances in the field of digital preservation over the past 10 years, we still request that depositors provide selected key records in both digital and paper format. Our revised Standards for Deposition provide further detail about these requirements. We recognise however that this may need to change, even as soon as the next 12-18 months. 

One issue we are currently exploring here at the LAARC is whether or not to permit archaeological site plans to be provided in digital format only. Depositors are currently required to provide a hard copy plot of any site plans in addition to the digital version(s), which are generally produced in AutoCAD or ArcGIS software programmes. However, with the development of free software readers for AutoCAD DWG/ DXF files and ArcGIS shape files, and the ability to produce static versions of site plans in PDF or TIF format for researchers who simply want to see where a site is located (as opposed to undertaking more detailed site location analyses), is this really necessary?

We would be very interested to know your thoughts on this issue, and would welcome any comments. Do you think it is time to embrace digital only, or is it still too soon to forgo hard copy site plans altogether? What would you prefer to use if undertaking archaeological research at the LAARC?

Hi, my name is Joanna Wylie and I work at the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC) as the Archaeological Records (Digital) Officer. I started working at the LAARC in April 2008, ”fresh off the boat” from New Zealand where I worked as an archaeologist for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

An archaeological archive differs from a traditional archive as it includes both records (paper, photographic, digital) and finds. At the LAARC, we accept archives relating to archaeological projects undertaken in the Greater London area, and I am responsible for managing the digital records that are received as part of these archives. Archaeology and computing are closely intertwined, and archaeologists are often considered to be at the cutting edge when it comes to all things ‘IT’! Archaeology can generate a wealth of digital records including GIS data sets, digital site plans and drawings, reports, databases and spreadsheets, digital photos, video footage and even websites. Since I started at the LAARC, we have received over 10 000 new digital files!

More specifically, my job as Archaeological Records (Digital) Officer involves:

• checking through the digital records that are deposited to see that they have been prepared in accordance with our Standards for Deposition,
• archiving the records and preparing them for download via our Online Catalogue so that they are easily accessible to researchers, and
• ‘technology watch’ – keeping up to date with digital preservation issues and new advances in archaeology and digital technology

In addition, I assist LAARC Archivist Cath Maloney by responding to general enquiries, issuing site or ‘project’ codes to contractors commencing new archaeological projects in London and supervising researchers who visit the LAARC. I also get involved with the LAARC’s outreach activities which I really enjoy – it’s good to take a break from my computer every once and a while!

The London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC) holds information about more than 7500 archaeological sites/ projects in the Greater London area, and stores the records and finds for many of these sites/ projects. As a result, the LAARC receives hundreds of research enquiries each year, both from within the UK and abroad. Researchers range from school children to university students, professional researchers, family historians and contract archaeologists. We are sometimes able to respond to enquiries via telephone or email, but in most cases researchers need to make an appointment to come and view the records and finds they are interested in. Depending on the size of the research topic, several appointments may be needed!

So, what exactly are all these people wanting to research? Well, here’s just a small taste of some of the research topics we have dealt with so far this year:

• 17th century Bellarmine witch bottles
• Coffin plates (these are of immense interest to family historians)
• Pre-Boudican London
• Post-medieval brooches
• Nonsuch Palace
• London’s friaries
• Brentford pottery kilns
• Cemeteries such as Spitalfields, east London
• All things Roman including Roman cemeteries, coins, glass, armour and a Roman horse found at Finsbury Park!

Has this list inspired you to think about undertaking research at the LAARC? If so, please contact us: http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/English/ArchiveResearch/Contact/

The LAARC Team