The working life of Museum of London

Today was another hot and sunny day, although thankfully not as hot as had been forecast. We welcomed pupils from Cobourg Primary School to the site for both the morning and afternoon sessions. They were all fantastic and really helped us progress, digging on site and washing the objects that were found.

The star finds for today were two more coins: both found by pupils during the morning session and both dating to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). The first coin is a halfpenny and dates to 1882 and the second is a farthing dating to 1874 – this is the earliest coin that we have found so far from the excavation!

The excavation is revealing more of the floor surfaces from the sub basement of no. 84 Trafalgar Avenue. The main objects being found are bricks from the houses and slates from the roofs. However, a number of fragments survive that give us a glimpse of what the interior of the houses would have looked like: pieces of moulded and painted plaster, fragments of tiles from the fire surround decorated with brightly coloured flowers and foliage, and fragments of white and pink marble probably from the fireplaces.

It is fascinating to see more of our knowledge of the house and its interior being unearthed every day, but we couldn’t do it without the help of all those who have come and worked on the site from neighbouring schools.

So I would like to finish today’s blog by sharing some artwork of the dig created by some of the pupils who came to the site this morning. Thank you!

Jackie Keily, Museum of London

See our Flickr photostream for more photos from day 4 at Burgess Park

The Museum has been carrying out ‘community excavations’ since 2005, and the formula of investigating a neighbourhood’s immediate history through excavation never fails to stimulate interest. Today I spent part of the day at the Burgess Park, or perhaps I should say on the corner of Trafalgar Avenue and Waite Street, as this has only been Burgess Park since fairly recent times, (it was named after Councilor Jessie Burgess, Camberwell’s first woman Mayor).

Before 14^th Feb 1945 it was a thriving community then the area was devastated by a V2 missile, all of this has receded from common recall as the years have passed.  Now the stories are coming out the for delectation of the local people. Children from local primary and secondary schools have learnt about events on their doorsteps that have chimed with what they have been told at school about the Second World War, the Victorians and the Romans, they have enjoyed the thrill of trowelling among the buried demolished remains of buildings that only exist on old maps.  Perhaps of the 500 – 600 children that will do this activity, there will be a spark lit in a few about the strength of the past, and they will want to pursue an interest or even a career in archaeology or history.  Possibly more importantly, in common with many adult visitors, they will leave knowing a little more about their historic environment which in turn leads to a better appreciation of, and pride in, their place.

Roy Stephenson

Head of the Department of Archaeological Collections and Archive, Museum of London

We were joined today by enthusiastic pupils from St Peter’s CE Primary School (see photo) and St Saviour’s & St Olave’s School. Everyone worked really hard to wash finds discovered during yesterday’s digging and to excavate more of the remains of no. 84 Trafalgar Avenue.

The children worked like true archaeologists and found some really interesting objects, including a complete beer bottle with the remains of a painted label on it, which may date to the 1940s (see photo) and oyster shells which were probably part of someone’s dinner a long time ago.

We also uncovered part of what could have been the garden path of the house (see photo, left) and a drain pipe which seems to lie in situ (see photo right). Well done to the girls for their diligent digging which helped us to try and find out how long the pipe was!

Meriel Jeater, Museum of London

See our Flickr photostream for more photos from day 3 at Burgess Park

The first visitors on day 1 of the Burgess Park Community dig were local mothers taking their children to school and dog walkers out enjoying the morning sunshine. After hearing unfounded rumours over the weekend of new offices being built and the large horse chestnut tree being removed I was pleased to tell them that these things were definitely not happening, but that the local school children were going to be learning about local history through archaeology. One of the dog walkers had memories of his grandmother living in the adjoining road which is now part of the park. We spoke to a lot of visitors and will be trying to find out as much as possible from local residents about the area.

Two groups from St Saviour’s and St Olave’s helped excavate today. After 30 minutes of digging, they spent 30 minutes washing their newly excavated finds. Pupils found pottery, Bakelite, clay pipes, roof slate and bricks but perhaps the best find so far is a coin dated 1916 and an early 20th century leather shoe.

The students had brought enough sun cream and water to cope on what was a very hot day but I think the feedback we had from one student sums up their experience better than I could so thank you to Alicia for the following words.      

Dan Nesbitt, LAARC, Museum of London

“On the 28th June 2010, some kids from St Saviour’s and St Olave’s School went to Burgess Park, for the summer dig. When we got to Burgess Park, Kate was talking to us about new, old and older maps (maps about where we are). Then we go put into two groups. I was in Ms King’s group and we went to dig first, and washed up finds…I would love to go to the summer dig again, it’s soo cool and fun”

Alicia, St Saviour’s and St Olave’s

See our Flickr photostream for more photos from day 1 at Burgess Park

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