In terms of archaeology there are 5 conservators whose job is to specifically focus on the “archaeological collections”. Since the archive opened in 2002, they have helped advise and design our basic methods of collections care which our volunteers are now practicing each Monday, Tuesday & Friday in Archaeology in Action (until March 23rd). But there are loads of other aspects of a conservator’s role that could make it the best job in the museum…

Conservators are a little bit like the doctors of the museum. They take things that look terribly unwell and make them better. And they always seem to be looking at x-rays.

They’re also the scientists of the museum. Or at least they look the part. They get to use liquids with warning labels and wear white lab coats.

They might be considered the magicians of the museum. On one hand they magically clean up objects that look like they’re beyond help and on the other hand they deal with objects that have magically transformed from their original state.

And one thing they most certainly are are the most photographed members of staff, always popping up with any press releases and in publications.

So, all in all, a pretty cool job (and secretly what I wanted to be when I first volunteered with the museum many moons ago) and with this in mind, I definitely wanted Conservation as part of our archive’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations. Every Monday for the next 6 weeks, you can find out why they’re like doctors (there’s some amazing x-rays on display revealing hidden objects), like scientists (find out the different techniques they use to preserve leather), like magicians (wait to you see their incredible piece of shrinking wood) and if you ask really nicely, they might even let you take a picture of them.

For more about our Archaeology Exposed events visit our website.

Archaeology. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone says this word? Digging? Trenches? Objects? Well yes, all three of those are certainly an important part of archaeology. However, they’re not the most important bits by any means. So what is more important?

Paper.

In particular the hundreds of pieces of paper that are used before, during and after an archaeological investigation. These pieces of paper could be the research that takes place before there’s even any sign of a trowel, or the sketch of the posthole that’s just been uncovered or the detailed analysis of the thousands of fragments of pottery that make up a section of the final publication. Without these pieces of paper, without these archaeological records, everything else becomes a bit redundant.

With this in mind, Archaeological Records was another fundamental aspect of our 10th Anniversary Celebrations that we definitely wanted to include in our 10th anniversary celebrations. Every Friday, you can see the original documents from 1975’s incredible excavations at Newgate Street. These include the original correspondence between the site directors and the Corporation of London; the original context sheets detailing aspects of particular features that were dug; original photographs from the site including some of the skeletal remains; x-rays showing hidden objects; the phenomenal  stratigraphic matrix which shows how each part of the site relates to each other; the finds reports written by the specialists once the site was completed; and the final publications sharing the results with the world.

There’s also one other thing that was crucial to all of the above. The site director.

Like a conductor of an orchestra, the site director makes sure things run smoothly and gathers everything together to produce the final results. And the site director for the excavation we’re working on during our 10th birthday celebrations is none other than Alan Thompson. And as we’ve got the records for the site out on display every Friday, we’d thought we’d ask him to join us too. Back as a volunteer having retired 9 years ago, you can meet Alan and the records he helped create every Friday for the next 6 weeks in Archaeology in Action from 10.00 – 16.00.

Let me start by saying I find skeletons fascinating. When I was putting together the series of events that celebrate our archaeological archive’s 10th anniversary, without a doubt I wanted to make sure human remains featured. When we ran our last Visitor Inclusion Project (LAARC VIP7 – Nov-Dec 2010) we had a table with skeletal remains from the amazing excavation at Newgate Street of St Nicholas Shambles (see here for more information about the skeletons from this site). This proved so popular, attracting almost 2000 visitors over 10 days, that it was the first of our “Archaeology Exposed” events to be confirmed this time around. 

Over the last 3 Tuesdays, our table has already attracted over 500 visitors, all of whom have been fascinated by what skeletal remains can tell you. Again I recommend you take a look at this previous blog to find out how much was discovered from the skeletons at Newgate Street (Previous Skeleton Blog)

However, what I didn’t realise until fairly recently is that we were very close to not having any of this information at all. The site at Newgate Street was amongst the first to uncover skeletons using standard archaeological recording techniques, only, before this dig, they hadn’t really ever excavated skeletons on the scale of which they had on this site. This excavation with 234 articulated bodies demanded a new technique for recording beyond the standard context sheet.

And so a simple but effective addition to the sheet was created. A splayed out image of a skeleton of which any remaining bones could be shaded in. Beneath a series of simple descriptive pointers which would provide more information about the skeleton such as the conditions of the limbs and the state of the bones themselves. Finally the relationship of the skeleton to its surrounding contexts and any plan, photo and extra associated numbers and finds were to be recorded too.

Using this type of recording, our late Senior curator of Osteology, Bill White, was able to right his report and consequently anyone who so wished was able to discover a bit more about these particular Londoners. The skeleton records sheet became a standard method of recording which is still in use today.

So to finish, if you want to see some of these incredible remains yourself, they’ll be on display in Archaeology in Action every Tuesday for the next 6 weeks. And if you want to find out about who created this concept of skeletal recording, you can meet him every Friday for the next 6 weeks as it’s the former site director Alan Thompson, who has returned to the museum to volunteer for our anniversary celebrations. But more about him tomorrow…

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
I joined the VIP in Summer 2011 to gain more experience in archives and handling of archaeological material

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
The day when we had a seminar on leather artefacts

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
One of the roman shoes we came across

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
London before London

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Upper galleries

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
No favourite year – I’m interested in roman, medieval and tudor periods

7) Favourite Londoner?
Too many to choose from.

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Mortimer Wheeler!

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
Egypt

10) What’s next for you after this project?
A placement with the Portable Antiquities Scheme

We’re now 3 weeks into our Visitor Inclusion Project (VIP), the series of events that celebrate our Archaeological Archive’s 10th birthday by sharing our work with visitors at the museum.

We’re having an awesome time, having chatted to over 2500 people so far. One of the best bits of the job is sharing our passion for archaeology with visitors who are often pleasantly surprised that we’re letting people handle these real bits of archaeology. It’s also cool hearing about the number of visitors who have dabbled with archaeology in the past, or found things on the foreshore, or have been to various archaeological sites across the world, or those who simply can’t get enough of Time Team!

Our Archaeology Exposed tables are proving really popular. The things that are catching peoples’ eyes seem to be a crazy example of a piece of wood and what happens if it’s not looked after on Monday’s Conservation table, an example of an medieval arthritic hip on Tuesday’s  Osteology table and possibly the world’s most complicated stratigraphic matrix on Friday’s Records table.

And then there’s the numerous amount of people that have come along to a Hands-On Archaeology workshop, many of whom are from overseas and are loving the chance to have a go at sorting London’s pottery. These two chaps from Switzerland joined us earlier this week, whilst the lady in the left picture was stopping off here from the USA before moving on to Egypt.

And we’re starting to see real results in terms of the material we’re working on whilst we interact with you. Over 100 boxes of archaeology have been repacked and in doing so we’re saving a fair amount of space within the boxes simply by this better packing.

So roll on the next 7 weeks. We’ll be keeping you updated with our progress here on the blog where we’ll also be sharing the history of our archive’s first decade, various objects that narrate London’s history and giving you an insight into the thoughts of our volunteers.

Although the Archive holds a wealth of information from maps, drawings, digital data, context sheets to photographs, it is perhaps archaeology – the ‘stuff’ – filling over 200,000 archive boxes that we are all instantly drawn to. Our ‘general finds’ are the bread and butter of archaeology but for the most part it is our ‘registered finds’ that are intrinsically interesting.

For several years my colleague Adam has been blogging about these noteworthy objects that lie dormant in the Archive waiting to be researched, audited by a volunteer or even make it into a Museum of London gallery display.

Over the next year I’ll be presenting you with ten archaeological objects. Ten objects that emphasise the importance of London’s archaeology in shaping, or even reshaping, our understanding of the City’s history. I have literally over millions of artefacts to choose from, but this won’t be a display of the shiniest or most well-known. My selections may be representative of, or even unique to, an historical period. They may acknowledge the science of how these objects are discovered and how they survive London’s chthonic depths over millennia.

Like all good history we’ll start at ‘the beginning’:

Object 1

Prehistoric (Upper Palaeolithic) Leaf-point Flint Blade 

The first of our objects is a flint blade (not so interesting you may think…). Dredged from the Thames at Longreach (opposite Purfleet) in April 1905, it came to us via the late Geoffrey Gillam of Enfield. This is a classic example of a museum object that has lain dormant; its significance waiting to be unlocked, for this prehistoric flint may actually be the earliest example of an artefact crafted by a ‘Londoner’ in the Museum’s collection.

Our first Londoner in this instance would be a modern human, that is, homo sapiens sapiens. It was during the Upper Palaeolithic, about 40, 000 years ago, that modern humans developed blade technology (our predecessors, Neanderthals, perhaps being commonly associated with flake technology produced hand-axes) resulting in a huge range of stone artefacts being crafted. At the same time scholars have also argued about the inherent aestheticism of these objects – and we may even be looking at London’s earliest ‘work of art’! Lithics expert, Jon Cotton, ‘re-discovered’ this object with colleagues and they will hopefully be publishing it in the near future.

Next month object number 2 – where we’ll skip past a few millennia (and a lot more flints) to the Iron Age…

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
May 2011 – to learn about the history of London and its archaeology

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
No particular day – just enjoyed working with the finds and all the guest lectures/workshops

.

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
There was this cool tobacco pipe

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
Roman gallery

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Upper

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
2011

7) Favourite Londoner?
Christopher Wren

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones?
Mortimer Wheeler

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
Middle east

10) What’s next for you after this project?
A bit of travelling and other volunteer opportunities

Each week as part of our current project celebrating 10 Years of the Archaeological Archive, we’re posting Volunteer Profiles to let you find out a bit more about our excellent Volunteer Team. Today it’s Benji:

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
In September 2011, it looked very interesting!

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
Discovering a fine example of Elizabethan tassels

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
A fine example of Elizabethan tassels

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
The Newgate Prison in the Expanding City gallery

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Upper

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
1066 & 1966

7) Favourite Londoner?
Iain Sinclair (born in Cardiff but his work is mainly London focused…)

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Morty

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
My garden

10) What’s next for you after this project?
Leading tours of the Archive and then starting a degree in archaeology & ancient history

The London Archaeological Archive & Research Centre, better known as LAARC, officially opened on 7th February 2002. Based along the Regents Canal on the Hackney/Islington borders, the museum took a warehouse formerly used by a steel tubing company and made it the home of its archaeological and reserve collections.

There had been archaeological stores prior to this, and indeed in 2002 the collections had been based in this building for a few years already. However, upon opening, this was the first time that our archaeological collections had been easily accessible for research to anyone who so wished to visit.

Yet, it wasn’t all perfect. Archaeology only really turned professional in the early 1970s and even then there were a few good years of experimenting with different methods of recording and archiving. Despite storing the various archived sites in a logically accessible order upon our shelves, we still faced several storage problems such as having random box sizes, items not labeled correctly and more importantly, individual artefacts sitting loosely within their finds bags without any protection, at a potential risk of damage. The improvement of these storage issues was high on our agenda.

LAARC also had community engagement on its agenda and so a project was designed that combined both improvements to the material and opportunities to get involved. With successful funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Getty Grant Foundation, the “Minimum Standards Project”  was born.

The Minimum Standards Project (or MSP) began to involve volunteers with artefacts. These volunteers were mainly people who wanted to get involved with archaeology (or in some cases like mine, unemployed archaeologists looking to keep their finger in the archaeological pie). Certain materials were prioritised such as the bone and glass objects and volunteers would add a layer of protective jiffy foam within the object’s bag making the object more secure. They’d also write out a couple of new object labels in line with the the archive’s standards. Finally, they would check the objects off on an excel database to make sure everything was where it should be. In essence, making sure the minimum standards of collections care were met.

And this was great! Hugely successful, hundreds of volunteers were involved in the project and in 2005 it received the Conservation Award for Care of Collections.

But it wasn’t just finds work. Whenever an archaeological unit had completed their post excavation work they now had one central repository to deposit not only their finds but their records too. And this was applicable to any organisation that had dug in London. The LAARC enabled researchers to view the complete archives all in one place – artefacts and records – regardless of who had originally done the investigation.

All good work and clearly a good resource. So what did we do? We added some fun to it all. On top of LAARC being a model of good collections management and a centre for archaeological research, we held regular themed open days where we could share London’s history with members of the public. Allowing the creativity of our staff to run wild, themes ranged from “Animals in Archaeology” to “Arts & Crafts” with open days blending a mix of object handling, family activities and tours of the stores.

All these aspects helped build our reputation as leaders in both archaeological archiving and as ambassadors of archaeology, creating models of good practice which would then be developed and expanded as the years progressed.

Next month, “2005 – 2007:Expanding our engagement”

 1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
I first joined the VIP9 project because I was interested in learning about London archaeology    

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
No particular day, I enjoyed them all. 

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
Part of a decorated glass fragment   

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
The modern galleries   

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Lower galleries   

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
1666 – London’s Great Fire  

 7) Favourite Londoner?
Munira Mirza, the Mayor’s director of arts and culture policy. I read about her at an article and I was impressed by the exciting events programme she’s planning about London’s history.  

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones   

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
The Ancient Agora, Athens    

10) What’s next for you after this project?
Hopefully I will find a job in an education department of a London museum

Since you woke up this morning, how many different pieces of crockery do you reckon you’ve used today? Maybe a cup for your morning coffee? Perhaps a plate for your lunch? Most of us use these items everyday without thinking about it.

I’m pretty sure the people of Roman Londinium, or those Medieval, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian Londoners didn’t think twice about all those plates, jugs, bowls, cups and bottles they used day in day out either. And I’m pretty certain they didn’t think that 100, 500 or 2000 years down the line, we’d be using their pottery to find out about their lives. But that’s exactly what we do as archaeologists. And now you too as museum visitors can do so as well.

As part of the Museum of London’s Archaeological Archive & Research Centre’s 10th anniversary celebrations we’re running special HANDS-ON ARCHAEOLOGY workshops where you can get your “hands on” some of these pieces of pot that past Londoners used.

Every Monday, Tuesday & Friday in the Museum’s Clore Learning Centre, you can join me or my colleague Glynn along with our excellent team of volunteers and help us sort out some of our pottery collections that need a bit of care and attention. So far during these hour long sessions, visitors have got to handle real Roman pottery including serving jugs (flagons), large storage vessels (amphorae) and decorated drinking vessels (highgate ware). There’s also been some lovely London “delftware” and “German stoneware“  that we’ve been going through too.

Each session starts at 3.15pm and begins with a brief history of London’s Archaeology (which is also a chance to spot how museum staff have changed over the past 250 years) before we give you a box of pottery to look at and explain how to go about sorting the pieces and improving the way they’re stored.

The workshops are open to everyone of any age and best of all, they’re completely FREE! So if you fancy coming along to learn a bit more about pots and get your hands on some, please do – it will be great to meet you! For more info visit our events page: HANDS-ON ARCHAEOLOGY

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
2006 due to an interest in history and archaeology

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
They are all great

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
So many, I can’t possibly choose just one!

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
LAARC

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Both but I really like both the prehistory and roman ones

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
44AD

7) Favourite Londoner?
Robert Hooke

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Mortimer Wheeler!

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
Catal Huyuk, a Neolithic site in Turkey

10) What’s next for you after this project?
Back to the archive!

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!

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.

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

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

Yep the festival season is well underway. It’s that time of year where many of us get out our tents, put on our wellies and head to a big field to get muddy whilst listening to music acts.  However, because archaeologists often end up doing most of this for a living (minus the music), we like to be different for our festival.

All next week the Festival of British Archaeology hits the Museum of London in full force. And when we say hit, we mean it. On Sat 30th and Sun 31st July, there’s the Gladiator Games at Guildhall Yard. Set on top of the actual remains of London’s Roman Amphitheatre, this looks set to be the event of the summer. Glastonbury may have had Beyonce singing “I’m a survivor” but did it have Blood, Action and Booty-shaking to go with it? Well, it may have had the last one… but at our event you’ll get to see real survivors, Gladiators fighting for their lives! (n.b. I’ve been told no deaths will actually take place) For a mere £15, this event will certainly be the best place to have fun next weekend. If you haven’t got a ticket yet, you’re running out of time, so head to our website now! (click here for a link to book tickets)

And it’s not just Gladiators as there’s loads of other events taking place next week. Every day from 11.30 – 14.30, staff and volunteers from our Archaeological Archive will be on hand showing you an array of material from our archaeological store. Come along and visit us in the Archaeology in Action Exhibition and handle objects usually in boxes at Mortimer Wheeler House. We may even have a gladiator or two at our table…

From Friday 5th August, we’re opening up Europe’s largest Archaeological Archive, where you can join us on a tour behind the scenes, handling objects spanning 450,000 years of London’s history and finding out more about where London’s archaeology resides. For less than the price of a cinema ticket, at only £5, you can book your tickets by calling the box office on 02070019844 or online at : www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archaeologyevents

With a whole range of other exciting FREE events, from tours, walks, lamp making, mosaic making, finds handling and meeting actual romans (albeit dead ones), this should be one festival on your calenders that will suit the whole family’s tastes. For the full range of FOBA events visit our website: FESTIVAL OF BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY

Look forward to seeing you all!

]]> http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/festival-fever/feed/ 0 http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/laarc-vip7-omega/ http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/laarc-vip7-omega/#comments Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:45:54 +0000 Adam Corsini http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/?p=3406 Today saw the completion of one of the most successful engaging & interactive projects we’ve ever run at the Museum of London – VIP7, our Volunteer / Visitor Inclusion Programme, has finally drawn to a close.

Way back in January this year, the two Archaeological Collections Officers, myself and Glynn Davis, came up with the idea to transfer our project from the archive to the museum galleries. We weren’t really sure how we were going to do it or indeed if we would be able to, but we thought we’d give it shot. After all, our project focuses on inclusion and you can’t get more inclusive than opening the project up to every visitor to the Museum

8 months of discussions and preparations involving colleagues from 11 departments and we suddenly found ourselves seeing our ideas become reality. For the past 3 months we’ve spent 30 days meeting and talking to so many fantastic people. From the visitors who have dabbled in archaeology and have loved reacquainting themselves with pottery, to those who were visiting the Museum for the first time and were thrilled to be able to touch something 2000 years old. From all the school children who have raised their eyebrows in wonder at the recognition that the pot they have in their hands has only been held a dozen or so times between them handling it and the 13th Century Londoner that owned it, to the oversees tourist who has been pleasantly surprised to meet a volunteer who not only speaks their language but can tell them about the objects that so often are kept behind a pane of glass.

To all these and so many more that have had their visitor experience heightened by real engagement, not only with a real, actual object from the past, but with a real, actual person, willing to talk to them and provide them with a few facts. To all those that have come to a Hands-On Archaeology session and learnt about the history of London’s Archaeology, then been shown how the museum sorts pottery and stores it’s material and then been allowed to join in and contribute to the improvements of these collections. 

For me as a member of the museum’s staff it’s this which has made me so pleased with this project. So to all these and everyone that’s been a part of the project, a massive thank you!

Full praise should go to our volunteers, who have excelled themselves and have made this all possible. Week after week they have kept up the enthusiasm and have spoken and engaged with 6500 visitors. They’ve also worked their way through 150 of the 275 completed boxes of pottery whilst doing so, an amazing achievement.

If you’ve been keeping track of these blogs I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them and following our progress over the 10 weeks. It would be great to hear what you’ve thought about what we’ve been doing and any comments left in the box below will be happily received.

We’re going to be taking a break for a while, but all being well, funding permitting, will be back next Spring with more projects to keep you entertained with archaeology.

Until then, Ladies & Gentlemen… VIP has now left the building.

And so we’re almost at the end of what’s been one of the most enjoyable projects we’ve had the pleasure of organising. Over the past 2 months the LAARC Volunteer/Visitor Inclusion Project has expanded to really live up to its two-fold name.

The volunteers have been amazing, giving up their freetime to engage with our visitors and showing them real archaeology. And our visitors have been amazing too as so many of you have shown an interest in what we’re doing with almost 300 people joining in sorting and packing pottery.

But great projects like this don’t just happen on the spur of the moment. Behind the scenes, there have been loads of members of staff who have all contributed to making this VIP project a success.

Way back in February, we first brought the concept to the Archaeology in Action curator, Jon Cotton and its project manager, Elpie Psalti. Both have been great in helping us fit the project into their exhibition programme and supporting us along the way.

We then needed to build the Hands-On Archaeology sessions into the events calendar. Events officers, Claire Kirk & Ailsa Heinlein-Thompson helped us plan and fit the project into the museum’s Autumn/Winter events programme.

As we were going to be based in the Clore Learning Centre, we needed the help and advice of learning officer, Catherine Stevenson, to make sure we didn’t clash with the schools programme.

Box Office manager Brian Andrews, then helped us sort out the various Learning Centre rooms where we could hold our Hands-On Archaeology sessions and helped us with the bookings.

We needed somewhere to store all the boxes we’d be working through. Conservation’s Sharon Robinson kindly provided us with the space in our holding store.

We then needed to design a table to work at. The technician team, Richard Tosdevin, Cliff Thomas & Hilmi Nevzat all helped produce our excellent table. And helping us with the lights in the gallery space was electrician, John Iaciofano.

We wanted some signage to promote the project in the gallery space and the museum’s Graphic designer, Jayne Davis created some excellent posters which have been on display throughout.

We wanted to involve something more than just pottery. Our lovely colleagues in Osteology, Jelena Bekvalac & Becky Redfern helped us sort out Tuesday’s skeleton day.

Offering advice on working with specialist groups was Learning’s Projects Manager, Isabel Benavides.

To advertise the project, we went to our Press department and Nicola Kalimeris & John Joyce helped promote things both in the press and via social media websites.

Our security team helped provide the volunteers with ID cards and allow me access each day to our holding store.

Once up and running, our finance team, Liz Skeete, Yiqing An, Ray Hikono & Besim Mani, kindly assisted with the reimbursements of volunteers expenses.

Each week, our brilliant Van Driver, Tim Ellis, has been on hand to take a new batch of boxes to the museum and the completed boxes for that week back to the archive.

Then there’s Wednesday’s University of the 3rd Age, E-Learning project. Four marvelous specialist workshops took place led by Jon Cotton, Kate Sumnall, Jackie Keily & Alan Pipe.

Setting up this side of the project, meant liasing and receiving advice from E-learning Officer, Paul Clifford, Adult Learning officer, Julie Carr and HR advisor, Eve Sainsbury.

Special thanks has to go to E-Learning Officer, Alex Flowers, who led the E-learning sessions.

Back in the galleries, we couldn’t have done half as much without the help of the fantastic Visitor Hosts and Front of House Team. Helping us with promoting the project to visitors, making announcements and providing visitors with tickets for the Hands-On Archaeology sessions.

Then there’s our LAARC & departmental colleagues, the team at the HUB, colleagues who have come down to visit the project and of course all the visitors who have participated.

And last but not least, the sublime team of volunteers who have delivered the project. Ben, Graham, Jackie, Andy, Chris, Julie, Adele, Maggie, Arabella, Andrea, Helene, Karine & Vince. They have all been brilliant.

And that folks, is almost it. Only one more day until it’s all over…

1. When did you join the volunteer programme and why?

Well this is my first full time VIP, although I’ve helped out on all previous VIP projects when volunteers have been shown the osteology labs or had a human bones workshop

2. What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?

There’s been so many! I once helped out in a project inspiring school children to create a musical based on archaeology and osteology. That was fun. But there’s been all the fab London Bones courses, the outreach we do and of course when I get dressed up for Christmas

3. What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?

I particularly like the clothes in the costume store

4. What’s your favourite part of the museum?

The Centre for Human Bioarchaeology of course!

5. Upper galleries or lower galleries?

Having spent the past 9 Tuesdays in Archaeology in Action, I’m going to say there.

6. Favourite year in London’s history?

2003, when the Centre for Human Bioarchaeoogy was set up and the museum enabled people to study the incredible Human Remains they curate.

7. Favourite Londoner?

Can I have two? My fellow volunteers, Andrea & Chris, as they’ve both been fantastic ambassadors for Human Remains over the past 9 weeks.

8. Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones?

Wheeler.

9. If you could dig anywhere in the world, where would you excavate?

Dig? I don’t dig.

10. What’s next for you after this project?

To continue to help out Jelena & Becky, the Museum’s marvellous osteologists and Adam & Glynn, the VIP managers, but most importantly, to continue having as much fun as I have had volunteering so far.

It’s time to face…  the final pot sherds.

Our table’s been…  in in the gallery…

for all to see… and meet the volunteers.

We’ve worked… through many boxes…

of medieval… and roman pottery.

But more… much more than this…

We’ve shown you VIP.

That’s a V… for Volunteer…

And an I… for Inclusion.

And then a P… for Programme…

That’s VIP… in case you’re snoozing.

And if you haven’t… yet had a chance…

to visit us… and come along to see.

Our Volunteers… in archaeology in action

There’s only one… more week that’s left… of VIP.

Yes there are times, when you can get

Your actual hands on a dinner set

that might date, from Victorian times,

or may have been a saxon find.

Hands- On Archaeology’s… the place to be…

If you want to… be part of VIP!!!

So come along… and say hello…

and join us for… a bit of hands-on.

There might be rain… there might be snow…

But we’ll guarantee… that you’ll have some fun.

And after all… is said and done…

this could be your… last opportunity…

to say that you… have been a part…

or what we call… VIP.

(Click any word here for the times of the final sessions next week)

1. When did you join the volunteer programme and why?

May 2009 (VIP3).

 2. What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?

Behind the scenes at the museum at the end of the 13 week project.

 3. What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?

A Roman leather sandal.

4. What’s your favourite part of the museum?

Roman galleries.

 5. Upper galleries or lower galleries?

Upper.

 6. Favourite year in London’s history?

120s Roman London.

 7. Favourite Londoner?

Samuel Johnson.

 8. Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones?

Mortimer Wheeler.

9. If you could dig anywhere in the world, where would you excavate?

Rome.

10. What’s next for you after this project?

Volunteering at the British Museum, leading eye-opener tours. Long-term volunteering at LAARC.

1. When did you join the volunteer programme and why?

Feb – April 2010 (VIP5). Beginning of a career change from journalism to archaeology, which has always been my passion.

 2. What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?

The first day when we were allowed to actually handle the finds and pots in the ceramic store. Couldn’t believe they trusted me!

 3. What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?

A medieval iron spur – so evocative and really brilliant to conjure a story around.

 4. What’s your favourite part of the museum?

Roman house.

 5. Upper galleries or lower galleries?

Upper.

 6. Favourite year in London’s history?

1666.

 7. Favourite Londoner?

Marie Lloyd. Loved that bawdiness – a real woman of the people.

 8. Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones?

Indiana – far more glamorous.

 9. If you could dig anywhere in the world, where would you excavate?

The City of London.

 10. What’s next for you after this project?

Back to journalism while getting more experience as a field archaeologist – now I really know what I want to do.

Each week during our current Volunteer/Visitor Inclusion Project we post Volunteer Profiles letting you find out a bit more about our fantastic Volunteer Team. Today it’s one of our first VIP volunteers – Julie

1. When did you join the volunteer programme and why?

VIP1 in 2008. I needed to do work experience for University.

2. What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?

The workshop with the bone specialists.

3. What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?

I liked them all!

4. What’s your favourite part of the museum?

The interactive map by Charles Booth.

5. Upper galleries or lower galleries?

Lower.

6. Favourite year in London’s history?

Medieval London

7. Favourite Londoner?

Sir Robert Peel.

8. Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones?

Wheeler

9. If you could dig anywhere in the world, where would you excavate?

Peru

10. What’s next for you after this project?

More volunteering in archives.

So on these pages, we’ve told you about the site we’ve all been working on: GPO75, the general post office site on Newgate Street. We’ve told you a little about the pottery we’ve been seeing when working through these boxes: Pottery from GPO75. We’ve let you find out a bit more about the volunteers on the project: Volunteer Profiles. There’s been a bit about what we do on our days away from the museum: Wednesday & Thursday. We’ve even had a guest blog, written by the table we’ve been sitting at: The Table’s viewpoint. And of course there’s been the weekly updates.

Today’s blog returns to our Wednesday group as they too join us at the Museum of London for the final part of their project.

Our Wednesday team consist of 13 volunteers - ten members of the University of the 3rd Age – a group of mainly retired people who continue to learn through Shared Learning Projects – and three 6th Formers from Mossbourne Academy, Hackney. Over the past 8 weeks they’ve been working on different material in the archive, recording their progress with cameras each week. This week and next, they are creating films based on aspects of the previous eight weeks, in our E-Learning Studio under the guidance of Alex Flowers, the Digital Learning Project Co-Ordinator.

So far they’ve been based at LAARC and each week have been focusing their attention on a different material; the first three weeks concerned registered finds (objects with an individual value) starting with non-metals, then metals and finally leather objects. The second three weeks concerned General Finds (objects looked at as an assemblage) and started with pottery, followed by animal bone and then, last week, building material.

During each session there’s been an interactive workshop, where a curator shows and explains some of the best objects that fall under that week’s theme. We’ve had talks from Curator of Prehistory, Jon Cotton about flint. Finds Liason Officer, Kate Sumnall talked about metallic objects. Curator and Leather expert, Jackie Keily showed us brilliant examples of leather. Museum of London Archaeology’s Zoologist, Alan Pipe talked about how he approaches bone assemblages. And the VIP project managers (Me & Glynn!) gave a couple of talks in our Ceramic & Glass store about pottery & building material.

Today, it was over the the E-Learning Studio to put all the photos they’ve been taking into software such as Windows Movie Maker, Photostory and Animoto.com to produce films documenting their experience.

This has certainly been a most enjoyable part of VIP7 and it’s been great to see the project’s participants engage with both digital technology and archaeology.