OBJECT OF VIP5!

Warming Pan

Monday’s victor with over half the votes was discovered by volunteer Sarah. The object was repacked during week 4 of the project when working on the material from London Docks, The Highway E1, (LD76). It probably dates to the C17^th. These pans are rare and hardly ever found in a complete state. When we showed this to the MOLA specialists they got very excited (as most specialists do) and added it to their database immediately. This pan would have held embers/coals and would have been used for general household heating and warming.

Pilgrim Badge

Tuesday’s success won with just over 50% of votes and was this super saintly 16th Century pilgrim badge. It was rediscovered by volunteer Magdalena, when going through metals from the Chaucer House (CH75) archive. A rare copper alloy badge (most are lead based), the saint depicted is likely to be St Edmund, seen in the middle, tied against a tree, whilst either side a posed archer shoots arrows at him.

Leather Shoe

Your third choice just about pipped the others to the post with only2 more votes than the 2nd place object.  When working through the Bonhill Street archive (BON76), this Tudor shoe (c.1550) cropped up. It was rediscovered by former VIP3 volunteer Paul, who returned as a “Graduate” for VIP5.  The shoe probably belonged to a child considering its size, but what’s really nice is that it features a decorated toe-cap over the vamp and still has the strap and buckle attached.

Highgate Ware

The final winner of the week won with only 3 clear votes and was the Highgate Ware beaker from London Docks (LD76). Repackaged by Thursday volunteer Ben, this beaker is a local ware and it’s rather nice to see one complete like this. Produced around 70-160AD, if you click on the pic and look closely, you can still see remains of the barbatine dot decoration, which is characteristic of these ‘poppy head’ beakers.

So now, you’ve seen your four winners, but which do you think is the cream of the crop, the tip top treasure, the most deserving object to be called

OBJECT OF VIP5!

Right, enough with the trying to big things up, get voting!

To vote click here : VOTE

This time you have more than a week to vote! As the winner will be officially announced at our end of project party and on these pages on Wednesday 5th May.

Many thanks to everyone who has cast a vote. We hoped you enjoyed playing along and discovering what volunteers find at LAARC.

]]> http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/object-of-vip5-grand-final/feed/ 0 http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/object-of-vip5-round-4/ http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/object-of-vip5-round-4/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:05:00 +0000 Adam Corsini http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/?p=1057 Welcome back to the last round of our LAARC VIP5 Object of the Project competition. We’ve had some fab winners so far, (Warming Pan, Pilgrim Badge & yesterday’s winner was the leather shoe) But there’s still one more object that’s waiting to join the others in tomorrow’s Grand Final. Here are your last choices.

LEAD AMPULLA

Repackaged by Thursday volunteer Jenny, this lead Ampulla commemorates a pilgrimage to the relic of the True Cross at Bromholm Priory in Norfolk. Ampullae were a type of pilgrim souvenir specifically designed to act as containers of holy water. This well worn Ampulla (c.1250) depicts Christ on the Cross. The three crosses above his head denote the Calvary.It is part of the Trig Lane archive (TL74)

TOBACCO PIPE

Repackaged by Thursday volunteer Michael, this object comes from Chaucer House (CH75). It’s a Victorian clay pipe with some unusual decoration on the bowl: a lamb with flag facing a lion. This could allude to a pub/s where the pipe was sold. The pipe stem also bears the name of the maker: ‘H Spaull’ as well as the name ‘London’!

BRONZE TOOL FOR LEATHER WORKING

Repackaged by Monday (and occasional Thursday) volunteer Jermaine, this Roman ‘tool’ is somewhat enigmatic but has been considered a leatherworking knife for curriers. The large quantity of leather from the site where this was found, Triangle, Billingsgate Buildings (TR74) strengthens this interpretation. A unique aspect of this ‘knife’ is its personalisation with the name GERMA[NVS] etched on to it.

HIGHGATE WARE POT

Repackaged by Thursday volunteer Ben. A star find from the Shadwell excavation of 1976, (LD76) this ergonomic beaker is fairly unique as it’s perfectly complete! A local ware, with a manufacture date of 70-160AD – if you look closely you can still see remains of the barbatine dot decoration, which is characteristic of these ‘poppy head’ beakers.

And there we have it. The final contenders for the Object of VIP5 competition.

To cast your vote for today’s favoured object click here : VOTE

Voting closes at 10am on Friday 23rd April.

Tomorrow it’s… THE GRAND FINAL! where all four winners this week compete against each other to claim the title of Object of VIP5! Thanks for playing.

…the St Edmund Pilgrim Badge . It received just over 50% of votes (congrats to volunteer Magdalena who repacked this object)

Today’s choices then:

LEATHER SCABBARD

This object from Trig Lane (TL74) was repackaged by Wednesday “Graduate” volunteer, Lesley, who had previously volunteered on VIP1. It’s a piece of leather scabbard that has been repeatedly stamped with fleur-de-lys (‘Lily Flowers’), an heraldic symbol very common in the medieval period. Frequently stamped and incised on scabbards, fleur-de-lys are found on many other artefacts from Trig Lane.

KNIFE & SCABBARD SET

Repackaged by former VIP4 volunteer, now Wednesday ‘Graduate’, Mark. This is a rare example of a scabbard and ‘by-knife’. The whittle-tang knife was probably not intended for the scabbard originally but has survived wedged between the layers of calf leather. Four heraldic badges of a purely decorative nature can just about be seen along the scabbard. Found when auditing St. James’ Passage Subway, 2-7 Duke’s Place (DUK77)

CERAMIC PIPKIN

Repackaged by Wednesday ‘Graduate’ volunteer Rosemary, who previously joined us for VIP1. This late-medieval London type ware pipkin has some unusual features. It appears to have been over fired in the kiln and has shrapnel embedded in the side from a nearby exploding pot. It’s wonky handle and partly reconstructed body gives it…un je ne sais quoi. It was rediscovered when working on the Ludgate Hill archive (LH74)

LEATHER SHOE

Finally, repackaged by former VIP3, ‘Graduate’ volunteer Paul, when working on the Bonhill Street archive (BON76), this Tudor shoe (c.1550) probably belonged to a child considering its size. It features a decorated toe-cap over the vamp and still has the strap and buckle attached.

To cast your vote to decide which is today’s best object click here : VOTE

Thanks for playing and don’t forget to revisit us tomorrow for the final round before the grand final!

The Warming Pan!

It was a clear winner with over half the votes.

Here are the next four objects hoping to reach Friday’s final:

WOODEN PATTEN

Repacked by Tuesday volunteer Karine, this patten from Trig Lane (TL74) was used to raise shoes above the ground and were very fashionable and high status objects of their time (C13^th – C15^th). This particular patten, dating to c.1440 and probably of alder or hazelwood, is the ‘hinged’ type.

PILGRIM BADGE

Repackaged by Tuesday volunteer Magdalena this is an unusual C16^th copper-alloy pilgrim badge. The badge depicts two archers, left and right, firing arrows at a central figure bound to a tree. This figure could be interpreted as either St Sebastian or St Edmund (a C9^th King). Saint Edmund seems the more likely due to the anchor shape of the badge and his association as a saviour of those in distress at sea. It was excavated at Chaucer House (CH75)

IRON SPUR

Repackaged by Saturday volunteer Sarah, whilst working on the Trig Lane archive (TL74), this iron rowel spur would originally have been tin plated. It is a fine example of how archaeology of waterfront sites survives so well. The length of the neck and overall form suggests a C15^th date and would have been as much a status symbol as well as a functional object for the original rider.

CLAY TOBACCO PIPE

Repackaged by Thursday volunteer Jackie, this early Victorian Tobacco pipe features a ‘Turks’ head for a bowl. Along the stem the maker’s stamp ‘Critchfield’ can be read. Critchfield were a family of London pipe makers who are known to have operated in Bermondsey, Bethnal Green and Westminster. It was found at Chaucer House (CH75)

So which was your favourite? Vote by clicking here

Voting closes 10am Wed, 21st April. Thanks for playing and join us again tomorrow for round 3

OBJECT OF LAARC VIP5!

Over the past eight weeks, volunteers on LAARC’s 5th Volunteer Inclusion Project have been working through material from the 1970’s, improving the storage and accessibility of these archives. Along the way, some spectacular objects have been rediscovered. Here are the first four objects fighting for your vote:

DOG SKULL

Repacked by Monday volunteer Zoe, the first featured object of the VIP project was this well preserved dog’s skull from London Docks, The Highway E1(LD74). This poor ‘collie’ was only in his first few years when he died (as can be determined from the lack of wear on the dental enamel).

WARMING PAN

Repackaged by Monday volunteer Sarah (with help from Zoe & Bianca), this warming pan also from London Docks, The Highway E1, (LD76), probably dates to the C17^th. Rarely have these pans been found in such a complete state and as such it has been added to the MOLA database by our Ceramic Specialists. This pan would have held embers/coals and would have been used for general household heating and warming.

FLOOR TILE

Repackaged by Monday volunteer Bianca, this ceramic floor tile belongs to the ‘Westminster’ type. Its central decoration in yellow glaze depicts the head of a King. Based on the dating of the tile to the period c.1250-1300 this could be interpreted as Henry III or Edward I. These tiles commonly decorated monastic buildings. It was excavated at Trig Lane, Upper Thames Street, EC4. (TL74)

GLASS BOTTLE

Repackaged by Monday volunteer James, this post-medieval glass bottle is in excellent condition especially considering its deposit in the very topmost stratigraphy of the site. The high kick to its base (pontil), its rim and ‘onion’ shape suggest an early C18^th date. It comes from 48-50 Cannon Street, EC4. (CS75)

And there we have it. Your first four choices.

To cast your vote click here . Voting closes at 10am tomorrow, 20th April.

Thanks for playing and join us again tomorrow for the next four objects. The easiest way to keep updated is by clicking on the RSS icon on the top right of this page or the bookmark button, just beneath.

]]> http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/object-of-vip5-round-1/feed/ 0 http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/get-voting/ http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/get-voting/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:59:15 +0000 Adam Corsini http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/?p=990 It’s Back! And it’s bigger than before! And it’s bound to be the best thing you’ll be voting for this year… It’s…

LAARC OBJECT OF THE PROJECT!!!

Last year LAARC ended its Object Of  The Month competition. But you can’t keep a good thing away for too long, so we thought we would revive a little bit of archaeological voting pleasure and whet your voting appetite for forthcoming events like the General Election or Britain’s Got Talent.

Each week during our current LAARC VIP5 project, we’ve been selecting the two best objects that have been either repacked or audited by our volunteers. These objects are currently on display outside the LAARC, but seeing that not everyone has the opportunity to visit our excellent store, we thought we’d share the fun with you all, right her on the blog pages.

Each day next week, four tip top treats from the archive will compete against each other trying to win your favour. That’s right, there will be a DAILY COMPETITION! (See I told you it was bigger and better than before).

Because of this, be sure to check these pages each day, to see which objects will be strutting their stuff. There will be four different objects to choose from each day Monday -Thursday, with each daily victor competing in the grand final on Friday. And the best way to make sure you don’t miss a thing is by clicking on the “RSS” icon on the top right of this page.

So get those fingers ready and get set for a bit of lunchtime fun each day.

For the past four years, the London Archaeological Archive & Research Centre (LAARC) has run an object of the month competition. Since its conception and humble beginnings, it has developed and evolved into a popular monthly event, enjoyed by LAARC visitors, volunteers and Museum staff alike.

Back in late 2005, the idea of an object of the month was not a new one. If you visited the websites of several museums across the country, you could find a monthly updated page dedicated to an object within their collections. The Museum of London however, wasn’t one of these and with over 6 million archaeological artefacts to choose from, it seemed a pity not to highlight our goodies.

LAARC volunteers regular get to rediscover incredible objects when working on site archives and it was a common for us to joke that certain objects were so good that they were definitely the best object of the day, if not the week, if not the year. So around Nov 2005 I thought we should do something about it. As luck would have it, the next month we inherited a suitable display case and come January 2005, our first outstanding object that caught our eye.

The first object was a Samian bowl from Borough High Street, which had been repaired in antiquity with lead rivets. (It later proved so good the V&A borrowed it for one of their exhibitions) And so the LAARC joined the many other museums and had an object of the month!

However, being the innovators that we strive to be, I wanted our Object of the Month to go beyond us simply picking an artefact and with the number of cool stuff volunteers were coming across each week, I thought about making it a competition, with several objects competing against each other to win votes; the one with the most became that month’s object.

And so it continued through January to December for the whole of 2006, yet the focus was still pretty much a competition directed at our volunteers and visitors to the archive. In 2007, we took it to the next step and hosted the competition on the LAARC website. This then progressed in April 2008 to the museum’s archaeology blog page, which gave voters the option to leave comments.

In 2009, the competition was due to continue on the blog site with the format the same as it always had been; three objects chosen by volunteers from the material they had recently been working on. However, around the start of the year, the blog’s server went down and forced to find an alternative host, I also thought it time to refresh the format.

For the past year, each month there has been one object selected by a LAARC volunteer, one by a LAARC member of staff and the final by a Museum of London curator. Unlike before, the objects were no longer necessarily from recently worked on archives, but could also include people’s favourite objects. Yet, the basic concept remained: Three objects, one vote, one winner selected by the public.

As the months passed the audience grew and each month saw more votes, a few comments about the objects from voters and even people requesting to nominate objects. Halfway through the year, special competitions were held, including former staff nominating, a special retirement competition and a “lucky loser” second chance month. Almost 1000 votes were received this year in total.

The final monthly competition took place in November, when for the first time seven objects were nominated, these by seven members of staff from seven different museum departments. As with previous years, all the monthly winners go through to December’s Object of the Year, which you can vote for by clicking here.

Having reached its peak, the LAARC competition now retires on a high, with its legacy continuing on these blog pages as the Museum of London now has its own Object of the Month, with contributions from all over our museum staff and volunteers. Thoughout 2010 you can discover a whole range of spectacular objects held within the museum’s collections.

Thanks for voting in the past and enjoy the objects in the future!

LAARC has 4 main remits; Curatorial, Research, Education and Leadership.

Curatorial

This year so far has seen two LAARC Volunteer Inclusion Projects (LAARC VIP) take place within the archive. These aim to involve a wide range of people from London’s communities and offer them transferable skills and archaeological archiving experience. In return the archive gets a team helping to improve the storage and accessibility of our collections. Including the first of these VIP projects, which took place Sept-Dec 2008, over 70 volunteers have joined us and together we have processed all the material from sites excavated in 1972 and 1973 – this translates to over 1000 boxes of stuff and well over a mixture of 50,000 individual sherds, fragments and complete objects. For more info visit www.laarcvip3.wetpaint.com

In addition to our VIP projects, 15 long term volunteers join us one day a week, working on improving large site archives, including that of the Royal Mint (MIN86), Whitehall Palace (WPA61), Old Billingsgate Lorry Park (BIG82) and Southwark Street (15SKS80)

Without our team of volunteers, the archive would never have achieved as much as it has. From Jan – Jun 2009, our team have already contributed 563 days of volunteering. Impressive.

Research

During the first 6 months of the year, we have had almost 400 academic enquiries. Researchers have ranged from primary school children to internationally reknowned professors, looking at records and finds from Amphora makers stamps to Kosher lead seals to photos of archaeologists to erotic shaped artefacts!

Education

Athough without a specific education officer on our staff, we have still managed to engage with a vast amount of people, including 566 children  and 1208 adults via open day events, school outreach and other external events. In addition 605 people have visited the LAARC so far in 2009, learning about our collections, processes and purpose.

Leadership

Still reknowned as Leaders in our field of archaeological archiving, visitors from Canada, Pakistan, Scotland, Russia, Mozambique, Ghanaians Turkey have all come to gain an insight into what we do and be inspired by the systems we’ve put in place.

In addition we’ve appeared in magazine and newspaper articles and hosted the filming  of a couple of scenes for documentaries involving our collections.

We also have continued to promote website interaction and you can join in too by having a say in our object of the month competition:

www.objectofthemonth.wetpaint.com

Thanks to everyone who continues to support our work at the LAARC and let’s see what the next six months will bring.

Step 1: Click on this link to see and read about this year’s candidates:

http://mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/archaeology/2008/11/28/object-of-the-year-2008/

Step 2: Step one was so easy there is no step two!

So, there really is no excuse for you not to take a break from what you’re doing and have a bit of LAARC fun this yuletide. Jingle Bells.

Merry Christmas!

The LAARC Team

http://mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/archaeology/2008/08/08/julys-winner/

http://mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/archaeology/2008/08/01/object-of-the-month-july-08/

1. A Roman Flagon from Moorgate (MOG86)
2. A Tin-Glazed Plate from the Fleet Valley project (VAL88)
3. An antler figurine from Guildhall Yard (GYE92)

To celebrate the launch of MoLAS’ new book – London’s Delftware Industry, part written by LAARC’s very own Roy Stephenson, the three selected objects are all fine examples of this fine ceramic.

Go check out LAARC Object of the month – Delftware to view and vote for your favourite object.

Competitions take place during the final week of each month. The winning object for this month will be announced on Friday 2nd May.

This month’s choices are all lead based alloys dating from the 16th & 17th Century.

1) From Abbot’s Lane (ABO92), a seed trough that would have hung on a bird cage

2) From Braidwood Street (BRA88), a decorated child’s finger whistle

3) From Abbots Lane (ABO92), a engraved spoon, with the maker’s mark, IG

1) 2) 3)

Click Here to vote for your favourite object.

You can also view and find out more information about the objects on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laarc/sets/72157604281666414/

Finally to find out more about the sites they’re from visit our online catalogue:

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/laarc/catalogue/

Happy voting!

If you want to let us know exactly why you voted for an object, you can leave a comment below.