Inside the Museum of London

LAARC VIP11: Week 2

Picture the scene. Around 1900 years ago in this fine city called Londinium, a man, a tile maker, wakes up to the sound of his dog barking. He yawns, rubs his eyes and goes outside to see the beast chasing away an intruder, the only trace of whom is a hobnail shoe impression left on a clay tegula, laid out the night before in order to dry in the morning sunshine…
Fast forward a few centuries to find a lady preparing for a feast to celebrate the birth of her friend’s child. She combs her hair whilst her own children practice writing letters on the offcuts of bone and oyster shell that their father uses to make hairpins…
Whizz forward a whole load more centuries and the scene is chaos, smoke, fire. A couple dash out of their holdings passing their newly tiled fireplace as the flames begin to take hold.

All the above is simply a fabrication of my mind, yet every story comes from somewhere. As our new volunteer teams turned their attention this week from general finds (things looked at as assemblages) to registered finds (items with an individual importance) we started to come across some amazing archaeology. Their task was to carry out a massive audit of the bone, ceramic, glass, stone & wood archive from an excavation carried out in 1981 near Pudding Lane. Famous for its connection to the Great Fire, the site was rich with archaeology, from its time as a riverside street within Londinium (check out the hobnailed shoe impression left on a roman roof tile above) to the early medieval settlement which brought new items including grooming accessories (we got quite excited when we found that bone comb) and of course the Great Fire itself (the opening picture of the awesome wall tile with a seal on it dates to the mid 17th century)

Working through so many different materials meant a fine selection of artefacts were checked including a medieval bone ice skate, roman graffiti, a post med wine glass stem moulded to look like a lion’s mane and a superb jet stone roman finger ring:

So, some fun stuff for us to get our hands on. However, it’s not just about coming in contact with these goodies. The results of all the checking, sorting, packaging and reboxing of these objects ended with us gaining our first bit of extra shelf space. By simple, efficient, effective reboxing, amalgamating items whilst never overcrowding boxes, slowly slowly you end up emptying a box hear and there, leaving you with a little extra pocket of space for future archives.

Before volunteer work :(

And After volunteer work :)

If only we could share this fine work with you in person rather than via a blog huh? Well, soon we will! Our Wed team are a little different from the other days. Welcoming back the University of The 3rd Age for their 6th consecutive collaboration with LAARC, the team this year will be learning about the collections care work before transferring to the Museum of London foyer for their final 3 weeks to share it all with visitors!

This week they got to grips with packing roman pottery from Newgate street. Working their way through 7 boxes of muddled up sherds, they began repacking items into archive standard bags which transformed the accessibility of these ceramics. A couple of lovely bits cropped up too!

Their day ended with Glynn giving a run through of some of the records for the Newgate site, from initial correspondence to final publications. On the other days we were treated to the delightful Jacqui Pearce, who lead fantastic workshops focusing on the history and archaeological importance of clay tobacco pipes.

Keep track of our progress on Twitter #LAARCVIP #VIP11

LAARC VIP11: Week 1

It’s been a while but we’re back. Back with a new team of 25 volunteers. Back rummaging amongst the shelves in the Archaeological Store. Back discovering forgotten archaeological gems. Back to blog our way through everything we do for the next 10 weeks. It’s time for the 11th Volunteer Inclusion Programme!

A quick summary for those who’ve never heard of the Volunteer Inclusion Programme: Based in the World’s largest Archaeological Archive, over the next 10 weeks, 4 teams of volunteers will be working their way through boxes of archaeology dug up in the 1970s / 1980s and which are in need of some love, care and attention. The volunteers sort out the objects, pack them so they’re stored correctly, organise them so people can access them easily and all the while develop their knowledge of archaeology, archiving and London’s history whilst acquiring work based skills.

So what took place in week 1? Well once the morning inductions were done and dusted we started work on some fantastically shabby boxes from 1977. Perhaps that’s a bit unfair… a lack of funds and the passing of time have left these finds in a pretty poor state. Most of the objects (this week mainly fragments of animal bone and sherds of glass) have been stored in brown paper bags or worst still have been left loose inside the box. Thankfully the ‘context’ information – the all important number which pin points whereabouts on a site these objects were discovered – have been written on the artefacts themselves providing an accurate record to work off. So the first task our new teams had to do was write new labels and change the bags the objects live in.

From this...

...to this

Immediately we started to see results. Clear plastic bags allow you to see what’s inside; a label attached to the bag allows you to read the information pertaining to these objects. It’s all simple stuff but importantly, it’s simple but effective. Packing archaeology this way means you don’t even have to open the bag to view the contents (after all most damage to artefacts occurs via handling).

The actual stuff was pretty nifty – loads of animal bone found in dumping layers on what’s now Brentford High Street. Most of the bone seems to be the remains of food that people were eating: cow, sheep & pig; beef, lamb, pork. Having said this the odd large bit of jaw turned up – one which looks like it’s a horse mandible – giving an insight into the industrial aspects of the site too. Quote of the week came from one volunteer who having opened a box and suddenly being confronted with a large cow femur, raised her eyebrows and said “Wow! That’s so big!”

To create a bit of variation, we ended the day with a quick visit to our Ceramic & Glass store. It’s always a treat looking around the amazing collections stored within there (find out for yourself on a Behind the Scene Tour) and we took a whistle stop highlight tour, picking out some of the best bits.

So a smooth start. It’s on to Registered Finds next week as we lift the lids off the Pudding Lane archive and reveal details of our special Wednesday team’s project.

Follow the project on Twitter #LAARCVIP #VIP11

The Museum’s Archaeological Archive – the LAARC – is currently preparing for its last major volunteer project of the year (blogs to follow shortly). We’re also in the closing stages of our blog series ‘A History of London in 10 Archaeological Objects’. Between now and December I have to cover 500 years of history in four objects. This month it’s C16^th London and the theatre-loving Tudors.

The Tudor period in London’s history sees the continuation of major themes such as increased immigration and an expanding urban population coupled with expansion abroad and growing industry and trade. Whereas the medieval period saw the city’s religious precincts grow, the Tudor period witnesses both the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the reformation of the English Church (1530 – 1570).

One particular feature of this period was the development of London theatre.  Purpose-built playhouses were constructed where the dramas of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – one of the Elizabethan period’s most famous historical characters – were performed, amongst many others. Our seventh object comes from the Rose theatre, one of London’s six major playhouses.

Playhouses and theatre formed part of London’s growing entrainment venues which also included pleasure gardens, cock-fighting pits, bull- & bear-bating arenas, taverns, alehouses and brothels. Many of these licentious venues and activities had to take place outside of the city. Playhouses were no exception – a law of 1574 forcing playhouses to be built in the suburbs which is exactly where the first purpose-built theatre, called the Theatre, was erected by James Burbage in 1576.

The Rose (1587), Swan (1595), Globe (1599) and Hope (1614) were all built on London’s Southbank. Although the Globe is probably the most well-known due to its modern replication, the Rose is the most important archaeologically as it provided the first full plan of a London Tudor playhouse. Recent excavations in London have also revealed evidence of two other ‘lost’ playhouses: the Theatre and the Curtain, both in Shoreditch. 

So what object to best represent Tudor theatreland in London from our archaeological remains? It was going to be a money-box, used for collecting the playhouse entrance fees (and where we get the term ‘box-office’ from), but one such object has recently had all the limelight having won our Pot Idol competition. So instead, it’s a lump of stone:

Object 7

Tudor (C16^th) Stone Cannon Ball

Sometimes in archaeology the material remains we excavated can seem completely enigmatic. My seventh object has been chosen precisely because of this. Normally this is where the word ‘ritual’ is reeled out by archaeologists – considered to be a one-word term meaning “we don’t know”. I normally expand on this definition to mean: “we don’t know…its function or why it’s here, but it must have had a purpose and we just haven’t worked it out yet”. When originally published, in an award winning monograph, our cannon ball was descried as “although unstratified, its presence on the playhouse site is puzzling.” I’m not suggesting some theatrical ‘cult of the cannon ball’ existed, but sometimes intriguing interpretations are put forward.

Julian Bowsher, MOLA’s theatreland guru, has recently come up with a more plausible explanation for this 4.5kg sphere of stone believing the cannon ball could have been used as an early theatrical ‘special effect’! Rolled along a plank of wood, this would have produced the sound of thunder – perfect for the opening of Macbeth:

“When shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightning, or in rain?”

Other objects have been excavated that pertain to special effects at the Rose playhouse and Julian will hopefully be producing an article on this niche subject in the future.

Next month it’s onto the Stuarts and rather than explore the ambiguous, our object will relate to C17^th London’s most notorious event…

The Museum’s Archaeological Archive – the LAARC – has had an exceptionally busy summer, running a host amazing archaeological events. Still celebrating our 10^th anniversary, we’re now over halfway through our celebratory blog:  ‘A History of London in 10 Archaeological objects’.

We’ve now jumped several centuries forward from the Late Saxon to the Late Medieval Period. Once again I have the tricky task of summing up an entire epoch – almost 500 years conveniently known as the Middle Ages – through one object.

The Early and Late Medieval periods of London are dominated by major themes and events of the period including e.g. the Peasant’s Revolt, Crusades and Black Death, set against urban population growth and decline, mirroring diversified trade and industry expansion. The theme of religion would have been an obvious choice and pilgrim badges a very suitable object. Thomas Becket (London’s unofficial patron saint of the period) is a well known figure and many badges depicting his image have been recovered from urban waterfront excavations:

However, we already have a number of metal objects in the top 10, and a variety of other materials survive archeologically and need to be represented. If you’re a fan of pilgrim badges though, the Museum’s core collection will soon be available to peruse online.

My sixth object has been chosen to explore the theme of ‘power and fashion’. Found in relation to a castle (what could be more iconic of the medieval period!) it is perhaps unusual as an archaeological object, in being able to tell us something of London’s ruling elite.

Object 6

Medieval (Late C14^th) Leather ‘Poulaine’ Shoe

This leather shoe is some 600 years old and forms part of a group of shoes excavated from the site known as Baynard’s castle (sitecode BC72), excavated during the early 1970s. Baynard’s castle is perhaps the lesser known of the three Norman London castles after the Tower of London (established 1066) and Montfichet’s Castle (by 1136). Baynard’s has a rich history as both a castle owned by the Duke of Gloucester and, after 1446, the crown when it became a royal palace.

Found in dumps of rubbish of a C14^th public harbour called East Watergate, our medieval shoe is extremely interesting both in itself and as part of a larger assemblage of 416 other shoes which form the “largest and one of the best preserved group of footwear ever to have been recovered from a London site”!

This particular example is exceptional for its decorative, scored lines and suede finish.  It would originally have had a pointy end; known as a ‘poulaine’, ‘Crakow’ or ‘pike’ of which the style became popular from the late C14^th. A high percentage of the assemblage from the Baynard’s castle site are poulaine shoes, which is at odds with other assemblages excavated in London. Their impracticability is one aspect that defines them a status symbol of the time. Edward IV in the later C15^th enacted sumptuary legislation restricting pointy shoes to the aristocracy (3 Edw iv c.5):

“no Knight under the State of a Lord, Esquire, Gentleman, nor other Person shall use or nor wear…any Shoes or Boots having pikes passing the Length of Two Inches…” 

The entire assemblage of shoes from this rubbish dump show little wear and we may suggest that they come from the castle itself or perhaps even the King’s Great Wardrobe. The Wardrobe’s main function was to source material and supply dress for royalty and was located just north of the castle, within the Ward, and is contemporary with this archaeology.

But why is the end of our poulaine cut off? Perhaps the shoe was remodelled to fit a new owner’s feet, although the sole of the shoe has not been that worn which suggests little actual use and, importantly, reuse before being disposed of. One curator at the museum prefers to think of a noble’s  spurned wife committing the modern act of shirt-slashing…

The LAARC stores hundreds of leather shoes from all periods and they are an evocative object as we can easily connect with their use. Unlike much of London’s archaeology that usually presents a picture of the everyday (and more menial) life, I hope this object stands out as perhaps having been worn by one of London’s wealthiest and most powerful figures of the time.

With newly awarded funding from Arts Council England, the Museums’ Archaeological Archive has stormed ahead with its programme of ‘opening-up’ our collections of London’s archaeology. So far this year the Archive team have engaged over 21,500 people directly with our artefacts, either in the Archive, at the Museum, or outs and abouts in the London metropolis. After a manic summer of archaeological events, we thought it was time for a quick catch up!

FOBA Finale

Collections Manager Glynn updates us on our first ‘outer borough’ project:

Our first new project, made possible with ACE funding, allowed us to transport our highly successful volunteer project from the Archive and take up residence in a London borough, taking local archaeology back to its source of excavation. Our first lucky borough was Hounslow. Over 5 weeks a diverse team of volunteers were trained in handling, sorting, documenting, identifying and repacking archaeological collections, excavated from the local area (Brentford High Street), albeit it some time ago (1977).

The culmination of this project was for our volunteer team to share what they had learnt with the greater community. In partnership with Gunnersbury Park Museum, our volunteers engaged with over 450 people as part of the Festival of British Archaeology!

Our team performed amazingly, and the museum staff were mightily impressed at the their ability to engage the public and their level of knowledge.

VIP ‘minis’

Collections Manager Lucy updates us on our new VIP ‘mini’ projects, designed to engage the Archive with new audiences:

The first of our ‘mini’ Volunteer Inclusion Projects launched this summer at the archaeological archive. They build on the success of our ten week VIP projects but allow us to work with groups of people from organisations for whom the format of our current programme is a potential barrier.

The three groups we’ve had the pleasure of working with have all contributed to the design of the project content too.

For some, the aim was to get through as much material as possible. Our volunteers from the National Autistic Society re-packed a phenomenal number of boxes of pottery and building material from a major site called GPO75.

For others, it was all about seeing as wide a range of objects as possible. They really got into exploring assemblages of animal bone, including comparing and contrasting with our human skeleton model.

Our final group from St Mungo’s is still in progress. They’re considering making creative responses to the archaeology using digital photographs – pictures of the results to follow…

Working with these groups has made for a varied and exciting summer. The response from volunteers has been great and we’re looking forward to further developing different ‘miniature’ projects that ‘open up’ our collections in new ways.

Community Excavation

Archive Learning Manager Kath blasts us with figures about this year’s community excavation at Syon Park in west London:

After meeting over 300 children, almost 240 adults, finding 90 bags of finds, recording over 60 new archaeological contexts…

… recruiting 23 volunteers, 11 members of staff, after 10 months of planning, on-site for 6 weeks, with 4 portaloos and 3 portakabins and one final open day…

… we found Sir Richard Wynn’s house just in time!*

*The cellar floor and wall of the post medieval house was, in true archaeological fashion, found in the last few days of the excavation!

But the work doesn’t end there. Bob, our expert MOLA archaeologist is busy checking all of the paper records to write the archaeological report. We have sorted, bagged, labelled and boxed the majority of the finds, which have now made their way back to the LAARC for storage and access.

The group of finds we are most excited about is the building material (from the cellar and from the rubble layers); we are waiting for a specialist to look through the collection of brick, plaster, mortar and tile to confirm the connection between the material and that lovely image of Little Syon.

So hopefully more news to follow later this year – keep your eyes peeled! But until then, a huge thank you to everyone that has been part of the project so far, from the staff at Syon Park to all those who participated or who visited us!

So what’s next for LAARC?

Lastly, Collections Manager Adam gives us a tantalising taster of what’s in store for the Archive:

Well, for starters we’ll be returning to the Archive for a 10 week project that will revert to our classic format of involving volunteers, working on collections to improve the way they’re stored and accessed. Our projects always let us rediscover forgotten beauties that lie within our boxes and we’ll be highlighting the best of these each week on the blog.

We’re also thoroughly pleased to announce we’ll be working once more with volunteers from the University of the 3^rd Age. 

This will be the sixth consecutive year that they’ll be joining us for a shared learning project and the focus this time will be to train the guys up with both collections care knowledge and skills in public engagement. Come November, our septet will be based in the galleries at the Museum of London sharing archaeology with visitors!

Looking forward to 2013, we’ll be on the road again heading to two more outer boroughs of London. Similar to the excellent work that took place in Hounslow this summer, we’re intending to once again inspire communities to engage with their local heritage.

In the meantime, from August onwards, you and your family can become archaeological detectives at the Archive yourselves.

Keep track with all our activities, here on the blog or via Twitter #LAARC

Pot Idol is a contest to find the ceramic star of tomorrow! The winner will be given its time to shine and brought out from the archives at the Museum of London’s Festival of British Archaeology event, Hands-on pots, taking place on 21 and 22 July.

Over the last couple of months we have presented 6 hopeful pots for your consideration and asked you to decide which you would like to win the coveted title of Pot Idol.

The votes are in, and the winner of Pot Idol 2012, with 50% of the vote, is…Money Box!

This 16th – 17th century money box would have been used to store coins in and then smashed to get the coins out, just like a modern piggy bank. Most ceramic money boxes are found broken. This one has been repaired next to the slit for the coins but originally it had a large hole in it where the owner had broken it open. Archaeologists found a lot of money box tops during the excavations of the Rose Theatre in Southwark, indicating that money boxes were used to collect entrance fees from the audience. The money boxes were so cheap that they would have been smashed to get the collected money after the performances. Some of the money boxes may also have been used by people selling food and drink to the audience. This one is made from Surrey/Hampshire Border Ware.

The Festival of British Archaeology runs from 14-29 July 2012. Join staff at the Museum of London for an exploration into the vital role that ceramics have played in the history of the capital. Discover how pots were made and why, and try crafting your own. A special weekend of family activities will take place on 21 and 22 July.

> Find out more about the Museum’s Festival of British Archaeology events
> Find out more about the Festival of British Archaeology

Romani ite Domum

The LAARC is now over halfway through its first ‘outer borough’ project. Last week our volunteers tackled those ‘no good’ Romans. Why precisely the small piece of Roman pottery above was labelled ‘no good’ we have no idea. Perhaps, again, an example of the strange humour that pervades archaeologists! For one thing, this piece did have its all important context number i.e. its recorded location in the ground.

Our volunteers undertook the herculean task of separating huge amounts of Roman pottery sherds by their sitecode, context number, phase number and finds number. Some of this information is now outdated in regards to current archaeological practice, as we’re working on quite an old excavation: BRE77. However, the sherds required sorting this way in order for the material to match their deposited records, also stored at the Museum’s Archaeological Archive.

Although much of this Roman pottery is intrinsically interesting, the physical archaeological of the site only makes sense when compared with the site records. Saying that, the original records, held at the LAARC, aren’t always the easiest to interpret (see below).

Pottery is one of the most important object assemblages from any archaeological site, as it’s our principle (and cheapest) dating tool. The records above show the process of trying to phase site BRE77’s Roman stratigraphy, utilizing the identified pottery. Our volunteers have excelled at turning this site archive into a fully accessible resource.

In the afternoon our volunteers participated in the Museum of London’s community excavation at Syon Park. Attempting to locate the remains of the property known as ‘Little Syon’ this gave a great opportunity for our volunteers to understand the importance of objects in regards to excavated features.

By the end of the day we had failed to discover the remains of Sir Richard Wynn’s house, but the hard work of those on next week’s training excavation may prove more fruitful!

‘Connecting our community’

Week 4 of our project and we returned to processing the post-medieval pottery from the Brentford ’77 site archive. Our volunteer teams have achieved far more than we predicated and the pottery has almost been completed!

Amongst the piles of post-medieval London redware pottery, some interesting artefacts were found including a group of contemporary wall tiles. A mystery object for the week is the tin-glazed tile below. Depicting an angel at a brazier, we’ve got an idea as to what the biblical scene might be, but we’re welcoming further suggestions! The tile itself dates to the early to mid C18^th and may be London (/English) made, although we can’t rule out the possibility of it being a Dutch import.

The main focus of the project this week was to get our volunteers thinking about how they could engage a public audience with their new-found knowledge of Brentford’s hidden history. This we did with an activity the LAARC likes to call ‘object dissection’ – to show our volunteers that, perhaps unwittingly, they’re already learnt a huge amount about London’s archaeology. 

And so in the afternoon, we moved into the Docking Station proper. Our volunteers were on full display to Brentford High Street’s passing traffic and despite the rain, engaged with a range of people over the two days.

In order to build extra interest, Collections Managers Lucy and Glynn were in the local Morrison’s on Thursday, engaging shoppers with both the C18^th Pipe Kiln that was excavated in the supermarket’s car park and objects associated with  the  ancient Roman road, literally under our feet.

Next week our volunteers will be in the Docking Station all day, where anyone can drop in and engage with our archaeology first hand and see what the teams are repackaging from Brentford’s depths.

Yes, it’s the moment we have all been waiting for…the final of Pot Idol 2012. The six finalists have one last chance to win your hearts and then it is over to you to pick your favourite ceramic star. The champion will not only win the coveted title of Pot Idol, they will also appear at the Museum’s Festival of British Archaeology event, Hand-on pots, on 21 and 22 July.

So here are the contenders one last time…

Will you pick our first contestant, Imbrex, from Lime Street? Imbrex is a fragment of Roman roof tile. Not only would Imbrex have once adorned a public building in Roman London, it also bears an official production stamp.

Do you want to see contestant number two win, Amphora? Amphora is also Roman but is part of a storage vessel. The items stored in these vessels came from the far reaches of the Roman empire and contained Roman favourites like fish sauce. The pointy shape made it easy to store on a boat.

Is it contestant number three from Covent Garden that has won your heart, Loomweight? Loomweight is from Saxon London and was once used on a warp-weighted weaving loom. This shapely ceramic shows that there was a thriving textile industry in the area.

Is contestant number four, Cooking Pot, a clear winner for you? Another curvaceous contender, Cooking Pot has a rounded bottom making it easier to place on a fire. Complete Medieval cooking pots are hard to come by. We have all experienced an accident or two in the kitchen.

Contestant number five is a looker, Drug Jar but is it a winner? Not only is Drug Jar decorative it is also very functional. Once containing medicines, ointments or cosmetics this jar would have either been reused or sold back to the apothecary from which it came.

Or will it be contestant number six that is crowned Pot Idol, Money Box? Money Box would have once been used in a Shakespearean playhouse to collect money from theatre goers. Furthermore, Money Box lends its name to the modern term box office.

Now it’s over to you. Pick your favourite ceramic and help them get one step closer to winning Pot Idol 2012.

Please cast your vote here https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y3D32B6.

The winner will be announced on 17 July and make its debut appearance at Hand-on pots on 21 and 22 July.

“A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose…”

The second week of the LAARC’s pioneering outer borough VIP project saw our volunteers tackle a host of clay tobacco pipes. Although ‘counterblasted’ as early as 1604 by King James I, these artefacts are ubiquitous to London’s post-medieval stratigraphy, having been smoked in their thousands by Londoners since the late C16^th.

Each week our Hounslow volunteers are tackling archive material from an excavation on Brentford High Street in 1977. When excavated, this site produced an amazing archaeological discovery: the foundations of an C18^th clay tobacco pipe kiln – only one of a few number excavated in Britain. The kiln belonged to one William Heath of Brentford and operated for c.40 years, supplying the local area with tobacco pipes.

King James I described the smoking habit as “a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.” However, Brentford was infamous for its pubs where these clay pipes would have been bought, smoked and disposed of in their hundreds.

Our volunteers had the Sisyphean task of analysing each individual tobacco pipe to check its sitecode and context number, in addition to whether a maker’s mark was present on the heel.

Over two days our team of volunteers registered over 200 individual pipes with such marks and bagged literally hundreds of tobacco pipe stems and pipe bowls, designated as general finds.

After a morning of meticulous sorting, we then made the long trek into central London to visit the Museum of London’s Archaeological Archive, where the material is normally stored, but represents a drop in the ocean amongst the 8, 500 other site archives that occupy 11km of shelving.

Collections Manager’s Glynn and Lucy lined up a tour of the Archive, including a visit to MOLA’s finds processing area, to get a better idea of how archaeological material is treated pre-deposition by archaeological units.

Finally MOLA ceramic specialist Jacqui Pearce – the expert in clay tobacco pipes – ran an excellent workshop, engaging our volunteers with dating and typifying these objects, as well as their history of use and archaeological study. We even got to look at a host of intricately decorated pipes, some only recently returned to the LAARC after a long term-loan to Liverpool.

Now experts in these artefacts, our volunteers will be able to answer all your questions at Gunnersbury Park Museum, where they will be running (with a little help from LAARC) a day of archaeological events for the Festival of British Archaeology on Sunday 22^nd July.

But before then it’s more finds repackaging, and a little bit of digging at Syon Park next week!

After a slight hiatus, the LAARC’s ‘A history of London in 10 Archaeological objects’ is back, and what better timing than on the Day of Archaeology! Half way through our history of London and we’ve now moved into another transitional period. From 842 AD Lundenwic (the Anlgo-Saxon settlement west of the abandoned Roman city, Londinium) came under successive attacks from Scandinavian/Viking raiders. King Alfred the Great (849 – 899) ordered the settlement back within the old Roman walls, and here our archaeological record within the city of London resumes…

‘Viking’ objects are rare in London’s archaeological record by comparison, but a number of artefacts have been discovered in the river Thames. A group of such objects have recently returned to the Museum from loan to the JORVIK Viking Centre in York.

My fifth object isn’t just representative of this chaotic period in London’s history but connected with a major London monument synonymous with the city – London Bridge. It once again asks us to question our literary sources (much like our Roman object did) in how myth, legend and history are created and then challenged or even perpetuated  by archaeology.

Object 5

Saxo-Norman/Viking (C11^th) Iron & Copper alloy Battle Axe

What could be more representative of the Vikings than the battle axe? This particular axe was dredged from the Thames in the 1920s near London bridge and forms part of a Viking artefact assemblage including seven other axe heads, spear heads and a grappling iron and tongs. It has been suggested that the axe may have been deposited in the Thames (similar to our Iron Age dagger) as they were highly symbolic weapons, as well as being extremely practical. But this particular group may also allude to the legendary attack on London Bridge by Óláfr Haraldsson in 1014.

The first evidence for the existence of London Bridge after the destruction of its Roman forbear is in c.1000 AD. Archaeological timbers of the first Saxo-Norman bridge have been discovered and dated to 987 – 1032 through dendrochronology. The attacks on London Bridge by Viking mercenaries were previously thought to have inspired the English nursery rhyme ‘London Bridge is falling down’. However, this has been debunked by the Museum of London’s Curator Emeritus John Clark as a folk memory. 

The literary source of this attack is recorded by the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson in the Heimskringla of c.1230. Sturluson is actually quoting another Icelander, the court poet Ottarr Svarti (Ottarr the Black):

Yet you broke [destroyed] the bridge[s] of London,

Stout-hearted warrior,

You succeeded in conquering the land.

Iron swords made headway

Strongly urged to conflict;

Ancient shields were broken,

Battle’s fury mounted.

Despite the disassociation of this legend with the Bridge’s famous nursery rhyme, Bruce Watson & Jan Ragnar Hafland have recently emphasised the importance of manuscripts of skaldic verse, underused by English historians. Although these additional sources corroborate the reality of Óláfr’s assault, our battle axe is perhaps an example of how archaeology can sometimes only perpetuate a legend rather than authenticate it.