Viewers of ‘Time Team’ and readers of archaeological site reports will be familiar with the recovery of animal bones from a wide range of species, usually dominated by those of domesticated mammals of major economic value for meat, milk, wool or traction. With increased wet-sieving of bulk soil samples, particularly over the past four decades, archaeological recovery of smaller species from all vertebrate groups; fish, amphibians, reptiles, small birds and mammals, continues to expand.

London sites produce particularly diverse assemblages of fish and wild birds and each unfamiliar ‘new’ species presents challenges in identification, indeed some bones are not identifiable to species-level. Museum of London Archaeology holds a useful reference collection used for identification purposes. This concentrates mainly on British fish, birds and mammals and has been built up over the years as a valuable resource in support of MOLA zooarchaeological studies.

Even with access to a reference collection and the increasing availability of reference literature and images, the relatively unfamiliar morphology, fragmentation and often small size, of archaeological fish bones are obstacles to their recovery and identification and this has resulted in their relative neglect by many workers and a reliance on external specialists.

 In an attempt to improve our own internal capability, MOLA Osteology has now established a solid nucleus reference collection of the economically important freshwater (e.g. pike), marine/estuarine (e.g. herring and cod) and migratory (e.g. salmon and eel) species most commonly encountered on London sites.  Researchers interested in studying the fauna of London should contact the LAARC

Gold finger!

Last week saw the second Continue Creating workshop for 2010. This is part of the Inclusion Programme and past participants of all projects are invited back to a workshop every month. It’s social, fun and a way of maintaining a relationship between the Museum and our friends. May’s workshop saw us making C19th style Jumpin’ Jack puppets. Sadly, I can’t seem to upload all the images so here are two of the stars. As you can see, they have a contemporary twist!

The excavation of St Mary and St Michael Church, Whitechapel by MOLA revealed one possible example of this affliction.  The skeletal remains of an adult male aged 26-35 years displayed active, localised bone changes to the mandible (lower jaw). There were areas of fine pitting together with occasional large pits to the buccal (cheek facing) and lingual (tongue facing) surfaces of the jaw. Towards the mandibular rami (posterior jaw) were areas of eroded bone that revealed the underlying spongy bone structure. The outer cortex of the bone also appeared abnormally thickened.

Radiographs of the jaw revealed regions of irregular, thinned bone and also areas of increased thickening towards the mentum (chin). While a diagnosis of ‘phossy jaw’ is difficult to prove conclusively, this helped to identify osteonecrosis of the mandible, a condition where the blood supply to the bone is disrupted resulting in the necrosis (death of bone cells). Such changes may also be caused by a range of other conditions and infections such as syphilis.

The identification of this condition from excavated skeletal remains provides a rare glimpse into the dangers faced in the work place and the changes related to the expansion of cities and industrialisation at this time

Hand made envelope

Mail art is art that uses the postal system as a medium. Mail artists typically exchange ephemera in the form of illustrated letters, rubberstamped, decorated or illustrated envelopes, artist trading cards, postcards, artistamps, faux postage, mail-interviews, friendship books, decos, and three-dimensional objects. As an art form, it has been used for comic and satirical affect and for commercial advertising to the promotion of social causes such as fair trade, and the abolition of slavery.

Mail art envelope

Mail art became very popular in the C19th, particularly in the USA. Examples exist of pictorial propaganda envelopes with patriotic motifs produced by both sides during the American Civil War. It then saw a re-surgence in popularity in  the 1950s and an international network of artists exchanging a myriad of objects developed and thrived right up to the digital revolution of the 1990s.  In the second decade of the third millennium artists are starting to look to it again as a genre, in reaction against the explosion of electronic mail exchange.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, last week, artist Emily Candela led a workshop on this as part of the Museum’s Inclusion programme and it produced some really lovely work (as you can see). Everyone who heard about this fairly unknown trend got very interested in and inspired by it. In the workshop, we all created envelopes from tracing paper, with hidden treasures inside: bits of old postcards, beads, ribbons, poems. And the reaction of the addressees to receiving them has been fantastic. So we wanted to pass the idea on. Much more exciting to receive than an email on your computer or a bill through your letterbox.

Firstly, we welcomed Nanny of the Maroons into our London, Sugar and Slavery Gallery. Queen Nanny is a gallery performance that Lynda  has been working on for a while now with the support of some fantastic and talented writers, musicians and advisors, not least Carlina who plays Nanny:

Queen Nanny looks out with Jamaican Plantation scene behind.

So far, what has been in the gallery is a working performance; script in hand, laptop on ahem, lap, and live acapella singing in place of our soundtrack. This was kept as a working performance so that we could invite active feedback from our Museum visitors and use this to fine tune our final Nanny character.

Discussion with audience members was really useful, the feedback we received was both positive and constructive, and mentioned pace, volume and content of the performance, which we were able to incorporate into rehearsals and revisions over the following weeks.

The final piece will be performed here at Docklands on Saturday at 2.30pm and 3.30pm, and Sunday 2.00pm and 3.00pm (entrance is free!), and will be scheduled into the events programme across both the Museum of London and Docklands sites over the coming months, as well as forming part of a larger Black History event we are planning in October. If you have any queries about Nanny, please feel free to get in touch.

The Crossing the Seas team take a turn in front of the Camera for a group interview.

Onto the Crossing the Seas project now,  and all the interviews have been carried out by Lynda and our expert team of young people from Newham, both behind the camera and conducting the interviews.

Lynda and Freddie set up the shot for an interview.

Lynda is finishing off the edits in order for them to be compressed and installed onto the touch screen interactive in the LSS Gallery, and I’m finishing off the transcripts so they can go into the Museum collections. I’m slightly word blind at this point, but the content of the interviews are so interesting that you don’t mind the length of time it takes to go through the entire dialogue.

I will update you once the interviews are installed, and would like to hear your feedback.

Finally, a beautiful splash of colour:

Detail from Price of Sweetness Bowl.

This year we have two batches of bowls to go into the Gallery; the set that have just gone into the Gallery have been made by a Elders group from the African and Caribbean Voices Association based in Stratford. This was a Women-only group who worked with Historian Angelina Osborne and Ceramicist Licy Clayden to create these beautifully colourful pieces.

The next set of bowls to go in have been made by families visiting Docklands over the half-term, who were inspired by the words of creative writer and performer Breis. While simple in design, the bowls have been decorated with creative and crafty phrases and slogans. When they’re in I’ll put up some images.

I’ll leave you with this lovely detail of a Caribbean Sunset, and don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the Mixtape…….

Filled with pharmaceuticals from the dispensary of the hospital, the two glass prescription bottles (see image below) have the embossed text of ‘STOLEN FROM THE LONDON HOSPITAL’ written down the side. This warning ensured that if taken, they could not be refilled and resold: similar warnings on glass from this period are common with companies sometimes prosecuting individuals for illegal reuse.

Glassware from the Royal London Hospital

However, it is the specially commissioned blue transfer-printed whiteware crockery bearing the image of the London Hospital that provides most of the stuff thrown away here. Supplied as a special commission, probably by one of Stoke-on-Trent potteries, it is thought these pots were brought to coincide with the hospitals extension and refurbishment during the 1830s. In addition to the new board room furniture and hospital equipment added, pottery was also purchased for use in the wards. The blue transfer-printed whiteware vessels found were used as wash basins, saucers, plates and jugs but the most well preserved vessels are the sputum mugs (see below image). These spit mugs were used to collect the patient’s phlegm, water was then added to distill its contents which were concealed by a removable funnel….

Sputum mug

Nearly all the commissioned pieces have numbers ranging from 1 to 4 painted on their base – we think this was the individual ward or floor they belonged – to make sure each could be accounted for.  The remaining hospital pottery comprises plain whitewares bedpans and an invalid feeding cup used for serving pap – a mixture of flour or bread and diluted milk – usually to infants.

Ward crockery was necessary as patients to the hospital had to supply their own tea, sugar, and butter and so needed jars to store their food and plates to eat their meals from. It is therefore easy to imagine the many ways in which this pottery could have been broken, not least because running water was not extended beyond the first floor of the hospital until the early 20th century, and therefore boxes of washing up water had to be carried up and downstairs for the nurses to wash the crockery. Any breakages were taken out of the nurse’s wages!

Comparisons can be made between this assemblage and the objects curated by the Royal London Museum with pottery bearing similar images of the Hospital also present. Like the excavated examples, many have also have a number on the base and the range of vessels in their collection includes a teacup and saucer, a butter dish, sugar and soup bowls, and hygiene wares such as a chamber pot and soap dish.

Combining and further researching the Royal London Museum’s with our excavated collection will significantly add to understanding the context of use and the pottery and glass in London’s hospitals during the mid to late Victorian period.

Recently I’ve been working on the animal bone from the Royal London Hospital (RLP05) excavated by MOLA in 2006. Some of this consists of waste from the hospital kitchens, and gives us fascinating evidence for the diet of both the patients and staff. The hospital was founded in 1740 and archaeological evidence suggests that the associated burial ground was in use from 1820-1854. The remains give a brilliant opportunity to combine the zooarchaeological data with the historical records, which show hospital food has never been great.

However, amongst the animal remains were a number of more unusual finds which were not from the hospital kitchen. Attached to the hospital was an anatomy school and many of the animal bones appear to originate from the activities carried out there. This includes a number of dissected cows, sheep, horses, dogs, cats and rabbit s, buried as partial or complete skeletons. We even have evidence that some of the skeletons were wired together to be used in teaching anatomy. There have also been a number of surprises including the skull of a guinea pig, the partial skeleton of a tortoise and a headless monkey. The tortoise was missing the skull, shell and most of its feet, which may have been kept by the anatomy school or deposited elsewhere. Similarly the lack of the monkey’s skull and neck vertebrae would suggest that the head had been kept by the anatomists.

As a British based zooarchaeologist, finds of tortoise and monkey are incredibly rare, and therefore we needed to turn to experts outside the Museum of London for help to identify the bones to a specific species. If you have been watching the BBC’s ‘Museum of Life’ with Jimmy Doherty (who makes very nice sausages, I’m lucky enough to live close to his farm) you’ll know that we have one of the world’s best zoological collections in London at the Natural History Museum. So it was with some excitement that I made my way to the Natural History Museum, only to arrive there and realise I’d gone to a free museum during a school holiday. After battling through the crowds, I was lead by Colin McCarthy, Collections Manager for Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish, to the museum’s old dry store number one. If you saw the first Museum of Life show it’s the amazingly huge store full of a host of old specimens ranging from zebra to tortoises (have a look at episode 1, 17min 40sec into the program). I could have stayed in there for days, but under Colin’s excellent guidance we quickly identified the tortoise as being a European tortoise either Greek or Herman’s.

Identification of the monkey required me to visit the zoological department and the mammals collection which is held over a number of different floors at the back of the museum. Identification of the monkey was much trickier and involved a good few hours examining different skeletons held in the museum’s collection. The monkey collection is held in row upon row of metal cabinets that don’t have windows. That means you need to be prepared for a surprise when searching the collection. At one point, standing on a step ladder to access an upper cabinet, I did open a door to be greeted face to face with a snarling monkey. Fortunately it was an old stuffed specimen, unfortunately, by the time I realised that I’d already undone any reputation I had as a cool zooarchaeologist by letting out a manly yelp, much to the amusement of the other researchers using the collection. Eventually we identified the monkey as a Mona Monkey, which comes from south-west Africa.

You may ask why go to such trouble to identify these species? Well, the tortoise may be one of the earliest archaeological examples of tortoise from the United Kingdom, and the Mona monkey is the first example of such a species to have been found archaeologically, certainly in London and possibly in the United Kingdom. Analysis of the specimens and the site is still ongoing, but these skeletons show how far and wide animals were traded at the beginning of the 1800s: the tortoise is likely to have come to London from the eastern Mediterranean and the Monkey from south-west Africa.

The next step is to investigate how the anatomy school acquired such animals and why, and what they were used? Identifying the bones to a species is just the beginning of the investigation.

A big thank you to Colin McCarthy, Louise Tomsett and Paula Jenkins for helping arrange my Natural History Museum visit and helping me on the day.
 
You can also find out more about my background and my other research at http://www.animalbones.org

At work in Elephant and Castle

As a newbie to the museum, I thought I’d say hello by introducing the project I’m currently working on, People and Change. The project, which was devised by Lucie Fitton, is working with predominantly adult asylum seekers to produce art work that will be displayed in the London, Sugar and Slavery gallery. The gallery has multiple themes and the one we’re exploring with this group is Change. Rosemarie Marke, an acclaimed painter and ex-aslyum seeker who was born in Sierra Leone, is leading the group. We’re working in two centres in Peckham with lots of different individuals. Each is producing a drawing or painting of what change means to them. Some have chosen to draw things associated with home (house, landscape, objects) or parts of London life that are totally new to them – e.g. football stadiums, London buses, British festivals. The more talented and regularly attending members, however, have branched out and are now producing more abstract work. We are encouraging them all to write something about the picture in their mother tongue, and this will be displayed with the piece on the wall with an English translation.

Simply being at the centre, reveals how rewarding and challenging this project is for both the Museum and the participants. Prior to this project, I had never been inside a support centre for asylum seekers and I have learnt a lot. Both centres are community halls that open one afternoon a week to offer a range of services – a hot meal between 1 and 2pm, medical consultation with a nurse, a crèche and nanny, advice on housing, employment and benefits, English lessons and arts and craft activities. There are usually at least 40 people there and in broad terms, half are young mothers with children under 5 and half are men between the ages of 25 and 40. Although we don’t talk about this, we know from the support workers that many are separated from their family, often recovering from trauma and in constant uncertainty over their future. For some people, even getting to the centre is quite a triumph. Either psychologically, or logistically, it can be very difficult. One of our regular attendees lives in Edmonton but goes to the centre every day.

We never know who is going to sit down when we set up our materials on the tables after lunch, but there are a few faces who have attended nearly all of the sessions. We meet quite a few people only once but even in one afternoon an individual can produce a very interesting piece of work. We don’t ask participants their story, unless they bring the subject up themselves, but sometimes people will tell us something about home. Often though, talk focuses around colour and technique and sharing artistic tips. One person had never seen a paintbrush before and until he was corrected by Rosemarie, was painting using the non-bristle end.

Home in Eritrea and Home in London

The point of the project, from the museum’s point of view is to give these individuals a voice in the gallery. From their point of view, we hope, it is to be able to express something and to share a calm experience for a few hours a week. There is not too much talking, which makes the session quite relaxing and takes the pressure off the participants to speak English all the time. We hope that the prospect of displaying their work at a high profile gallery is fun and confidence giving and we very much hope that the artists can be at the unveiling. There are a lot of factors, however, that guaranteeing this could be very difficult.

We are working in Peckham until the end of March and hope that the work should be up by autumn. When it does go on display, look out for work by the following characters – Gloria, Dawit, Mal, Bernard, Maria and Dani.

Over at the Museum of London Docklands, Lynda (Community Access Officer) and I have been working in partnership with students and staff from Newham Community Links to prepare a programme of video interviews. This project forms part of a series of community involvement projects that are currently underway.

The young people involved in this project have been commissioned to research, organise and film interviews on the theme of ‘the Children of the Windrush Generation’. This will explore the experiences of London-born adults with Caribbean parents, documenting their memories of childhood, attending school and growing up in London during the 1960s,1970s and 1980s.

The final interviews will be installed into a permanent touch-screen display in our ‘London, Sugar and Slavery’ Gallery. We currently have some great people lined up to interview, but are still looking for more interviewees. If you would like to take part, please contact us here: crossingtheseas@museumoflondon.org.uk.

So who is our project production team and what have they been up to so far?

Meet Shona, Grant, Tola, Freddie, Charley and Jason.

We have been working together since January, when Lynda and I went over the the Newham Community Links Centre to introduce ourselves and explain the project brief. We discussed the ways we would be working, what we needed to research and film, and a rough timetable of the project. It was a chance for the group to decide whether they wanted to get involved, to ask questions and to let us know if there was a particular aspect of the project they were most interested in (for example music/soundtrack production). It was also a great opportunity to catch up with Sophie, who is one of the Centre Managers, and who has been extremely patient with us whilst we got the project brief together (Hello Sophie! and thank you!) 

For the first week, the group came over to the Museum of London Docklands to get acquainted with the Museum space, and to take a look at the touch screen interactive in the LSS Gallery that their final work will go into. We had some great discussions in reaction to the Gallery, and followed this up with a look at the film ‘500 years later’ by Owen ‘Alik Shahadah – we have shown this film to previous project groups at the Museum, and find it always serves as serious food for thought.

The second week was all about getting our head round the periods of the 60s-80s, and in particular, focusing on what was happening in London. Using the timeline produced by the Roots to Reckoning team (Neil Kenlock, Armet Francis, and Charlie Phillips), each group member selected a particular event or issue from each respective decade, and used the wonder of Internet connections to research related articles and photos. The information collated made up the beginnings of idea/mood boards for each decade, which we will continue to build on over the project. From these boards we also drew up four working categories: Education, Entertainment, Career and Ambition, and Lifestyle. These will be developed into the final themes the interviews will go into on the touch-screen installation.

Last week we were joined by Rib Davis from the Oral History Society, who led an introductory workshop on recording Oral History and practical interview techniques. Rib has worked on a series of fantastic Oral History projects over at The Lightbox, and has a wealth of experience having carried out hundreds of interviews. It was great to pick his brains regarding interview etiquette, finding the right questions to get people talking, and of course, the art of laughing without making a sound (essential for audio-only interviews).

I particularly enjoyed listening to the practice interviews, when our young people took up the interviewer roles. It was a sly opportunity to earwig into the teenage lives of Lynda, Shona, Jason and Rib – I heard snippets of disgruntled trumpet practice, football matches vs. live music, and the inevitability of growing old and relying on Lucozade, it was pretty fascinating!

And so, the project continues on this week, which I hope to update you with in the not-too-distant future. Major kudos must be given to our group (both staff and students), who have kindly volunteered to come in during their half-term break (which Lynda and I are really very happy about, otherwise I will eat all the biscuits). I am also hoping that we will actually get some of our young people on here to update the project blog, and I do believe we have a mix-tape in the works……..  

 The nineteenth century also saw major advances in the practice of dentistry and the development of new restorative techniques. New materials such as amalgam (mercury and metal) were introduced to fill cavities and prosthetics were used to replace missing teeth (Roberts and Cox 2003: 323).

These false teeth could be made of ivory, bone or porcelain and human teeth were also often used. These came from live donors or could be extracted from the dead, earning some extra money for body snatchers if the bodies they exhumed were too decayed to sell to anatomists (Richardson 1988).

 An example of dental work was recovered during the excavation by MOLA of  the cemetery of St Mary and St Michael. A maxillary (upper jaw) prosthesis was found associated with an adult female burial. This comprised a thin plate of rose-gold coloured metal that was carefully fitted around the remaining teeth. A high degree of skill had been used in the construction of this item and the metal was molded around the gums and palate in order to hold it in place. Four ceramic teeth were fixed in place by small gold pins. These replaced the right premolars, left second premolar and first molar teeth that had been lost during the individuals life. A dark material to the central aspect of the occlussal (biting surface) of the right secondary molar suggested that this person had also had a cavity filled.

This evidence provides an important glimpse into the types of dental treatment available. However, the construction of such dentures would have required considerable time and skill and would have remained out of reach of many individuals from poorer backgrounds in London.

A major difficulty when diagnosing pathological disease in archaeological skeletal remains is that many conditions may only affect the soft tissues of the body, such as the skin or organs. This may result in the death of a person before bone changes took place, leaving no visible traces on the skeleton to be observed. Some diseases, however, may directly affect the bones. The way that bone responds and the distribution pattern of changes throughout the skeleton, enable certain pathologies suffered in life to be identified.

One such pathology occasionally encountered in the osteological analysis of archaeological human bone is Paget’s disease. During life, the human skeleton constantly remodels, repairs and grows. Paget’s disease disrupts this normal routine and results in an increased bone turnover. This can affect single or multiple bones and involve the entire skeleton, resulting in severe deformity and enlargement of affected areas. The skull, spine, sacrum and upper legs are the most commonly involved.

This rare condition was first described by James Paget in 1877. Today the exact causes remain unknown and multiple origins are thought likely. In modern cases, the disease is more common amongst males than females and tends to affect older individuals.

The osteological analysis of post-medieval population from Bow Baptist Church, London by MoLA revealed one individual who displayed bone changes consistent with a diagnosis of Paget’s disease.

An older male aged 46 years or over displayed thickening of the cranial bones with new bone formed to the internal and outer surfaces that was porous and pumice stone like. Examination of radiographs revealed enlargement of the bone cortex with areas that displayed a ‘cotton wool’ like appearance.

The vertebral bodies also showed enlargement and this was more apparent in the lower lumbar regions of the spine. Radiographs showed sclerotic areas (thickening) at the margins of the vertebral centra and areas of porosity to the internal trabecular structures. This gave a ‘picture frame’ appearance in radiographs. The disease had also resulted in deformity and enlargement to the clavicles (collar bone), scapula (shoulder) upper legs and pelvis.

Pathological fractures are a common feature of this disease due to weakening of the bone structures that may cause bowing of the limbs. This individual had suffered compression fractures to several vertebrae. This had also resulted in degenerative joint disease and osteoarthritis throughout the spine. Osteoarthritis was also recorded in the hands and shoulder joints.

This individual may have been unaware that he had such a disease during life as many cases are asymptomatic. However, some people can suffer bone pain, headaches and hearing loss.

For more information see:

Brickley, M, and Ives, R, 2008 The bioarchaeology of metabolic disease, Oxford

Ortner DJ, 2003, Identification of pathological conditions in human skeletal remains. London

Roberts, C A, and Manchester, K, 2005, The archaeology of disease, Third edition, Stroud

As well as human remains, the osteology department deals with the animal bones recovered from archaeological sites, which are examined and reported upon by the two zooarchaeologists (or archaeozoologists, believe it or not a matter of some debate within the animal bone community), James Morris and Alan Pipe.

As zooarchaeologists we operate in association with many different fields and specialists. We often utilise zoological data from modern day animals enabling us to understand how their ancestors would have behaved, we also consult with other environmental archaeology specialists, such as archaeobotanists so we can get an overall picture of past environments and economies. Working in the osteology department also gives us a good opportunity to work alongside our human bone counterparts. Although we will often joke with human bone specialists that they only have to deal with one species compared to our hundreds, a lot of our methods and practises are the same and there is a great deal we learn from working beside each other. Finally and most importantly we are also archaeologists, in that our primary aim is always to investigate and shed light on humanity’s past, animal remains are merely the tools we use.

You may now be thinking to yourself, how do they do that? Well, consider how you interact with animals in your day to day life. Firstly, if you’re not vegetarian, there’s the animals you eat and use for raw materials such as leather, then the animals who are your companions and pets, the animals you work with such as horses and finally the wild animals who sometimes live alongside you unawares. Even today we have many different relationships with the animal kingdom and it is through examining these relationships that zooarchaeologists can tell us about past human societies.

The photo shows sheep/goat (it’s hard to tell the difference between the two species) metacarpals (top) and metatarsals (bottom) from medieval leather working site, the bones are often left attached to the skin during the tanning process. Photo by J. Morris  

 The primary bread and butter of zooarchaeological work is food (please forgive the pun), in that the majority of the animal remains archaeologists recover are food waste. What we are able to do is construct not only what people are eating, but how and why. By examining the remains we can tell how an animal was butchered and what parts people were eating. As with everything, different food goes in and out of fashion. Today we often eat just the prime cuts, but this was not always the case, when I was a kid I remember my mum sending me to school with tongue sandwiches (which were impossible to trade), a meat which is eaten less and less today. We also see such changes in the past; the medieval period providing a classic example. Think of a medieval aristocratic feast and a picture of stuffed piglets, swans and peacocks springs to mind, yet eventually the nature of such meals changed along with the species used. Such meals were also a far cry from the food the majority of people were eating. By examining the animal bones we can pick up such differences, which add to our knowledge not only of social status, but the way people used food as a show of wealth.

As a final point with the time of year in mind it’s worth thinking about Christmas celebrations and asking yourself, how many other times a year you eat roast turkey. Perhaps zooarchaeologists in the future will be examining what appear to be annual deposits of turkey bones in landfill sites and wondering about the activities which created them.

If you are interested in finding out more about animal bones then please visit the  International Council of Archaeozoology website

You can also find out more about James’ research at http://www.animalbones.org/

Each month we offer an insight into a fascinating object from our vast collection, this month we feature a Christmas card from 1890.

The tradition of sending Christmas cards to friends and family became fashionable during the reign of Queen Victoria and has survived the intranet age to remain a popular way of staying in contact over this festive time.

This card from our collection represents the look and design of some of the earliest cards ever to be sent.

Here, a clown holding a large Christmas pudding pops up when the Christmas card is opened.

 Victorians felt that clown’s added fun, surprise and mischief to many a Christmas scene as they were leading performers in the popular Christmas pantomimes in theatres at the time.

Although clowns are not now seen as necessarily embodying the spirit of Christmas, in the Victorian period, they symbolised the festive spirit of both Christmas and the New Year to both young and old.

Inside the card, a seasonal poem is printed to accompany the sender’s personal messages:

“Hurrah! Hurrah! For Christmas Day, and the pudding so big and jolly, may you my dear be just as gay when all’s gone, save the holly”.

The sending of Christmas cards and many of the other traditions of Christmas such as “dressing the tree” that developed in Victorian times and gained popularity through the works of authors such as  Charles Dickens are explored in a series of events at both museums during the holiday period.

Monday’s team were all present and divided themselves into two teams to tackle the registered finds from the Ludgate Hill site excavated in 1974 (LH74). An abundance of stone hones were found on the site and prior to Monday had all been assigned individual registered finds numbers but had been bundled altogether in large bags making it extremely time consuming to find any particular one. So the volunteers very patiently separated them out and ordered them, before repacking them into more managable, accessible bags, with the hones laid out in order. In addition ceramic, bone and glass finds were checked off, included paw print tiles, glass vessels and even some hair and food samples!

Tuesday’s volunteers made a triumphant return after illnesses reduced numbers last week. In contrast to Monday, the whole team worked on general finds, mainly animal bone and pottery  from Harp Lane (HL74) All the animal bone from the site was processed and relabeled and several boxes of pottery were tackled also.

No action on Wednesday as the U3A/Mossbourne Academy team of 13 stopped for half term break. Adam and Glynn took the opportunity to rebox and update the digital records for the sites worked on so far during VIP4. The “Wednesday’s” return next week to start the general finds from Shoreditch Park (NNR05)

Only 1 volunteer this week from Thursday’s team and he worked on a registered finds from Baynards House (MM74) in the morning, continuing with general finds from Harp Lane (HL74) after lunch.

The three workshops this week started with Jackie Keily’s Leather talk on Monday, followed by Geoff Egan’s metal finds handling session on Tuesday and were completed by Jacqui Pearce’s Clay Tobacco Pipe workshop on Thursday.

 So far so good as we’re on track to complete our targets as we reach next week’s half way point! To view other photos from week 4 and previous weeks visit our Flickr site

16^th century shoe as worn on the stage of the Rose Theatre 

This shoe was recovered from the Rose Theatre site on the Bankside of the Thames in the late 1980’s by Museum of London Archaeology and is believed to have been worn during performances undertaken on this famous 16^th century theatrical stage. The Rose was one of two key playhouses of Tudor London, the other being The Globe. The Rose was built in 1587, predating the building of its rival by 12 years.  The timbers used to construct The Globe were themselves taken from The Theatre, in Shoreditch, where Shakespeare’s first plays were performed.  The foundations of The Theatre were recently uncovered by Museum of London archaeologists.

The Rose Theatre has long been associated with the works of Christopher Marlowe, with the first performances of plays such as the Massacre at Paris believed to have been undertaken there, but Shakespeare’s also used the theatre. Performances of Henry VI and Titus Andronicus are believed to have graced the Rose’s stage in the early 1590’s.

The shoe is one of many remarkable finds that have allowed Museum of London archaeologists to piece together the story of London’s Elizabethan playhouses. The shoe has a high ‘vamp’ or upper and the pink zig-zagged patterning can still be seen. The throat of the shoe is stitched with delicately holed and decorated scallops. The pressures on actors at the time are highlighted by the hole at the toe end – which was most likely to have been deliberately cut to accommodate a painful bunion.  

This shoe, along with three others from the Museum’s collections worn by later prominent Shakespearean actors, will be on display in the foyer of Museum of London Docklands from late November. The shoes will be surrounded by hazelnut shells found at the Elizabethan sites – an historical equivalent of cinema popcorn today. Dress pins, probably dropped during costume changes will also be on show.The display accompaniesMuseum of London Archaeology’s publication of The Rose and The Globe: Playhouses of Shakespeare’s Bankside, Southwark, the definitive book on the archaeology of these famous Elizabethan playhouses.

I’ve recently returned from Ireland, where I’ve been doing some delivering professional development training to Irish Professional Institutions in Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC). In my “day job” I work as an archaeologist excavating sites before development – and monitoring developments as they take place – but over the 20-odd (very odd?) years with the Museum that has got more and more to do with planning. HLC is concerned with tracing the historic origin of the everyday landscape we all see, all of the time, rather than archaeological sites.

See some photos of Clare and Galway and where it was taken: www.panoramio.com/user/2865482 (click on each thumbnail and you should get a map and some notes too).

I got involved in this from collaborating with Irish specialists in the Clare Landscape Character Assessment.

Updated on 6 October with some example images:

More images avaiable at: www.panoramio.com/user/2865482

As assistant curator for the gallery, I’ve been gathering together the images for the displays, a few of which are displayed below. These will be sent to the 2D designer very shortly so that she can create the graphic panel and caption designs. So far I’ve got all the Great Fire images sorted as I was previously the curator of the London’s Burning exhibition (see www.museumoflondon.org.uk/londonsburning for more information on the Great Fire).

My next job is to get images for the plague section ready. Watch this space for more on the gallery as it progresses.

Meriel Jeater, curator
Department of Archaeological Collections and Archive

Click on each image to see a larger picture.

During VIP1 – VIP3, our achievements include the repacking, reordering by context and closing up the gaps in the shelf space for all general finds from 37 archives dug from 1972 – 1974; the separation of general and registered metal finds from 353 sites and the relocation of these finds in sitecode order onto new shelving; the auditing of 5215 registered finds from sites spanning 1972 – 1974.

A total of 72 VIP volunteers have worked on the project, from a range of sources including Action for Employment, Connections at St Martins, UCL, University of the 3rd Age & Hackney Volunteer Agency. So what’s the plan for VIP4?Well, work shall continue in both sections of the archive; Glynn will tackle the next batch of sites from 1974, including huge excavations such as New Fresh Wharf (NFW74). Adam on the other hand will keep on going with the Registered finds from 1974, first tackling 199 Borough High Street (199BHS74) but hopefully getting all the way to Trig Lane (TL74), if not beyond…

Instead of the usual 5 volunteers a day, Mon-Thursday, we’ve upped it to 6 per day, exc. Wednesday, where we shall be joined by 10 volunteers from the University of the 3rd Age alongside three 6th formers from Mossbourne Academy. These lucky 13 will be working on the material from Shoreditch Park, as part of a Shared Learning Project

There will once again be 4 museum specialists running 4 workshops each fortnight, which are open for all volunteers within the museum (though to keep it a surprise, I won’t tell you what they are just yet). And finally… we’ve actually already set a date for our Christmas Party, which, to those in the know, is undoubtedly the best one around!

Each week Adam & Glynn will be posting blogs telling you what we’ve been up to that week, updating you on our progress and putting up photos of finds and people at work

Living and working in a city of London’s magnitude, with its densely packed population and layer upon layer of history, it is not uncommon for the dead of long ago to resurface. A gardener may accidently have uncovered some remains or construction workers digging new building foundations may have disturbed an old rubbish pit full of animal bone or an unexpected burial ground.

Human or animal?

When the police are contacted, the first vital question they need to answer is whether the bone is human or animal. To an untrained and sometimes trained eye, tiny fragments of bone can often be difficult to distinguish.

Working with archaeological material on a daily basis, osteologists at Museum of London Archaeology often encounter poorly preserved and heavily fragmented bone and disarticulated skeletons (where the bones are no longer in anatomical position). These may have originated from burials that have degraded or been disturbed in the ground over time, or bone that has been deliberately burnt and broken through the act of cremation. Animal bone is also a common finding on archaeological sites and is often mixed with the human skeletons.

 The experience and familiarity gained by working with such material gives the osteologist an advantage in identifying bone. Many medical doctors for example, may only be used to dealing with recent, well preserved and complete human skeletal material or might not have handled animal bone.

Following a phone call, osteologists will either visit the site where the bone was found or occasionally the police may bring the remains into the office. If the bone is identified as animal, and is of no interest to the police, the English Heritage area Archaeological Advisor will usually be informed and if the find is of archaeological significance, further work may take place.

Modern or old?

If the bone is human, then the next question that the police need to know is whether it is of modern or historical/ archaeological date.

Using GIS, a system which allows us to look at historic maps and the location of previous archaeological finds overlaid onto the modern ordnance survey maps, we can quickly determine if the remains are likely to have originated from a historic burial ground.

Importantly, by visiting the site and seeing the remains in the ground where they were found, we can look at the different layers of soil which have built up through time and together with any artefacts found can use this to determine what period the bone dates from. If the bone is deemed of archaeological date (defned by the Human Tissue Act as 100 years old or more) then the Ministry of Justice, and the local Archaeological Advisor are contacted to discuss the best way to proceed. This may warrant further archaeological investigation.

On rare occasions, where bone is thought to be modern and suspicious then our experienced Forensic Archaeologists assist the police in the recovery of the remains and associated evidence. Archaeological excavation techniques involve the detailed collection and recording of evidence that can be vital in the reconstruction of a possible crime.

Detailed recording of the human remains can provide evidence of age and sex and may help with victim identification. Analysis of the bone may also help establish a date: evidence of modern dental work for example will distinguish the material from archaeological remains. Samples may also be sent for radiocarbon dating to help determine what time period the person lived.

If human bones are encountered (or if you find remains and are unsure if they are human or not) you should always contact the police first, it may also be appropriate to contact the GLAAS Advisor for your area. Human remains whether from a modern or archeological time should always be treated with care and respect. It is vital that the bone is not disturbed further or removed from the ground. This will help to preserve the bone and if left situ (where they were found), this will retain important information about the context and type of burial.

Click here for further information and contact details of the Museum of London Archaeology Forensic Archaeology team.

Unfortunately, at present we do not have any vacancies or opportunities for work experience in this area. If you are interested in finding out more about forensic archaeology you may find the links below of interest. There are also a large number of Universities with undergraduate and post-graduate courses which include aspects of forensic archaeology.

www.forensic-science-society.org.uk

www.bahid.org

 The Walbrook curse
Found in Princes Street, near the Bank of England in 1928
1st-2nd century AD

As the nights draw in and Halloween draws nearer, the Museum this month turns to the dark arts for inspiration for its object of the month, as one of our Visitor Hosts, Kimberley Ahmet, sheds some light on a superstitious object from our Roman gallery…

“In the Museum of London, you will hear the soothing sound of pipe music playing softly near the end of the Roman Gallery. This lulling sound is broken by four strident voices that cry out, causing some of our younger visitors to jump with fright. What are these voices and what are they saying?

Well, in our ‘Spirituality or Superstition case’ you will find objects like clay figures, amulets, vases and religious ornaments. Amongst them you will also be able to find three irregular pieces of cut grey lead. If you look really closely, you will see that each piece has been inscribed with Latin words.

The words you can see are curses, written by angry or vengeful Roman Londoners who wanted retribution.

This month’s object we are highlighting from our collection is a Roman curse inscribed on a piece of lead that was found with a small rectangular hole pierced in the middle.

That hole was created by a nail which would have fixed the curse to a wooden post at one of the Roman shrines which once stood on the banks of the Walbrook stream that flowed south through the City of London down to near Cannon Street Station and is now buried underneath roads, buildings and tube train tunnels.

The lead has been inscribed on both sides with the same Latin inscription. In English it reads: “Titus Egnatius Tyrannus and Publius Cicereius Felix is Cursed.”

In the same case you will find another example of a curse, this one only has the name “Martia Martina” inscribed in reverse. We can’t be sure why the name was written backwards. One theory is that by writing the name back to front it made the curse more potent.

Unlike the Walbrook curse which was nailed onto a post, we think that this curse was folded or rolled up before being cast into a well. Others have been found in the River Thames. Religious belief regarded such water as rivers, streams and even wells as the express way of sending messages to the gods – a bit like recorded delivery today!

Lots of our younger visitors ask us who the people on the inscriptions were but more importantly, what it was they had done to get cursed in the first place. We will never know for certain. The majority of curses generally just feature one or more names, but very rarely do we find more detail. 

Curses were a way of sending a petition to the gods, asking for help. It was also a way of letting everyone else know that this person was not to be trusted. Imagine if you were walking past a post and saw a piece of lead cursing someone you know, do you think it would make you think twice about the trust you place in them? And what about if it was you being cursed – how would you feel?!

There are many different reasons that a Roman Londoner could warrant a curse. They could be thought to have stolen something valuable, an item of clothing, or perhaps maybe they simply knew too much.

One of the scariest curses that I have ever heard translates as: “I curse Tretia Maria and her life, mind and memory, and liver, and lungs, all mixed up together, and her words, thoughts and memories. Thus may she be unable to speak what things are concealed…..’”

Find out more about our curses on the Museum’s new ‘Living in Roman London’ website.

 

Hi there, my name is Henry and I volunteer at LAARC. The archive team invited me to help them two years ago and I’ve been here ever since, usually helping for an hour or so a week. However, over the past two weeks, I’ve been helping Adam and Glynn each day.

Most people know that the LAARC has 10km of shelving and over 100,000 boxes, however, not everyone realises that the archive also has over 10,000 breezeblocks that make up its walls. Unfortunately these breezeblocks emit much dust into the air, which over the years has settled on the numerous archival containers.  My role is to remove the dust that has been sitting around on shelves and boxes for several years.

I start at 10am with my brush nozzle head on and suck up the dust from the tops of the shelves. Goodness! What a load of dust! It usually takes about 2 hours to thoroughly get through a length of racking, after which I switch to using my long flat vacuum head (with brush!) and sweep and suck the floor simultaneously. Who says men can’t multi task!

At the end of the day it’s my turn for a little dust down, when one of the team wipes me with a cloth. They then put me back in my cozy little box.

Before I was volunteering I used to think my life sucked, but being here makes me very happy and I like to think I am an essential part of the archive volunteer team –  it’s nice to know I play my part in the upkeep of London’s excellent archaeological store.

This month, we look at a mystery worthy of Houdini…

Iron ball and chain 17th – 18th century

This iron ball and chain is likely to have been used to shackle prisoners during transport in the 17th – 18th century. 

It was found by Mudlarkers (members of the public who are licensed to search the Thames foreshore) who thought they had found a cannon ball until the chain came slithering out of the Thames mud. 

It is made from iron and the padlock has a brass plate around the key hole.  The padlock is skilfully made with the screw-thread carved after the padlock was cast.  English padlocks of this time were not made in this way which suggests that this was made on the Continent.  The long spike on the padlock would have pointed towards the other leg when it was fitted around the ankle.

When it was found, the padlock was locked but no key has been found – could someone have slipped out of custody?

Kate Sumnall, Finds Liaison Officer at Museum of London Docklands said: “The river is the repository for so many of London’s stories, and this extraordinary find gives us a tantalising glimpse of the human trials and tribulations of past Londoners.  Whether a would-be Houdini freed himself from the “great iron on his leg”, or perished in shackles, or whether this ball and chain was simply discarded, we can never know.  Visitors to Museum of London Docklands will have to decide for themselves.”

The ball and chain is currently on display in the foyer at Museum of London Docklands for a limited time.

FAUNAL DIETARY EVIDENCE FROM TORRE ABBEY, TORQUAY,
DEVON

INTRODUCTION

Torre Abbey was founded in AD1196 as a Premonstratensian monastery. Although it became wealthy, it was partially demolished after Dissolution in AD1539, and then occupied by Thomas Ridgeway and subsequent owners, passing into the possession of the
Cary family in AD1662 until AD1930 when it was sold to Torquay Borough council. Animal bone and invertebrate remains from recent excavations show dietary composition linked to changes in use and occupancy of the building.

ANIMAL BONES

These derived largely from ox, sheep/goat and pig indicating consumption of good quality beef, mutton and pork. There was a smaller component of chicken, goose Anser anser and mallard/domestic duck Anas platyrhynchos. Game was represented by thrush family Turdidae, pheasant Phasianus colchicus, partridge Perdix sp., teal Anas crecca, wild duck (not mallard), rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, brown hare Lepus europaeus, fallow deer Dama dama and red deer Cervus elaphus. The fish were mainly marine; thornback ray Raja clavata, cod Gadus morhua and gurnard Triglidae with one migratory species; salmon Salmo salar.

 INVERTEBRATES

These were mainly molluscs, particularly the common/flat oyster Ostrea edulis with small numbers of other important edible species including common mussel Mytilus edulis, common cockle Cerastoderma edule, great scallop Pecten maximus, common whelk Buccinum undatum, common periwinkle (‘winkle’) Littorina littorea, a fragment of the internal shell (‘cuttlebone’) of common cuttlefish Sepia officinalis, and a fragment of edible crab Cancer pagurus.

Also, there were less commonly eaten species; common limpet Patella vulgata, razor shell Ensis sp., and rough cockle Acanthocardia tuberculata. Though common in British coastal waters and still consumed here; they are rarely recovered from archaeological sites in
London.

The invertebrates suggest consumption of a variety of littoral and inshore species with a bias towards oyster and, to a lesser extent, rough cockle and the other commonly exploited snails and bivalves. Sources would have included gathering from the shore and fishing from coastal waters. The evidence corresponds to a diverse and high-quality meat diet including exploitation of local ‘wild’ resources.

FOUNDATION AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT AD1196-1300

Mainly cattle, sheep/goat and pig with emphasis on areas of good meat-quality. Infant calf tibia may indicate stock-rearing, dairying and consumption of veal. Consumption of fish and game is indicated by cod and red deer suggesting some degree of status and affluence. A single winkle shell provides the only evidence for consumption of ‘shellfish’.

AD1300-1400

This small group indicates consumption of beef and mutton, although recovery of thornback ray and gurnard suggests consumption of locally available fish.Molluscs included limpet, winkle, cockle, oyster and whelk. Fragments of foetal or neonate rat probably indicate black rat Rattus rattus in view of the known presence of this species in England from Roman times (Yalden 1999, 125) and the absence of the now-prevalent brown rat R. norvegicus until the early 18th century AD (Yalden 1999, 183).

DISSOLUTION AD1539-1543

Fragments of ‘ox-sized’ rib and sheep/goat tibia.

17th CENTURY AD1600-1700

There are qualitative differences between this and earlier groups; this group is mainly cattle and sheep/goat, with a significant component of poultry; chicken, goose and mallard/domestic duck and recovery of game; wild duck, pheasant, rabbit and brown hare. Species-diversity, together with the quality of the beef and mutton, suggests consumer status and affluence.

The molluscs were mainly oyster with whelk, razor shell, great scallop and common cuttlefish and two shells of common periwinkle. Razor shell and common cuttlefish are the only examples of these species from the whole assemblage. Cuttlefish occur around all British coasts, they are edible with an internal shell useful as a dietary supplement for cage birds, a ‘once-only’ mould medium for casting small metal objects and, when finely-powdered, as ‘pounce’ in the preparation of documents (Pipe 2006, 63)

18th CENTURY AD1700-1800

This group derives mainly from cattle, sheep/goat and pig; with considerable species-diversity of migratory and marine fish (salmon and cod), poultry and game; thrush, wild duck, including teal, partridge, rabbit and fallow deer. Recovery of infant chicken, infant calf and foetal/neonate piglet may suggest local husbandry. Again, species-diversity and carcase-part recovery suggests consumer status and affluence.The molluscs mainly included oyster, with limpet, scallop, rough cockle, common cockle and mussel.

19th CENTURY AD1800-1900

This small group included areas of good and poor meat-bearing quality; ‘ox-sized’ rib, ox tarsal and sheep/goat metacarpal suggesting disposal of waste from consumption, butchery and primary processing. Invertebrates included single shells of oyster and rough cockle with fragments of edible crab.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pipe, A, 2006 Animal remains In: Whipp, D, 2006 The medieval postern gate by the Tower of London MoLAS Monograph 29, 63-65

Yalden, D W, 1999 The history of British mammals London. T & A D Poyser Ltd.

How do you know when you’re shaking hands with a finds processor at MOLA? Simple. Rough finger tips. Like needlewomen who sew without thimbles, we all have innumerable pinpricks, fresh and healing on the ends of our fingers. The cause? The staple. How could such an invaluable invention cause so much bad temper and pain? A wonderfully useful device in thoughtful hands, the staple has a rich history, beginning with a lavish device believed to have been invented for Louis XV in the 18th century, then refined and patented from the mid-19th century.

Weighing in at a kilo or so, the early staplers bound together everything from carpet to paper. George McGill patented the first single-stroke stapler in 1879, an elegant cast-iron press decorated with swirling patterns of gold, rather like an old Singer sewing machine. McGill hand fed a staple into the press, then a single push on the handle closed it against a small anvil  . We’ve left the cast-iron a long way behind. Modern staplers are ubiquitous, light weight and indispensable. No one, not even a finds processor with shredded gloves and fingers would disagree with that. It’s the use to which that indispensable stapler is put that causes us grief.

Finds come in to MOLA in plastic bags, stapled shut. It’s a fine, sensible and invaluable way of doing things because we have to keep finds and their context labels together and protected.  It sometimes goes wrong. Why use 17 staples to close a small plastic bag?  

Maybe we processors should use staple removers? Yes, but given mud, dust and debris round a bagged find, those ubiquitous staples are all but invisible. You can pick out the obvious ones with a staple remover, of course, but it’s the hidden extras that slash through rubber and latex gloves on their way to piercing the flesh. No, the only way forward is re-education of those wayward stapling diggers.

Here’s the rule: one bag, two labels, one staple. It’s doable: you just have to put a context label in with the find, take the second label and position it inside the bag, near the top. Fold over the top of the bag, then staple once  through the fold and the label. Worried that the find will fall out? Fold the top over twice, staple once through the double fold and label.  That will earn you the gratitude of your fine finds processors. All we have to do is tug open the fold, and, just like that, the staple springs out.  No ripped gloves, no bleeding fingers.

Restrictive, ill fitting and pointed shoes can result in a condition known as hallux valgus. This is where the proximal pedal phalanx (toe bone) of the great toe points laterally (outward towards the other toes), exposing the medial area (inner surface) of the metatarsal head joint surface. In extreme cases, the great toe may cross under or over the second toe. This may also result in painful joint disease and the formation of a bunion, a swelling around the toe joint. Symptoms include swelling, redness and pain at the base of the great toe.

Analysis of the 301 skeletons from St. Marylebone Church Yard, Westminster dating between the mid-eighteenth century to 1850, revealed ten individuals (10/301: 3.3%) suffering from hallux valgus. All were aged over 36 years at death and the deformity was observed in both sexes. Eight of these had hallux valgus in both the left and right great toe. In seven individuals the angle of deformity was at least 40 degrees.

Contemporary examples of footwear from the Dress and Decorative Arts Department. at the Museum of London demonstrate some of the shoe designs that could have led to the development of hallux valgus. It was common in the early 19th century for men and women from the more prosperous classes to wear handmade shoes with symmetrical soles. The right and left shoes were often made identical in form, and this continued up until machine manufacture began in the later 19th century. Shoes normally had pointed toes, although square toed shoes became more popular from the 1820’s to the 1840’s.

Archaeological and osteological evidence has shown that the population from St. Marylebone was of high status. These wealthier individuals would have been able to afford the fashionable footwear of the day, and these designs may have caused some to suffer hallux valgus. This condition appears to have worsened with age and long term wearing of badly fitting shoes. Today, the deformity often affects the adolescent foot. Girls tend to be more commonly stricken, probably as a result of wearing restrictive and high-heeled shoes (McRae 2003:181).

The new MOL Archaeology monograph: St Marylebone Church and burial ground in the 18th to 19th centuries: excavations at St Marylebone School, 1992 and 2004-6, has just been published.