Inside the Museum of London

Bracelets, Bones and The Bishop.

Spot the difference: Cod & Haddock

Week 2 of the London Archaeological Archive & Research Centre’s ninth Volunteer Inclusion Project! And this week we started on Registered Finds, those marvellous objects that have been assigned an individual finds number because they have their own individual importance (or as I like to think of it, their own awesomeness).

To prove my point, here’s some of the pieces our VIP9 team have audited this week:

This roman pair of tweezers:

This prehistoric flint arrowhead:

This decorated piece of roman samian pottery with the mould maker’s stamp:

This brilliant 14th century jetton with a squirrel munching on a nut:

And star object of the week, this post-medieval wooden “Bishop” chess piece:

All these came from 1979’s excavations at Miles Lane , Lower Marsh and Newgate Street . We even got started on material from Peninsular House (click on any of the above road names to link to our online catalogue) including the glass phial below that got Friday’s team smiling (and sniffing):

The workshops this week were focused on animal bone and led by Museum of London Archaeology’s zoologist, Alan Pipe, who is the star of our photo of the week:

Our Wednesday teams made great progress too. The family groups tackled boxes of pottery before becoming Duck detectives in our Ceramic and Glass Store.

And our friends from the University of the Third Age worked through metals from Newgate Street (links to our online catalogue) having had a talk on coins from curatorial project assistant Ed Johnson.

If you would like to find out more about our projects and see the results of our volunteer’s work, why not come along to one of our guided tours. Visit our website (links to website events page) to book your ticket.