The working life of Museum of London

The Theatre – Archaeological Dig 3

July 14, 2010 Tim Braybrooke Archaeology, Blogs, Excavations at Shakespeare’s theatre

There’s many a slip twixt cup and lip…

This beautiful item was found in a trench placed just outside of The Theatre, and once again, our pottery expert Jacqui Pearce has been able to throw some light upon it:

The goblet is more properly called a beaker (the more ordinary connotations of this term are better suited to it as well). It is made in Surrey-Hampshire border ware, probably in the mid 16th century (could go into later 16th, but not much beyond). It could well have been made at Farnborough, the late 16th century hub of the industry. The form was often used alongside small drinking jugs and loads have been found at the Inns of Court, where they were bought in bulk. It marks the large scale transition from drinking from wooden bowls to using ceramic vessels, which took place in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The beaker would have been used to drink wine or sack, which is a Tudor type of sherry, a fortified wine and it is not inconceivable to speculate that it may have a close association with The Theatre.

So why do archaeologists love pottery so much?

Pottery is one of the most useful things an archaeologist can find. Pottery designs, styles, types of material, developments in ceramic and kiln technologies change with time. Also, specific types and styles of pottery can be associated with specific groups of people and activities. Perhaps most importantly, even if it is not complete, pottery sherds are almost indestructible and therefore can survive for long periods of time, buried in the earth to be discovered by archaeologists and shed light onto the past.

An archaeologist called Flinders Petrie (most famous for his digs in Egypt and the near east and often regarded as the father of modern systematic archaeology) was the first to developed ceramic typologiesin the nineteenth century. For these typologies, he grouped his excavated pottery by style and type and produced a sort of evolutionary chart showing how the pottery had developed through time (for more information on Petrie, follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flinders_Petrie). He was then able to use these typologies to create a relative chronology for the pottery and therefore his sites to help to date them in the absence of any historical information and modern absolute dating techniques (methods like Radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology that you may be familiar with from Time Team).

Today, we have the benefit of a great deal of historical and other research which, when combined with absolute dating techniques, has produced very good dating frameworks for understanding a site from its pottery. Experienced pottery specialists, like Jacqui Pearce can often tell at a glance what a piece of pot may have been used for and what period it dates from.

So what does the beaker tell us? On its own, a single item of evidence usually cannot tell us much. We have to look at all the finds as a whole (we call that whole an assemblage), to truly get the best information. However, this particular beaker does, tantalisingly, offer us some information. It is a relatively high status item which appears to put it a little out of place for this location. Shoreditch has traditionally been known as a poor area as suggested in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons, where the bells of Shoreditch say when I am rich, more in hope than expectation.

The presence of such a high status item in this location, which nay date from the time of The Theatre poses a number of interesting if speculative questions:

Was this the beaker of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Burbage or one of their friends or associates? Perhaps it was used to toast a successful production? “I am known to be… one that loves a cup of hot wine…” (Coriolanus. II. i [52])
Was it discarded by a rich theatre goer? “We’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart” (Hamlet. I. ii [175])
Was it a prop used in one or more the plays?

The answer may never be known to us, but this artefact has the potential to link us directly to Shakespeare and his contemporaries through the simple act of taking a drink and it has been waiting, patiently in the ground, waiting for us for over 400 years.

This beaker will now be examined more closely, restored and eventually put on display.

Archaeology in action:

We have some exciting news from the Museum of London: from the end of the week (17th July), a new exhibition area will be opening entitled Archaeology in Action. These displays will showcase excavations in London as they are happening and items and information from this site will be among the first to be shown. Entrance to the Museum of London is free and for details of how to get there, follow this link: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/VisitUs/.

Building the new theatre:

Our evaluation work and the revelation of actual remains of the Shakespearian theatre on this site was greeted with enthusiasm by the Tower Theatre Company, but the discovery also presented them with a design challenge. How could they build their new theatre without damaging the old?

The project architect and engineers had to produce a layout that both avoided and incorporated The Theatre (for more information on the planned new theatre, follow this link: http://www.thetheatre.org.uk/theatre.htm). The supporting foundations, pile, drains and cabling have to be placed safely away from The Theatre and their proposed locations have to be thoroughly excavated to ensure no archaeological information is lost.

(copyright Bland, Brown and Cole)

This plan shows where The Theatre remains are in relation to the new stage.

Can you dig it? Yes we can….

This last week’s work has been excavating the approved trenches where the piles and other foundations will go and with these trenches, we open little windows onto the past.

We are hoping to find more of the structure of The Theatre, in particular, more of the outer wall. So far we have discovered a brick pad that may be the remains of one of the external wall, foundation piers that would have supported one of the oak upright posts that formed this outer wall.

Finding more of the outer wall will enable us to more accurately determine the full size of The Theatre which we currently estimate to be about 22 metres across.

To give an idea of what The Theatre may have looked like, you can visit the famous reconstruction of The Globeon the Southbank of the Thames, which is a little larger than The Theatre, or you could try building one yourself. Follow this link and print off a paper do-it-yourself model of The Globe http://papertoys.com/images/globe-color.pdf, we have one in pride of place in our site hut.

One for the record – professional photography on site:

Last Thursday another important member of our team visited the site, our professional photographer Maggie Cox. Maggie’s job is to take the high quality publication and archive photographs needed for our reports and for the archive. These photographs together with our written and drawn paperwork help to build a complete picture of our work on the site, ensuring that no detail is overlooked. We call this preservation by record.

Maggie Cox recording archaeological features

To prepare for Maggie, we had to thoroughly clean the areas she was to photograph. We used a rather unusual piece of equipment for an archaeological site – a vacuum cleaner!

The dry and dusty nature of conditions on site at the moment means that vacuuming is the best way to reveal the detail needed for the photographs.

In the original Shakespearean:

The actor and Shakespearian writer, Ben Crystal visited the site last Thursday. One of his aims is to de-mystify Shakespeare and his works to make them more accessible and enjoyable. Together with his father he has also researched what Shakespeare may have actually sounded like: the accent of Shakespeare and to demonstrate he recited Sonnet 116:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Ben Crystal reciting Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

It was certainly very different to the received pronunciation of much modern acting and we hope to be able to post a recording of this performance soon. This was Ben’s second visit to The Theatre and hopefully not the last (follow this link to Ben’s website to find out more: http://www.shakespeareontoast.com/).

The power of the pen and the power of place

For writers of the time of Shakespeare and Marlowe, the tool of choice was the quill pen, and with their words they oft laid bare the frailties of the human condition. The power of their words has left an indelible imprint on our language and in our culture. Their stories still resonate today and have infiltrated many layers of our society.

Our slightly battered 1980 edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has 39 pages for the Bible, but a staggering 75 pages for Shakespeare, eight for Hamlet alone! Poor Kit Marlowe gets but two pages, but more of him anon.

Within The Theatre, these words were enacted and brought to life for the entertainment of the masses. Because we can now stand in the very place where this first happened this archaeological site is an evocative place and still holds some of the power of those words.

As archaeologists, our tool of choice is the 41/2” pointing trowel. Our work here will continue to contribute to the sum of our understanding of this place and of the bard, his contemporaries, his times and all the others who have passed through this place; with each scrape of the trowel we come nearer to them and through them, to ourselves.

When the new theatre is opened it is hoped that the remains of the old will be on display, and as the modern actors cross the stage, they will walk with the shades of their predecessors, time travelling from the present to the 16th century and back, “It is an honest ghost, let me tell you” (Hamlet. I. v [138]).

Coming up soon:

Legal disputes (‘twas it ever thus): battles with brooms, stick and bills, of pistols and hemp seed
Exciting developments at the Museum of London – “Archaeology in action”
Exciting event on The stage: press launch and thespians
Get thee to a nunnery: a little more of the Priory
Of beer and pies – the brew house bake house – the eternal importance of beer and pies
Shakespeare beyond this world
Of earthquakes, clowns and star crossed lovers