The ‘punched-out lesions’ were unmistakable, and their form matched what I’d seen only on X-rays:  multiple myeloma, leading to the consumption of bone in the skull, both humeri, and in the distal femora.  Yet this man whose skeleton showed evidence of this disease had lived long before X-ray machines, long before a diagnosis of ‘multiple myeloma’ could have been made to explain the pain and fatigue he likely felt.

The opportunity to see the remains of a human afflicted with multiple myeloma was part of a learning experience in osteology and palaeopathology graciously provided by Jelena Bekvalac and Mike Henderson of the Centre for Human Bioarchaeology at the Museum of London.  I’m a third year medical student at Harvard Medical School in the United States – and I’m also in the process of earning my PhD in Ancient History from the Harvard Department of Classics.  Palaeosteology, which requires knowledge of human anatomy, pathology, archaeology, and history, is important for my PhD dissertation, though I had little prior exposure to the field before meeting Mike and Jelena and studying from the museum collections of nearly 20,000 sets of human remains.  The resources of the Museum of London are unlike those anywhere else in the world, and the abundance of learning opportunities there is matched only by Mike and Jelena’s generosity in sharing and teaching.

I was able to study the remains of humans who had lived with tuberculosis, amputations, osteomyelitis, syphilis, fractured bones, congenital dysplasias, osteoarthritis, dental disease, physical trauma, cancer, and gout, all maladies which are still with us today.

As a future clinician who has obtained medical histories from (living) patients in the process of my medical training, and also as an ancient historian, I recognize the importance of history: of the world, and of the individuals who form that world.  Palaeosteology permits us to tell a history as intimate as it is relevant.  With palaeosteology and its associated disciplines, the man called “Roman, multiple myeloma”
gains a voice: his diagnosis becomes part of the story of a Roman male who likely died after age 45; who was buried with ceramics; who had excellent teeth without cavities (and therefore probably didn’t eat too much white sugar). 

What we learn from his skeleton, combined with the knowledge we are privileged to gain from other skeletons, places him in the context of broader epidemiological phenomena in his world, and in ours.  His story, and those of countless others carefully looked after at the Museum of London, become part of the history of human life, illness, wellness, and death – of our history.

Archaeology. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone says this word? Digging? Trenches? Objects? Well yes, all three of those are certainly an important part of archaeology. However, they’re not the most important bits by any means. So what is more important?

Paper.

In particular the hundreds of pieces of paper that are used before, during and after an archaeological investigation. These pieces of paper could be the research that takes place before there’s even any sign of a trowel, or the sketch of the posthole that’s just been uncovered or the detailed analysis of the thousands of fragments of pottery that make up a section of the final publication. Without these pieces of paper, without these archaeological records, everything else becomes a bit redundant.

With this in mind, Archaeological Records was another fundamental aspect of our 10th Anniversary Celebrations that we definitely wanted to include in our 10th anniversary celebrations. Every Friday, you can see the original documents from 1975’s incredible excavations at Newgate Street. These include the original correspondence between the site directors and the Corporation of London; the original context sheets detailing aspects of particular features that were dug; original photographs from the site including some of the skeletal remains; x-rays showing hidden objects; the phenomenal  stratigraphic matrix which shows how each part of the site relates to each other; the finds reports written by the specialists once the site was completed; and the final publications sharing the results with the world.

There’s also one other thing that was crucial to all of the above. The site director.

Like a conductor of an orchestra, the site director makes sure things run smoothly and gathers everything together to produce the final results. And the site director for the excavation we’re working on during our 10th birthday celebrations is none other than Alan Thompson. And as we’ve got the records for the site out on display every Friday, we’d thought we’d ask him to join us too. Back as a volunteer having retired 9 years ago, you can meet Alan and the records he helped create every Friday for the next 6 weeks in Archaeology in Action from 10.00 – 16.00.

We did establish that it is very much in keeping with fashionable aerialist wear of the period. Now that we’ve looked at the shape, let’s examine some of the details. I am fascinated by the spangles with their concentric rings and little notches.

In 1865 the Boston weekly Littell’s Living Age, some sort of Reader’s Digest, re-published a short article that had previously appeared in the Daily Telegraph on the subject of spangles used in harlequin outfits (obviously a hot topic). The writer describes the making of the ‘little flat, circular, shining piece of metal, with a hole in the centre, and a scarcely perceptible slit on one side’.

Apparently, plated copper wire from Germany was drawn out and twisted around a ‘mandrel’ (some sort of cylindrical rod). The resulting tight spiral was cut into rings, which were flattened with a hammer or by machine. Physics is not my strong point, but I guess smashing the ring accounts for the concentric circles which must develop when the metal expands outwards, if you see what I mean (please correct me, if that’s just too idiotic).

I realise that observations on small pieces of flattened metal do not get us very far, but maybe the metal buttons will? They bear two different inscriptions: ‘Adolphus 74 Leadenhall St’ and ‘J.W. Calver Walthamstow’.

It seems that Adolphus, a Tailor and Outfitter in the City of London, went bust in 1880 (The London Gazette, 21/12/1880, page 6897). Entirely different story with James W. Calver: he was listed as a ‘Tailor and Draper’ at 338 Pembroke Road in Walthamstow in 1861, aged only 25. In 1871 he had moved to number 361 (or there had been some number reshuffling) and was still employed in the menswear trade. And profitable this seems to have been as in 1891, aged 55, Mr Calver is living on his own means (of course he might have inherited, married well, won the lottery or at the races …).

The buttons roughly confirm the 1860ish date, although they could of course have been re-used much later. ‘Re-used’ is the important word here as their presence seems to confirm my suspicion that the acrobat suit might have been a fancy dress costume made with the help of the (trouser) buttons of a male suit.

This suspicion is nurtured even more by the silver lace. It is made out of at least two different types of thread, if that’s the right word: a thin strip of metal, probably silver-plated and what is sometimes called filé – an even thinner strip of metal wound around a silk thread core. I only ever have seen this kind of lace on very grand 18th century clothing, including our very own 1853 mantua (or ‘Fanshawe dress‘, as we like to call it).

Somehow this kind of embellishment does not quite seem right for a 19th century aerialist. It seems more likely to have been removed from a piece of clothing that was part of the dressing up box of a respectable family.

Respectable and quite wealthy … I mentioned in my previous entry that the object file did not include much to write home about. Nevertheless it might be worth to talk briefly about the donor. Wouldn’t it be rather marvelous if there was a descendant out there who possessed a photograph of a little boy in a weird outfit that they had always wondered about?

The suit was donated in 1928 by a ‘Mrs John Paterson’. For so many reasons I find the custom of recording women by their husband’s name very annoying, not least as it makes research so much more difficult. However, in this case the name, the address provided in 1928 and the sad fact that the family had lost a son in the First World War meant that I could piece together a very sketchy family history. I might have got the wrong ends of various genealogical sticks but this is where it stands at the moment:

Mrs Paterson was born Freda Rose Woodhouse in December 1866 in Calcutta, India. Her father, Frederik Woodhouse, must have died not long thereafter and in 1871 Freda and her three brothers live with their aunt in Clifton, Bristol. In 1881 they are reunited with her mother Mary Jane in London. On 28 August 1889 the 22-year old Freda married the 13-years older banker, John Paterson, in Kensington. John was born in Inverness in 1853, the son of a ship owner, but seems to have moved to London some time after the 1871 census.

Freda was not even alive when the suit was supposed to have been made and/or worn. Her parents married in 1856, a little too early, and Freda’s eldest brother was probably not born before 1861. Freda’s husband, however, would have been around seven, about the right age, methinks. So what sort of festivity took place in Inverness in 1860ish, which necessitated little John to be dressed up in the über-popular outfit of an aerialist? And why was the costume kept for another 68 years or so?

Will we ever know? I don’t think it matters if we do or don’t. The acrobat suit is a lovely object and even if its precise use will escape us forever, we can be quite safe in assuming that it does reflect the popularity of aerialists in the 1860s. That’s enough for me.

Let me start by saying I find skeletons fascinating. When I was putting together the series of events that celebrate our archaeological archive’s 10th anniversary, without a doubt I wanted to make sure human remains featured. When we ran our last Visitor Inclusion Project (LAARC VIP7 – Nov-Dec 2010) we had a table with skeletal remains from the amazing excavation at Newgate Street of St Nicholas Shambles (see here for more information about the skeletons from this site). This proved so popular, attracting almost 2000 visitors over 10 days, that it was the first of our “Archaeology Exposed” events to be confirmed this time around. 

Over the last 3 Tuesdays, our table has already attracted over 500 visitors, all of whom have been fascinated by what skeletal remains can tell you. Again I recommend you take a look at this previous blog to find out how much was discovered from the skeletons at Newgate Street (Previous Skeleton Blog)

However, what I didn’t realise until fairly recently is that we were very close to not having any of this information at all. The site at Newgate Street was amongst the first to uncover skeletons using standard archaeological recording techniques, only, before this dig, they hadn’t really ever excavated skeletons on the scale of which they had on this site. This excavation with 234 articulated bodies demanded a new technique for recording beyond the standard context sheet.

And so a simple but effective addition to the sheet was created. A splayed out image of a skeleton of which any remaining bones could be shaded in. Beneath a series of simple descriptive pointers which would provide more information about the skeleton such as the conditions of the limbs and the state of the bones themselves. Finally the relationship of the skeleton to its surrounding contexts and any plan, photo and extra associated numbers and finds were to be recorded too.

Using this type of recording, our late Senior curator of Osteology, Bill White, was able to right his report and consequently anyone who so wished was able to discover a bit more about these particular Londoners. The skeleton records sheet became a standard method of recording which is still in use today.

So to finish, if you want to see some of these incredible remains yourself, they’ll be on display in Archaeology in Action every Tuesday for the next 6 weeks. And if you want to find out about who created this concept of skeletal recording, you can meet him every Friday for the next 6 weeks as it’s the former site director Alan Thompson, who has returned to the museum to volunteer for our anniversary celebrations. But more about him tomorrow…

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
I joined the VIP in Summer 2011 to gain more experience in archives and handling of archaeological material

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
The day when we had a seminar on leather artefacts

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
One of the roman shoes we came across

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
London before London

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Upper galleries

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
No favourite year – I’m interested in roman, medieval and tudor periods

7) Favourite Londoner?
Too many to choose from.

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Mortimer Wheeler!

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
Egypt

10) What’s next for you after this project?
A placement with the Portable Antiquities Scheme

We’re now 3 weeks into our Visitor Inclusion Project (VIP), the series of events that celebrate our Archaeological Archive’s 10th birthday by sharing our work with visitors at the museum.

We’re having an awesome time, having chatted to over 2500 people so far. One of the best bits of the job is sharing our passion for archaeology with visitors who are often pleasantly surprised that we’re letting people handle these real bits of archaeology. It’s also cool hearing about the number of visitors who have dabbled with archaeology in the past, or found things on the foreshore, or have been to various archaeological sites across the world, or those who simply can’t get enough of Time Team!

Our Archaeology Exposed tables are proving really popular. The things that are catching peoples’ eyes seem to be a crazy example of a piece of wood and what happens if it’s not looked after on Monday’s Conservation table, an example of an medieval arthritic hip on Tuesday’s  Osteology table and possibly the world’s most complicated stratigraphic matrix on Friday’s Records table.

And then there’s the numerous amount of people that have come along to a Hands-On Archaeology workshop, many of whom are from overseas and are loving the chance to have a go at sorting London’s pottery. These two chaps from Switzerland joined us earlier this week, whilst the lady in the left picture was stopping off here from the USA before moving on to Egypt.

And we’re starting to see real results in terms of the material we’re working on whilst we interact with you. Over 100 boxes of archaeology have been repacked and in doing so we’re saving a fair amount of space within the boxes simply by this better packing.

So roll on the next 7 weeks. We’ll be keeping you updated with our progress here on the blog where we’ll also be sharing the history of our archive’s first decade, various objects that narrate London’s history and giving you an insight into the thoughts of our volunteers.

We’ve also had a number of enquiries regarding our collections, ranging from a request for information on fish bone samples from archaeological sites, to questions about plans and standing building drawings of a church in the City of London which we hold in our collection. While these are standard enquiries for a collection like LAARC, they do sometimes involve the investigation of our legacy data to find out exactly what information is available.

So, what exactly is legacy data I hear you ask? Well, in the context of digital preservation it is often used to refer to files or data stored in old or potentially obsolete formats, which as a result can be difficult to access and even harder to interpret. As a result, and in particular when dealing with enquiries relating to archaeological excavations which occurred in the 1980’s and early 1990’s (when digital records were being created, but the idea of digital preservation hadn’t really entered our consciousness), it is sometimes necessary to conduct searches across this legacy data, extrapolate the required information, and manipulate and migrate the data into a more accessible format, while ensuring that the data itself has not been altered in the process.

Part of our legacy toolkit at LAARC!

Our standards and guidance for deposition, and our work with current depositors of archaeological records, aims to ensure that we are not faced with these problems for current and future digital deposits. However, for digital records that were created before such standards were in place, we simply have to deal with the data in whatever form we have it, and work to the best of our abilities to extract the required information. Our long term goal is to process and migrate all of the legacy data we currently hold into accessible formats which we can then provide access to online, but with legacy data from over 670 sites, it will take some time!!

I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to talk about some of these issues when I was invited to give a short presentation at the Digital Preservation: What I Wish I Knew Before I Started event, organised and co-hosted by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) and the Archives and Records Association (ARA) back in January. The event aimed to give ideas and practical advice concerning digital preservation to current archive and records management students, and hopefully inspire them to get involved in this particular area. For anyone interested, all the presentations from the day are available at the DPC event page and comments from the day can be found on Twitter by searching the hashtag #dpc_wiwik.

Finally, I can’t write a blog about my work at LAARC without mentioning that it’s our 10th anniversary this year – and we are running a number of events and hands on activities both at LAARC and the Museum of London to celebrate. I had my first experience of these when I participated in the Archaeology Up Close day on the 20th January, when we put on a display of finds and records on the theme of ‘Made in London’. Various finds were on show which provided evidence for shoe making in the Roman period, medieval glass and ceramic making, and post medieval clay tobacco pipe manufacturing. It was great to be able to share our collections, and passion for archaeology, with visitors to the museum, and for my part it was certainly nice to get away from my computer for a day! Various LAARC staff will be at the Museum every Monday, Tuesday and Friday for the next 8 weeks, talking about our archive collections and archaeology in general, so come and say hello when you are on your next visit, and follow the LAARC VIP blog for more info.

LAARC staff talking to (hopefully) interested members of the public about archaeology

My name is Sally, the Librarian at the Museum of London, and I have volunteered to read Bleak House with the book club as it is a novel I studied at school (rather a long time ago now) and enjoyed. 

Whereas studying ‘Silas Marner’ put me right off George Eliot, ‘Bleak House’ was so good it  encouraged me to go on and read other books by Dickens, although none of them ever seemed to match up to original impact of ‘Bleak House’.

I am looking forward to revisiting the novel as an older person, and I am also going to be reversing my Luddite tendencies and will be reading the novel on an e-reader, a well-known version of which was given to me as a Christmas present and on which my second download was the complete works of Dickens.

‘Bleak House’ followed the familiar publishing route for a Dickens novel, in that it was published as a partwork, over 19 monthly instalments (the last one being a double issue), from March 1852 to September 1853.

While readers at the time would have had a month to consume a few chapters, we will be reading the novel over just one short month, which means aiming to read at the rate of 2.5 chapters a day (well, that’s the plan).

As I remember, we will be encountering the whole gamut of Victorian society, from the homeless poor to the landed aristocracy, and will encounter issues of the day, such as slum clearance, sanitary reform, philanthropy, the development of a detective branch of the Met., and the iniquities of never-ending court cases. 

Encompassing it all is London – dirty, decaying and foggy – so let’s get started with the most magnificent opening of any Dickens novel, and immerse ourselves in fog…..

If you would like to join Sally in reading Bleak House our friends at Foyles are offering Dickens Book Club followers an additional 10% discount for online purchases of  the novel here. Simply enter ‘MOLBC’ at Checkout to activate this discount.

In the run up to our Pleasure Garden Ball event at the Museum of London on Tuesday 14 February, we’ve put together a quick blog post that should tell you everything you need to know about the pleasure garden!

As London became more built up in the 17th and 18th centuries, Londoners began to need open spaces to relax in. Pleasure gardens were built at the edge of the city and were privately run. The most famous were the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.

Vauxhall, 1785 by Thomas Rowlandson

Pleasure gardens competed for visitors, vying with each other to offer evermore exciting entertainments. Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens offered a wide variety of entertainment, including lion-tamers, trampoline clowns, fortune tellers, ventriloquists, monkeys, dogs, jugglers, horses who danced to a waltz and fire walkers.

Tournaire's Equestrians, Vauxhall Gardens, 1846

Costumes from the Museum of London’s pleasure gardens

The Museum of London’s pleasure gardens

Although the Archive holds a wealth of information from maps, drawings, digital data, context sheets to photographs, it is perhaps archaeology – the ‘stuff’ – filling over 200,000 archive boxes that we are all instantly drawn to. Our ‘general finds’ are the bread and butter of archaeology but for the most part it is our ‘registered finds’ that are intrinsically interesting.

For several years my colleague Adam has been blogging about these noteworthy objects that lie dormant in the Archive waiting to be researched, audited by a volunteer or even make it into a Museum of London gallery display.

Over the next year I’ll be presenting you with ten archaeological objects. Ten objects that emphasise the importance of London’s archaeology in shaping, or even reshaping, our understanding of the City’s history. I have literally over millions of artefacts to choose from, but this won’t be a display of the shiniest or most well-known. My selections may be representative of, or even unique to, an historical period. They may acknowledge the science of how these objects are discovered and how they survive London’s chthonic depths over millennia.

Like all good history we’ll start at ‘the beginning’:

Object 1

Prehistoric (Upper Palaeolithic) Leaf-point Flint Blade 

The first of our objects is a flint blade (not so interesting you may think…). Dredged from the Thames at Longreach (opposite Purfleet) in April 1905, it came to us via the late Geoffrey Gillam of Enfield. This is a classic example of a museum object that has lain dormant; its significance waiting to be unlocked, for this prehistoric flint may actually be the earliest example of an artefact crafted by a ‘Londoner’ in the Museum’s collection.

Our first Londoner in this instance would be a modern human, that is, homo sapiens sapiens. It was during the Upper Palaeolithic, about 40, 000 years ago, that modern humans developed blade technology (our predecessors, Neanderthals, perhaps being commonly associated with flake technology produced hand-axes) resulting in a huge range of stone artefacts being crafted. At the same time scholars have also argued about the inherent aestheticism of these objects – and we may even be looking at London’s earliest ‘work of art’! Lithics expert, Jon Cotton, ‘re-discovered’ this object with colleagues and they will hopefully be publishing it in the near future.

Next month object number 2 – where we’ll skip past a few millennia (and a lot more flints) to the Iron Age…

If so there is still time to join our Dickens Book Club and share your thoughts on the work of this great author via Facebook and Twitter.

We will be focusing on Bleak House in February, sharing favourite passages and our thoughts as we progress through this work.

We will also be completing our reading of Barnaby Rudge from January, so do look out for updates here as the novel approaches the Gordon Riots of 1780.

When the book club was launched in September 2011  we decided to ask our social media followers which work of Dickens to read to close our book club in May 2012.

Having reviewed the suggestions and comments received. The title that we have chosen to feature in May is David Copperfield. With its “memorable characters written in the first person” this was agreed to be a worthy title to close our book club celebrations of Charles Dickens work.

Alongside this online book club we have also been running a series of book club events at Foyles Bookshop flagship store at Charing Cross, London. The next meeting is being held at 6.30pm on Monday 6 February 2012 focusing on Bleak House with our Dickens and London exhibition curator Alex Werner.

 There is no need to book just turn up on the night and meet in person other fans and aficionados of Dickens.

Our books clubs are ran in support of our Dickens and London exhibition at the Museum of London which is open until 10 June 2012.

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
May 2011 – to learn about the history of London and its archaeology

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
No particular day – just enjoyed working with the finds and all the guest lectures/workshops

.

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
There was this cool tobacco pipe

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
Roman gallery

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Upper

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
2011

7) Favourite Londoner?
Christopher Wren

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones?
Mortimer Wheeler

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
Middle east

10) What’s next for you after this project?
A bit of travelling and other volunteer opportunities

Each week as part of our current project celebrating 10 Years of the Archaeological Archive, we’re posting Volunteer Profiles to let you find out a bit more about our excellent Volunteer Team. Today it’s Benji:

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
In September 2011, it looked very interesting!

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
Discovering a fine example of Elizabethan tassels

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
A fine example of Elizabethan tassels

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
The Newgate Prison in the Expanding City gallery

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Upper

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
1066 & 1966

7) Favourite Londoner?
Iain Sinclair (born in Cardiff but his work is mainly London focused…)

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Morty

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
My garden

10) What’s next for you after this project?
Leading tours of the Archive and then starting a degree in archaeology & ancient history

The London Archaeological Archive & Research Centre, better known as LAARC, officially opened on 7th February 2002. Based along the Regents Canal on the Hackney/Islington borders, the museum took a warehouse formerly used by a steel tubing company and made it the home of its archaeological and reserve collections.

There had been archaeological stores prior to this, and indeed in 2002 the collections had been based in this building for a few years already. However, upon opening, this was the first time that our archaeological collections had been easily accessible for research to anyone who so wished to visit.

Yet, it wasn’t all perfect. Archaeology only really turned professional in the early 1970s and even then there were a few good years of experimenting with different methods of recording and archiving. Despite storing the various archived sites in a logically accessible order upon our shelves, we still faced several storage problems such as having random box sizes, items not labeled correctly and more importantly, individual artefacts sitting loosely within their finds bags without any protection, at a potential risk of damage. The improvement of these storage issues was high on our agenda.

LAARC also had community engagement on its agenda and so a project was designed that combined both improvements to the material and opportunities to get involved. With successful funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Getty Grant Foundation, the “Minimum Standards Project”  was born.

The Minimum Standards Project (or MSP) began to involve volunteers with artefacts. These volunteers were mainly people who wanted to get involved with archaeology (or in some cases like mine, unemployed archaeologists looking to keep their finger in the archaeological pie). Certain materials were prioritised such as the bone and glass objects and volunteers would add a layer of protective jiffy foam within the object’s bag making the object more secure. They’d also write out a couple of new object labels in line with the the archive’s standards. Finally, they would check the objects off on an excel database to make sure everything was where it should be. In essence, making sure the minimum standards of collections care were met.

And this was great! Hugely successful, hundreds of volunteers were involved in the project and in 2005 it received the Conservation Award for Care of Collections.

But it wasn’t just finds work. Whenever an archaeological unit had completed their post excavation work they now had one central repository to deposit not only their finds but their records too. And this was applicable to any organisation that had dug in London. The LAARC enabled researchers to view the complete archives all in one place – artefacts and records – regardless of who had originally done the investigation.

All good work and clearly a good resource. So what did we do? We added some fun to it all. On top of LAARC being a model of good collections management and a centre for archaeological research, we held regular themed open days where we could share London’s history with members of the public. Allowing the creativity of our staff to run wild, themes ranged from “Animals in Archaeology” to “Arts & Crafts” with open days blending a mix of object handling, family activities and tours of the stores.

All these aspects helped build our reputation as leaders in both archaeological archiving and as ambassadors of archaeology, creating models of good practice which would then be developed and expanded as the years progressed.

Next month, “2005 – 2007:Expanding our engagement”

 1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
I first joined the VIP9 project because I was interested in learning about London archaeology    

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
No particular day, I enjoyed them all. 

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
Part of a decorated glass fragment   

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
The modern galleries   

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Lower galleries   

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
1666 – London’s Great Fire  

 7) Favourite Londoner?
Munira Mirza, the Mayor’s director of arts and culture policy. I read about her at an article and I was impressed by the exciting events programme she’s planning about London’s history.  

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones   

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
The Ancient Agora, Athens    

10) What’s next for you after this project?
Hopefully I will find a job in an education department of a London museum

Since you woke up this morning, how many different pieces of crockery do you reckon you’ve used today? Maybe a cup for your morning coffee? Perhaps a plate for your lunch? Most of us use these items everyday without thinking about it.

I’m pretty sure the people of Roman Londinium, or those Medieval, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian Londoners didn’t think twice about all those plates, jugs, bowls, cups and bottles they used day in day out either. And I’m pretty certain they didn’t think that 100, 500 or 2000 years down the line, we’d be using their pottery to find out about their lives. But that’s exactly what we do as archaeologists. And now you too as museum visitors can do so as well.

As part of the Museum of London’s Archaeological Archive & Research Centre’s 10th anniversary celebrations we’re running special HANDS-ON ARCHAEOLOGY workshops where you can get your “hands on” some of these pieces of pot that past Londoners used.

Every Monday, Tuesday & Friday in the Museum’s Clore Learning Centre, you can join me or my colleague Glynn along with our excellent team of volunteers and help us sort out some of our pottery collections that need a bit of care and attention. So far during these hour long sessions, visitors have got to handle real Roman pottery including serving jugs (flagons), large storage vessels (amphorae) and decorated drinking vessels (highgate ware). There’s also been some lovely London “delftware” and “German stoneware“  that we’ve been going through too.

Each session starts at 3.15pm and begins with a brief history of London’s Archaeology (which is also a chance to spot how museum staff have changed over the past 250 years) before we give you a box of pottery to look at and explain how to go about sorting the pieces and improving the way they’re stored.

The workshops are open to everyone of any age and best of all, they’re completely FREE! So if you fancy coming along to learn a bit more about pots and get your hands on some, please do – it will be great to meet you! For more info visit our events page: HANDS-ON ARCHAEOLOGY

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
2006 due to an interest in history and archaeology

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
They are all great

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
So many, I can’t possibly choose just one!

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
LAARC

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Both but I really like both the prehistory and roman ones

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
44AD

7) Favourite Londoner?
Robert Hooke

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Mortimer Wheeler!

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
Catal Huyuk, a Neolithic site in Turkey

10) What’s next for you after this project?
Back to the archive!

Followers of Rock & Pop music will be well aware that every few years a legendary group reforms. Over the past decade Pink Floyd, Cream, Blur, The Stone Roses & Take That all made impressive comebacks. Well today my blog friends, at 10.00 GMT, the Museum of London’s Archaeological Archive & Research Centre had not one but TWO of their very own legends reunite.

Today, Alan Thompson, LAARC’s Archaeological Records Officer when it opened in 2002, worked alongside his then colleague (and current LAARC archivist) Cath Maloney for the first time since retiring 9 years ago. And their reunion was all due to the second and perhaps even cooler reunion.

Today, also at 10.00 GMT, Alan was reunited with the excavation GPO75 – 1975’s General Post Office excavations at Newgate Street – of which he was the site director. From 10am – 4pm, he and Cath were sharing their knowledge, experiences and indeed memeories of the site with museum visitors at our Archaeological Records table in Archaeology in Action. And our visitors (were you one?) loved it as they showed people the original documents that the team of archaeologists wrote on site, photos from the excavation, the various elements that go towards a publication, xrays of mysterious objects that were dug up and of course… the matrix…

And this was just one example of the awesome time we’ve been having this week as we continue to celebrate 10 years of our archaeological archive. On Tuesday, our volunteers from our Osteology section spoke to over 150 people about skeletons dug up from the site (for more follow this link – GPO75 SKELETONS ), whilst on Monday, archaeological conservators from both our museum and those studying at UCL shared their knowledge and expertise about how we preserve our archaeological material.

All three will be returning over the next 9 weeks; Conservation every Monday, Skeletons every Tuesday and the Archaeological Records every Friday – all from 10am – 4pm in Archaeology In Action. Find out more by visiting our website – EVENTS

As well as that our volunteers have been interacting with hundreds of visitors at our two other tables too. Also in Archaeology In Action, Volunteers have been working their way through boxes of pottery, animal bone and building material, improving the way they’re stored and their packaging whilst chatting to visitors. Best of all visitors can handle the material, literally coming into contact with the past.

Outside our London Before London gallery, you can also meet LAARC staff and volunteers and find out what it is that we actually do in an archaeological archive and why this needs to be done. You can handle some amazing artefacts, search for archaeology in any part of London, find out about some of our award winning projects and, should you get the urge, dress up as an archaeologist.

And the number one question that was being asked this week? How can we get involved? The answer is simple. Come along to a free Hands-On Archaeology workshop which takes place in our Clore Learning Centre each Monday, Tuesday & Friday from 3.15 – 4.15. If you’ve ever wanted to get your hands on real archaeology, this is your chance. The workshops allow you to learn about London’s archaeology by getting your hands on it and in the process you get to help us improve the way we store our collections! Check out these pictures from some of the sessions that have already taken place.

For more information about the Hands-On Archaeology sessions visit our events page – EVENTS.

We’ll be around every Monday, Tuesday & Friday for the next few weeks. Hope to see you soon!

The Museum’s Roman collection boasts some very fine examples of bronze, silver and gold coinage, and traces the history of Rome from the Republic, through the rise and eventual decline of the Empire, and culminates in the ascendancy of Byzantium.

The collection spans a period of no-less than seven centuries and represents over 100 different emperors, empresses, princes, rebels and usurpers.

The biggest challenge in working with this collection stems from the sheer volume of coin designs that the emperors could produce.

Recently I have been working with the coins of Emperor Domitian (81-96AD). Domitian alone was responsible for producing over 400 different coin designs during his 15 year reign. This is obviously a huge amount, but such numbers are not uncommon, and indeed such an output is dwarfed by that of others, such as Hadrian, who introduced nearly 1100 different coin designs during his rule, 117-138AD.

It may initially seem surprising that the emperors put so much thought into their coinage.

However, in a period before mass media, coins offered the perfect opportunity for the emperors to ‘meet’ their public. The minting of coins was the greatest source of propaganda available to the emperors.

They range of designs is astonishing. Coins were issued to commemorate great military victories, grand building projects, the quelling of rebellions and to celebrate the might and history of Rome.

They also gave ample opportunity for the emperors to associate themselves and their rule with a particular god, goddess or virtue by depicting them on the reverse.

In this respect the coins offer a real window into the ideology, principles and concerns of the emperors themselves. They could choose to depict themselves as philosophers, facilitators of peace and prosperity, or conversely, they could adopt a very different stance and associate themselves with Mars, the god of war, showing that they were prepared to hold onto their power with an iron fist if circumstances required it.

With such a vast array of coins being minted, correct identification offers a significant challenge.

Fortunately much of the collection is very well preserved. Some of the coins appear as if struck yesterday, and are identified and read as easily as they would have been millennia ago. However, time has taken its toll on many others.

The portraits are worn and reverses corroded, inscriptions are obliterated and details reduced to little more than a few lumps and bumps. In a few cases, identification is simply impossible. However, more often than not, identification can be made from the slightest of details. Until the fourth century the portraits of the emperors are very distinctive; subsequently, little more than the curve of the nose or the curl of a beard can give away their identity. Similarly the flick of a wing or the angle of an arm can all help identify the figure on the reverse.

I feel incredibly lucky to be able to handle these objects on a daily basis, and think of the many hands they may have passed between in their long history and the day to day transaction they may have been involved in. Yet, they are not simply discs of metal used to buy bread, wine, clothing or even be exchanged for possible brothel tokens! They can give us a real insight into the minds of the emperors themselves and the state and character of the empire.

I hope that when these coins are made available online to the public  in the summer of 2012 you will find them as interesting as I do.

It is hoped that by opening up of this collection online it will not only help the Museum engage with a wider public audience, but also offer a considerable contribution to the understanding of Roman numismatics in London, and provide increased opportunity for further enquiry, study and fresh analysis.

All images copyright Museum of London.

1) When did you join the volunteer programme and why?
Joined for VIP9 because I’m interested in archaeology and future museum work

2) What was your most memorable day whilst volunteering?
I particularly remember the leather workshop – great winklepickers

3) What was your favourite object you discovered whilst volunteering?
A horse leg bone. It was massive. Noone was nearly as impressed as I was.

4) What’s your favourite part of the museum?
London before London. I find flint tools fascinating

5) Upper galleries of lower?
Upper

6) Favourite year in London’s history?
1381 – the peasant’s revolt

7) Favourite Londoner?
Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins

8) Mortimer Wheeler or Indiana Jones
Wheeler for the ‘tache

9) If you could dig anywhere in the world where would you excavate?
Marine Archaeology in the Mediterranean, I love diving

10) What’s next for you after this project?
MA in Museum Studies. Hopefully.

If you happened to visit the Museum of London today, did you spot us? The staff and volunteers at the London Archaeological Archive & Research Centre (LAARC) have begun our 10 week residency at the Museum to share our work with you! And if you weren’t at the museum today, here’s what you missed:

Outside our “London Before London” gallery, our archive manager had a selection of goodies:

• Visitors handled objects made in London almost 2000 years ago
• Visitors looked at the original records sheets that archaeologists wrote whilst they were digging up sites.
• School groups had fun trying to figure out a mystery object whose identity was revealed by an  x-ray
• Teachers admired a range of artefacts dug up by school children during our 2005 community project
• Londoners searched our online catalogue to find out what’s been dug up in their area
• One budding young archaeologist tried on a hard hat and held a trowel for the first time!

Meanwhile, a bit further on in “Archaeology In Action” all this was going on:

• Conservation students from University College London were showing people how a piece of wood deteriorates if not looked after.
• There was more guessing of mystery objects using x-rays for answers
• Visitors were handling, comparing (and sniffing) pieces of leather, all conserved in different ways.
• You could take a look at how conservators remove very fragile objects from an excavation

Alongside the conservators were LAARC volunteers:

• Packing archaeological finds, they were chatting to visitors about what they were doing.
• Visitors were able to pick up and handle real objects
• You could discover how we store artefacts at the museum and why we do so

To cap things off several visitors joined us for our afternoon workshop – Hands-On Archaeology – where they learnt a bit about London’s Archaeological history, got their “hands on” some real roman pottery, worked alongside volunteers and sorted pots into different types and helped us improve the way these pot sherds are stored.

So all in all it was a pretty awesome day. It was great to meet so many visitors and share a bit of our work with them. And if you weren’t there today, don’t worry, we’re doing it all again tomorrow and on Friday and indeed, we’ll be around for the next 10 weeks, so come along and say hi.

For more information about our various events visit our website’s events pages: events pages link

To start of the New Year, I give just a quick update of the events and activities over Christmas, and what you can expect in the following months.

I am very happy to report that our very first Santa and Scrooge’s Victorian Grottoes were a runaway success, and greatly exceeded our wildest expectations. The Hosts have put a lot of hard work and effort into making a success of the project, and can give themselves a well-deserved pat on the back for job well done.

Both Santa and Scrooge were very popular with children and parents alike, and if 2011 was anything to go by, we anticipate another sell-out event for 2012 and anyone interest in visiting will be well-advised to book in advance!

It was not just Santa and Scrooge which made headlines. Our much advertised Dickens exhibition opened with much pomp and ceremony in December, and kept us Hosts on our toes trying to keep up for demand for tickets.

A lot of time, energy and resources have gone into making this one of our most exciting exhibitions in the Museum’s history, and the positive feedback from both visitors and the press alike is a great reward for everyone involved in the exhibition.

It is the first major Charles Dickens exhibition in the UK in more than 40 years and includes original manuscripts, his desk and chair, as well as a specially commissioned film to explore the similarity between London at night time today and the city which Dickens had described 150 years ago. Book in advance to qualify for discounted tickets!

I also want to welcome our new Hosts who joined us recently. Some of them are in the photo above.

After successfully completing two weeks of training, they’ve been thrown into the deep end and shown remarkable resilience, and also brought a lot of enthusiasm to the team for the New Year.

I speak for the whole team when I say that we look forward to welcoming you to the Museum during your next visit!

Giusy

In a unassuming building along Hackney/Islington’s Regents Canal borders a team of museum archaeologists are getting quite excited. The reason being, us staff at the London Archaeological Archive & Research Centre are soon to celebrate our 10th anniversary and we’re only days away from the starting the celebrations.

Since opening in 2002 we’ve really focused on 4 main things: To make sure London’s archaeology is stored in an space efficient way that is accessible to all; to encourage and facilitate research into London’s history using the objects and information people left behind; to promote learning and enjoyment by discovering London’s heritage and finally; to be ambassadors of archaeology and leaders in our field of expertise.

That may all sound a little grandiose so put in another way, for the past 10 years we’ve been looking after things that have been dug up, sharing them with as many people as possible and generally have a lot of fun with archaeology along the way.

AND NOW WE’RE COMING TO YOU!

For the next 10 weeks from January 16th to March 23rd, every Monday, Tuesday & Friday, from 10.00 – 16.00, we’re heading to the Museum of London itself to share London’s archaeology with museum visitors. Part of the celebrations will see our Award Winning “Visitor Inclusion Project” return, only this time on a much larger scale.

Joining LAARC staff will be a team of volunteers spanning the past decade, from those who have only just completed a volunteer project, to those that were here from day 1. You can meet them at the “Archaeology Exposed” tables and find out what they’re currently working on every Mon, Tues & Friday in the Archaeology in Action Exhibition.

In addition, on Mondays you can find out about archaeological conservation and meet student conservators from University College London who’ll be sharing the techniques they use to preserve artefacts.

On Tuesdays come and meet our volunteers from the Centre of Human Bioarchaeology and find out how they use skeletal remains to understand past Londoner’s lives.

On Fridays join our archivists who will reveal the importance of recording archaeological data and the wealth of information that site archives can reveal.

And if this wasn’t enough, you can directly GET INVOLVED by coming to a “Hands-On Archaeology” workshop where you’ll have the opportunity to handle real pieces of pottery that were excavated during the 1970s, learn how the museum stores its archaeological collections and help us improve the way these important artefacts are stored.

Each session lasts just an hour (3.15 – 4.15) and are completely free of charge (though you have to get a ticket from the front desk when you arrive).

As the weeks progress, we’ll be keeping you updated with our happenings, sharing stories from the past 10 years and introducing you to some of our excellent volunteers, right here on the blog pages.

We really hope you can drop by and join us as we’re sure it’s going to be a blast. For more info about how you can get involved in the Hands-On Archaeology sessions, visit the events page by clicking here: Hands-On Archaeology event

I have a very soft spot for aerialists, though, and not just on account of Burt Lancaster (honest!). And I generally adore circus outfits, and not just because of Merna Kennedy.

So when I realised we had what was listed in the register as ‘a child’s acrobat costume, circa 1860′, I instantly had to check out this marvelous sounding object.

You will agree that anything with a rosette is good. But a sky-blue object with a rosette in a very complimentary shade of muted red? With decorative elements that have the potential to sparkle?

The costume was donated in 1928 together with more than 30 other items of clothing from the 19th century, mainly accessories including three bonnets, a bustle, two pairs of mittens, a fur collar, a cape and such like. All very nice but nothing super-extraordinary. I had a look at the file for this group in the hope it would explain the inclusion of an acrobat’s outfit. Alas, as is so often the case with our early acquisitions, I could not find anything particularly illuminating. There was a handwritten note listing every object with an approximate date, mainly between 1860 and 1875ish. But had this been provided by the donor or had it been written by the curator/keeper at the time?

Shape-wise the object fits in very well with visual examples of male acrobat outfits of the mid 19th century. First up: the beautifully moustached trapeze artist Jules Léotard (1838-1870) – yes it is he – wearing a dark body suit with low V-neck over a white one-piece in this photo from around 1860-65 (another good one is here). At the time, if acrobatics were your thing, the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square was your place and Léotard duly appeared there in 1861.

In the same year, it seems, Léotard’s compatriot Charles Blondin (1824-1897) made his debut at London’s Crystal Palace. The Great Blondin was a tightrope walker probably best known for crossing Niagara falls several times, including on time carrying his manager. I presume the first photo below records a reenactment of this momentous occasion. The second image shows Blondin’s low V-neck outfit even better.

Last up, and in an outfit quite similar to ours: the famous El Niño Farini (1855-1939). The orphan Samuel Wasgate, his real name, was adopted by a tightrope walker and first appeared at the Alhambra in 1865. In the photo below, which was probably taken around that time or a little later, El Niño looks as if he has already seen it all. Farini later gained many admirers under the guise of Lulu, ‘The Beautiful Girl Aerialist and Circassian Catapultist’. Many a year went by before it was realised that the Child Farini and the lovely Lulu were one and the same. More on this most intriguing story here.

Now we know that the 1860s represent some sort of peak period for aerialists. But was our costume worn by another acrobatic child prodigy?

Some of you will already have their suspicions. Will they be confirmed?

Celebrating the capital’s enthusiasm and affection, ‘At Home with the Queen‘, will feature Londoners photographed in their own homes with their cherished souvenirs of Queen Elizabeth II.

Here, exhibition curator, Julia Hoffbrand, updates us on the search for people and souvenirs to feature:

“Right. Just back from a very extended Christmas and New Year break. Mince pies and lie-ins behind me, I sit down, coffee in hand, to look at my inbox. Lots of enquiries, some general briefings for the Museum’s collections online resource, and some stray spam asking if I want strange things I’ve never heard of. And then on to the ‘At Home with the Queen’ inbox and post pigeon-hole.

Hurrah! Several new submissions have arrived whilst I’ve been away. They’re great! I print them out and put them with all the others received so far to review after the closing date for submissions on 31 January.

The exhibition’s beginning to look good.

I’m really pleased and excited by the range of Londoners who’ve sent in photos of themselves so far – a real mix of ages and backgrounds, some quite unexpected. Older people who remember the Coronation, people in their 20s and 30s who’ve inherited their grandparents’ commemoratives, and kids with books about the Queen which their parents read aloud to them before bed.

It’s fun working on an exhibition where Londoners themselves provide the content – you have no idea what’s going to arrive next and, barring the obscene and offensive, anything goes in this exhibition. It’s what Londoners make it – my role is to bring everything together and with the exhibition team create a display people want to visit and enjoy.

I’ve been really encouraged by the positive reactions I’ve had from people whenever I mention ‘At Home with the Queen’.  A brief chat at my local fish and chip shop where I put up a poster reveals that the owner once met the Queen when he was a kid and will hunt out his photo for the exhibition. A conversation at the library (and another poster later) uncovers a woman who has two Golden Jubilee shot glasses bought she says, at a petrol station on the way to Devon in 2002 (she says it’s a long story ….).

The next step for me is to start writing the design brief for ‘At Home with the Queen’. This outlines the exhibition’s content, structure and ‘feel’ for the designer to work from. After this, I’ll revisit our stores to choose a small selection of the Museum’s commemorative objects to display alongside Londoners’ photographs (I have had a quick look already and had these by my desk):

We’re hoping to also display some of the objects that appear in people’s photographs so I’ll need to speak to our design department to find out what display cases we can use …