A is for Alphabets

The Sun Lounge has recently become home to some new displays! They are part of a series of changing displays that will explore the weird and wonderful objects in our collection by going through the letters of the alphabet. As the displays move through the various letters of the alphabet, more and more unusual objects will come out of storage and into the cases.

The Alphabets display, currently in the Sun Lounge

The first case, ‘A is for Alphabets’, looks at how different alphabets and writing systems have been used throughout history. Each of the objects shows different writing systems, including Latin, Arabic, Chinese, cuneiform, and hieroglyphs.

Not all of the writing systems displayed here are technically alphabets! Cuneiform, hieroglyphs and Chinese are not ‘true’ alphabets. These were developed earlier and the symbols represent parts of words, or whole words, as opposed to single sounds. Latin and Arabic are the only ‘true’ alphabets displayed as each symbol represents a single sound.

The case shows that writing has been used for similar purposes in different cultures and time periods.  The objects on display include a Roman curse tablet, a number of Chinese coins, a cuneiform tablet and cone, and a bank note. The artefacts broadly fall into 4 categories; trade, religion, organisation, and food and drink. 

Egyptian shabtis

My favourite objects are the two shabtis. These ancient Egyptian figurines represent agricultural workers who would serve the deceased in the afterlife. The hieroglyphs on the front are typically from the Book of the Dead. The Book was made up of spells to help the deceased navigate the underworld.

Alphabets and writing systems give us a fascinating insight into different civilisations throughout time and across the world. I really enjoyed putting together this display. Pop into the Sun Lounge to see this display and keep an eye out for the next installation; the letter B!

Alex

Collections Volunteer

Hat and Feather Excavations

Hat and Feather excavation photo

The excavations at the Hat and Feather Yard formed part of a series of excavations that spanned the late 1980s and the early 1990s centred on an area of Bath called Walcot, which lies less than a mile to the north east of the centre of Bath along one of the main access roads.


Plan of excavations

The evidence from these excavations showed that people settled in Walcot shortly after the invasion in 43AD but before the Baths and Temple were built by the springs. They founded a settlement that grew rapidly in the first two centuries into a bustling small town, capitalising on the tourist trade provided by the Temple and Baths. The influx of people from the Roman Empire included highly skilled stone masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, potters, and glass makers. They brought with them new skills in stone carving, metal working and glass blowing. Trade and industry flourished and the area around the Hat and Feather yard grew to become a mix of workshops and domestic dwellings that remained in use until the fourth century AD.

Reconstruction drawing of the Walcot area during the Roman period

What the archaeologists had uncovered was a site of great importance, showing the development and growth beyond the city walls during the Roman occupation, and later shrinkage. All the archaeological evidence indicates that after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the once bustling suburbs of Bath had all but disappeared. By the time the Saxons conquered Bath in 577 AD, the town had shrunk back to within the city walls. Extension of the city settlement during the early medieval period was limited to the very south of Walcot Street. The city began to spread again in the 13th century, but it was not until the 19th century that Walcot became a major suburb of Bath once again. At that time the site contained cottages and outbuildings of the Hat and Feather Pub which still stands next to the most recent occupant of the site, a furniture store (T R Hayes).

In next week’s blog Will tells us a little bit more about some of the worked bone from the site.

Did you know?
The name “Walcot” is thought to mean either “place of strangers” or “cottages of the Britons.”


Helen Harman – Collections Assistant

'Behind-the-Scenes' Tour - Digging a Little Deeper....

Birds Eye View of the Roman Baths

Are you interested in the history or archaeology of your local area? Have you ever wondered what secrets might be hidden beneath your feet? Well, here at the Roman Baths Museum, we may just be able to help you, as we hold archaeological material for the whole of the Bath and North East Somerset area. So what does that mean?

East Baths Bulk Archaeology

Whenever a new building development takes place, part of the process is to record any structures or objects that might be hidden below the surface and it’s these objects and records that form a large part of the Roman Baths Museum collection. Maps, plans, reports and objects from various sites and developments such as the Spa are stored here, as are the objects and records from historic work such as the digging of Victoria Gravel Pit and the excavation of Combe Down Villa. We don’t like to keep these things to ourselves and would invite you to come and visit our stores so we can share this information with you.

Roman bath stone burial chest-cist - Combe Down BATRM 1983.12.h.10 circa 200AD

So, if you fancy doing something a little bit different, then why not come along on a Behind-the-Scenes Tour? These Tours offer a glimpse into the stores of the Roman Baths Museum, and a chance to look ‘behind-the-scenes’ at the everyday workings of a busy and vibrant museum. See and handle objects in the reserve collections and find out why and how we care for them.

Forthcoming Tour Dates:
Thursday 26 January 2.30pm
Thursday 23 February 10.30am
Thursday 29 March 2.30pm
Thursday 26 April 10.00am

Numbers are strictly limited so advance booking is necessary on 01225 477779.

All children must be accompanied by an adult and have to be aged ten or over.

Normal admission charges apply. Bath and North East Somerset residents free with a Discovery Card.

For all the latest 'Behind-the-Scenes' Tour dates please follow this link

http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/whats_on/events/events_calendar/tunnel_tours_and_store_tours.aspx

Helen Harman - Collections Assistant

A Crisis in Store?

It was a beautiful sunny Friday in York and over 100 people had gathered for the Federation of Archaeological Managers & Employers (FAME) forum, entitled ‘Trouble in Store: Facing up to the Archaeological Archives Crisis’. The forum had been organised in association with The Society of Museum Archaeologists (SMA).

The location of the event was the splendid and historic 17th Century Merchant Taylor’s Hall.

Merchant Taylors Hall

The first speaker of the day was Roland Smith – Regional Manager for Cotswold Archaeology. He introduced the topic and went into the reasons the forum had been convened. The primary reason being the lack of storage for many archaeological archives, based on a number of varying factors, but the predominant one being storage space. Both archaeological units and museum stores are being overwhelmed by the backlog in number and cost incurred in the up keep/storage of archaeological archives.

The next two speakers, Catherine Hardman – Archaeological Data Service (ADS) and Stuart Campbell – Treasure Trove, brought the issue of digital archiving and the situation in Scotland to the table. David Allen – Keeper of Archaeology for Hampshire County Museums and Chair of the SMA was next up with a history of the problem and how the issues are not new to the archaeological world.

The first speaker after the lunch break was Quinton Carroll – Historic Environment Team Manager for Cambridgeshire County Council and Chair of the Archaeological Archives Forum. He talked about the success of the Archaeological Resource Centre in Cambridgeshire and the role that the Historic Environment Resource (HER) has to play in the management of archaeological archives. He introduced interesting legalities surrounding the planning process that might be used to safeguard the post-excavation process and deposition condition.

Duncan Brown – Head of Archaeological Archives for English Heritage, rounded up the day’s discussions by focusing on the next step forward. He summarised a lot of what had gone before, such as the need to gather qualitative data. He talked about English Heritage’s archaeological regional stores map and the plan to update it and the potential of future projects to evaluate the situation. He was clear in his message that we need to unite and begin to work towards a strategy to combat an infinite problem.

A personal perspective:
Working in a museum, as a museum archaeologist, I see a clear need for evaluation of the current process from pre-planning to post deposition. I would like to see regional working parties created to collect the data needed to start making the case for change and investment based on qualitative data and to raise general awareness of the issues involved. I really hope that this is the beginning of change to the way archaeological material is obtained, researched, displayed and stored, and that we can unite as disciplines to ensure the best provision, access and information is achieved. What are your thoughts?

For more information on the venue:

http://www.merchant-taylors-york.org/the_hall/  

For background and relevant organisations:

http://www.famearchaeology.co.uk/2011/06/fame-forum-2011-speaker-summaries/ http://www.socmusarch.org.uk/
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/archives/
http://www.archaeologists.net/
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

For relevant accompanying information:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/1514132.pdf
http://www.helm.org.uk/server/show/nav.19772


Helen Harman – Collections Assistant

After the trenches are filled…

The Channel Four program Time Team has done wonders to raise the profile of archaeology in Britain. Thanks to Time Team many people now know what an archaeological excavation looks like; indeed some of us may have taken part in an excavation or two!

Excavation of the Sacred Spring 1979

But how many of us know what happens next? What happens after the trenches have been backfilled? How does the archaeology end up in a museum?

Well, it’s rather a long process between excavation and museum storage, excavation is merely the start of a process that often takes years to complete. Once the excavation stage is completed the artefacts have to be cleaned, conserved, analyzed, reported on, published and finally deposited into a museum.

The cleaning, conservation and analysis work of artefacts forms part of what is commonly called post excavation. During post excavation all the significant material is sent to specialists, whose jobs are to look at everything and write reports on what they find. This ranges from working out what an artefact is exactly, how old it is, where it came from and how it was used.

A mix of bone and stone objects

After the specialists have written their reports, and everything that is known about the archaeological site has been written down, all the information is brought together to form one final report. It’s very important that this final report is then published, but why is publishing it so important?

Excavation is a destructive process; once it’s been done you can’t press an undo button and put everything back! So it’s extremely important to publish your findings, even if you didn’t find anything, that way others can learn from it! If you don’t let people know what you found what’s the point of doing the excavation?

Once all the finds have been processed and a final report created the archive (artefacts and records) can be deposited into a museum for permanent storage. Why does everything go to a museum? Well if everything is in a museum, it makes it a lot easier for interested people to find it so they can study it.

So what does this mean for the Roman Baths Museum? Well the Baths happens to be the English Heritage approved repository for archaeological archives in Bath and North East Somerset; this means any archaeological work undertaken in the county will probably end up here.

East Bath Store

So if you are interested, why don’t you come on a tour of our storerooms and see all the archaeology that’s just waiting to be looked at?



Charlotte A

It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.

Anyone remember that episode of the Simpsons where Lisa and Marge travel to the beach hoping to wash animals but end up cleaning rocks? That’s not as boring as they made it out to be. Cleaning finds is rather like how Forest Gump described life; “like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”.

I’ve only been tasked with cleaning finds twice during my time here. The first time was mainly focused on bricks. They may’ve been all the same in the end but I did like the thought of uncovering a standout among a pile of similarities; even though the best I could find in the end was two brick remains sealed together with mortar.

Worked stone



Naturally, based on first impressions, I assumed I was just going to uncover the same thing when I was asked to wash finds discovered from excavations in the East Baths. But what do I discover in the end when I’m done? Bricks, yes; but far more than that: oysters, animal bones, stonework, pottery pieces, glass, and the occasional metal tool. I never thought for a minute these were the things I would uncover after washing off all that dirt; I honestly haven’t seen this many bones since the last time I made short work of my last KFC takeaway.

A mix of bone and stone

And after the cleaning’s done, the next fun part is identifying which period the finds may’ve come from, what animals the bones belong to, and what could the stoneworks have originally been a part of. Even when you’ve gotten rid of that last patch of dirt, you’re still trying to work out what exactly is it you’ve found.

Oyster shells and glass

These discoveries may not be gold or gems, but let’s not forget Indiana Jones: the Last Crusade where the Holy Grail was not one of the many golden, jewel encrusted goblets to choose from, but an aged artefact, probably no different that what we’ve had on display. Sometimes even the smallest and insignificant thing based on first glance can turn out to be a unique discovery.

James

Pottery Fragments Everywhere and Sometimes a Complete Bottle or Two

I’ve been spending a lot of time here at the Roman Baths down in the study room in the storage areas working on the collection material from No 4 The Circus. The material comes from an archaeological excavation that took place in the back garden at No 4 in 1986 that was done by the Bath Archaeological Trust.

I have been cataloguing and organising all the material and let me tell you, at times it felt like I was drowning in pottery fragments. I’ve experience this feeling before while working as an archaeologist, but it is always overwhelming; even more so when you have to sort and identify it.

Among the many pieces of broken pottery there were a few special finds. Some of them were pottery pieces that could be pieced together to create a more complete vessel, others were even more exciting. Among the many broken bits were two complete stoneware bottles. (Well, they have a few small chips, but for material from an archaeological dig that is pretty good!)

Two Small Stoneware Bottles from 4 Circus

Every year for Heritage Open Days No 4 the Circus is opened up to visitors. This year Joanna and I were in charge of events. The building is used throughout the year for Bath College’s fashion program. Although the inside has all the requirements for modern fashion students the building still maintains most of its original features.

Veiw of back door to 4 Circus from the back garden.

And although our event for Heritage Open Days has now long passed, I hope you will come and visit next year.

Did you visit No 4  The Circus this year or have you visited in the past? What did you think?


Katrina Elizabeth

Hot off the press…….

It’s September 2009 and I have been dealing with transfer of title for an archaeological site called the Hat and Feather, the dig took place in the early 1990’s behind a shop along London Street in Bath. I meet Mr Hayes the owner of the archive and the shop; he is a lovely gentleman who is genuinely interested in the finds from the dig and the archaeology that took place. He signs over the finds without question in the knowledge that they are going to a good home. All he asks in return is that we create a display of some of the material to go in his shop.



Archaeologist at work on site 1991



So I set to work pulling together all the local history and archaeological research on the site and, with Penny our Friday volunteer’s help, it is soon done. Katie our Canadian volunteer and Edina from Hungary help me choose the objects, photograph them and fill out the masses of documentation required. I set to work pulling together images and text whilst researching the objects and pretty soon I have two boxes of objects and the design for two display boards. Mr Hayes is pleased with the objects, ideas and designs and sets about finding a special display case.

Work in progress September 2010

Leap forward to the end of September 2010 and the display has been designed, installed and is now ready to view and it looks fab! (Even if I do say so myself) So if you have an interest in Roman Bath or just like looking at pretty things why not pop along to T.R. Hayes 15-18 London Street and take a look - the purchase of furniture is not compulsory!

Helen Harman - Collections Assistant - Roman Baths signing out..........
If you want to read a little bit more about the background of this project just follow the link below
://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/Roman-treasures-display-furniture-store/article-2702603-detail/article.html

A Token of Affection for Bath

Joanna and I (mostly Joanna) have been working on a display for down in the Pump Room’s Sun Lounge, which is now on display. The display features Georgian tokens that were minted in Bath and have images of local architecture.

Working on this project has really given me a greater appreciation for Bath and allowed me to explore the diverse nature of the local architecture which may, at times, seems so uniform and homogeneous. This project has exposed me to Bath’s more recent history and the affect it has had in building survival and use. Being from Canada it is quite shocking and intriguing to see images of local buildings that were hit during the Blitz, particularly ones that have since been restored.

Archive Photo of Bath

I’m hoping to get the chance to go and visit the buildings that appear on our tokens in person, or those that have survived anyways. I think it will be nice to take some pictures of them as they stand now, or perhaps what stands in their place.

As Joanna has already shown you some sneak peaks of the display I can't do that, but I can show you some interesting historic images of architecture in Bath that we ran across while searching the digital image archives for pictures for the display. I hope you enjoy.

Archive Photo of Historic View of Bath

Are there any particular buildings in Bath that you would be interested in seeing historic images of? Which buildings are your favourites?

 
Katrina Elizabeth

Copper Credit

This display can be assembled by even the newest museum staff members, including students on placements and internships.

Ingredients:

19 Georgian tokens
7 Georgian pence
1 Georgian £1 bank note
1 Georgian map of Bath courtesy of the Record Office
3 images of Georgian buildings courtesy of the Victoria Art Gallery
1 drawing of token by Artist in Residence, James
1 replica pocket
2 magnifying glasses
1 writing tool
1 writing tablet
1 stamp
1 brooch
1 ring
1 button hook
1 pin cushion
1 thimble
1 ball of string in a red container
7 thread winders
1 spool of thread
80 small nails
silica gel

A pocket overfollowing with many of the 'ingredients'.

1. Coat window glass with UV film, spread silica gel in base compartment and line case with non-reactive fabric.
2. Research Georgian tokens for 1- 1 1/2 weeks
3. Condense research into labels. Set excess information aside.
4. Put text, map, images, drawing by Resident Artist*, into computer and mix until aesthetically appealing.
5. Send graphics mixture to printers, wait 3-5 business days and transfer to display case.
6. Archive excess information for future projects.
7. Add tokens, pence, bank note, pocket and other remaining ingredients to display case. Mix until aesthetically appealing while remaining up to conservation standards.
8. Enjoy

Serves over 800,000 people per year.

Completed Display

*Our Resident Artist, among many other important things, is James, who you will be meeting soon.


Joanna

My Time Team Discovery

I was digging through the archive records and stumbled upon an entry for the ‘Time Team Dig archives and finds,’ from 2002. The entry contains a description which reads, ‘Dig to find ‘missing’ parts of Fosse Way at St Andrews Church, Julian Road and Crescent lawns.’

The Time Team episode associated with this archive entry is entitled ‘Death in a Crescent’ and according to the Time Team website on Channel 4¹ it aired on 16th February 2003. The material from the dig was accessioned on 3rd September 2002 which shows you how far in advance they film these programs to have good weather and allowing the television making process to do its work before the episodes make it to TV screens.

Time Team describes their excavations as taking place at the Royal Crescent in Bath, with a Roman cemetery ‘round the back' of the Crescent and the Fosse Way ‘at the front’¹ in the lawns of the Royal Victoria Park.² The Time Team Diggers were in search of archaeological evidence relating to parch marks in the Royal Victoria Park and for archaeology associated with the Victorian discovery of a Roman sarcophagus behind the Royal Crescent.¹ Parch marks are areas of grass where the growth is effected by the presence of buried archaeology. As per usual, things didn’t go exactly as planned on Time Team and things weren’t exactly where they expected them to be.²

The episode can still be seen on Channel 4 On Demand (4oD)²

I took the opportunity to look through the material archives and in the object stores and found the boxes and material from the Time Team dig.

The Paper Archive Record Books

There are always neat things to be discovered while searching through the archives. I bet you didn’t know that the Roman Baths are associated with most archaeological activity in the area and are the repository for artefacts from and materials relating to archaeological excavations in the local area. The stores and archives here are full of fascinating material and much of it is not Roman or associated with the Baths. Outside of the Roman Period I think my favourite time period is either the Anglo-Saxon or Georgian Period. I just can’t decide. What is your favourite period in England outside of the Roman Period?


¹http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/2003_bath.html
²http://www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team/episode-guide/series-10/episode-7


Katrina Elizabeth