Let's 'Brooch' the Subject!

Everyone likes a bit of sparkle and the Romans were no exception! This week I had my Jewellery Handling table at the Roman Baths. I displayed some pieces from the Roman Baths collection and replicas along side them to show what the jewellery would have looked like originally. If you came along, I hope you liked it!

I also included a few images of the Fayum death portraits (Fayum is an area in Egypt!). These are likenesses of the deceased when they were young, that were painted onto the linen wrappings of mummies and date back to the period when Romans occupied Egypt.

My favourite Fayum death portrait

Here’s my favourite one of the death portraits because she’s modelling the fashionable mono-brow of the time, where ladies actually filled in their eyebrows to create a mono-brow for the sake of beauty. How times change!

The subjects of the Fayum death portraits, all seem to be dripping in gold. However, Jewellery wasn’t just for the mega rich. Not only gold and silver were used but also bronze, iron, bone, glass (for beads), enamel and much more! 

Snake bangle on display at The Roman Baths

Snakes were a very popular image to have on jewellery and were worn as arm bands, bracelets, necklaces and rings. It was only when Christianity came in when snakes were connected with evil (in the Bible when the devil tempted Eve, in the form of a snake, in the garden of Eden). Before then snakes were thought highly of in the Roman Empire, being thought have healing powers. Snakes were also associated with several gods and goddesses in the Roman Religion, with some deities even depicted in snake form.

Me choosing pieces from The Roman Baths collection

Looking at the pieces I picked from the collection, the replicas and the fayum death portraits it really shows that jewellery really hasn't changed that much! If you look for it, Roman-style jewellery can be found everywhere on the high street. Shopping time!
 

Look out for the next handling table! It's free and there's no need to book, not to mention it's an opportunity to see objects from The Roman Baths collection that aren't normally displayed to the public! See you there!
Emma

Ongoing Conservation

One of the more unique parts of my role at the Roman Baths involves the conservation of the monument. As you go around areas of the monument you will see the natural wear and tear of a site such as ours, nearly 2000 years old, and still being walked on by 100, 000s of people a year.

In order to preserve the monument we carry out a programme of work to stabilise of the monument that may be more fragile than others.

Around the walls of the Great Bath, you will see substantial areas of surviving Roman wall plaster; what you may not have noticed is that below this plaster (and sometimes about it), there is often a line of mortar, which differs slightly in colour and make up.

Spraying newly mortared wall to ensure it sets

 This line of mortar is known as sacrificial mortar. We apply it next to the Roman plaster to provide a barrier for the Roman remains, taking moisture away from it and supporting and preserving the Roman layers, more substantially than if we were to leave it unprotected against the elements.

We use the same types of ingredients for our mortar as the Romans would have done; lime, brick and sand, but the composition we use differs. If you look closely at the surviving plaster, you will see mortars with quite large chips of brick in, this tends to indicate that it is original Roman mortar (we use smaller brick chips in our modern mixes). We mix our modern mortars, to look similar to the Roman, but distinct enough that it can be seen where, the original lies and where the sacrificial mortar has been added.

Modern mortar below existing Roman plaster

Last month, I was down by the Great Bath, replacing some of the sacrificial mortar which had fallen away. The mix I used complements the Roman mortar nicely, not being too different so as to stand out, but still making it easy to spot where the Roman mortar ends, and my additions begin.

Verity

Winter Work at the Baths

After the busy Summer and Autumn months, the winter period is when we take the opportunity, as the site is quieter, to do maintenance and development work.

Visitors to the Roman Baths may have noticed that this year, that work seems particularly extensive. Just this week alone has seen scaffolding go up round the exterior of the Pump Room and across the Sacred Spring, in advance of work being done to repair the roof of the Pump Room, and to clean its exterior, and later in the month we’ll see scaffolding going up in the Great Bath for further improvements to the site.

Scaffolding erected ahead of repairs to Pump Room roof

 

However, the most extensive work is that going on behind the hoarding in the museum area…

The temple precinct area is currently closed to visitors as we are undergoing major development work to install a new walkway. This involves a substantial amount of work by contractors, including the protection of the monument before work began.

Temple Precinct protected against dust and damage during development work

Changes to the modern elements of the precinct, is uncovering some interesting features, including Georgian and Victorian elements of the building that had previously been covered up by false walls.

Victorian tiles and doorway in Temple precinct

The conservation of the site is an on-going feature of life at the Roman Baths, and we are constantly checking the environment on the site, and any changes to it. One event we are currently monitoring is the recent rise in water levels at the Roman Baths (and across the whole region!). Though they have now dropped down to normal levels, Christmas Eve saw us presented with some of the highest water levels on site staff could remember!

Water levels reached a significant height on Christmas Eve!

Keep an eye out for my next blog, about the more common conservation work we carry out on site…

Verity

If you liked it, then you should have put a posy ring on it!

This week’s blog is about an amazing artefact that I had to put on the museum's database. It’s a gold Posy ring! I’ll explain more in a second but first, just look how pretty it is! 

Posy rings are gold bands with an inscription on the inside. Our posy ring’s inscription says “A friends gift”… well actually ‘friends’ has been spelt ‘frends’ and there’s a little tear in the band over the ‘f’ of ‘gift’ so (if we’re going to be literal!) it says “A frends gif”.  

Close-up of the inside inscription

Our ring was found in a field in Keynsham, by a metal decectorist! I wonder why it was there? We can only speculate! It just shows you what treasures you can find in the most random places. The size of the ring isn't represented well in the photo on. It's actually very tiny! I doubt even my little finger could accommodate it! Possibly it was meant for a child!

‘Posy’ comes from the old French word ‘poséy', meaning a form of poetry. Our little ring isn't poetic, but some posy rings were just a simple statement. One of my favourite, more poetic, posy rings (that I came across on the British Museum website) has the inscription “many are the stars I see but in my eye no star like thee” how lovely is that?! Link here.

Posy rings weren't just for betrothals and love tokens but also exchanged in friendship and sometimes given out in remembrance of a death. Unfortunately, our ring's inscription means that it was probably a gift of friendship, which undoes all of the romantic back stories that another collections team member and I were making up. Oh well!

Not the Disney-style back story I'd hoped for!

The peak of their popularity was from the 15^th-17^th century. Our ring has been dated to the 1600s! It’s amazing that I’m holding something so familiar, as a gold ring, in my hand that’s around 400 years old!!

Emma

Jedward!

A few of months ago I had a really unusual and exciting request. Would I be happy to appear on the Jedward big adventures show?? My answer was a cautious yes.

I was given the task of giving John and Edward their guided tour of the Roman Baths.  They would then do a tour for a group of school children.

The first time I saw John and Edward was by the balcony overlooking the Sacred Spring. They strutted in, hair spiked up wearing studded jackets, skinny jeans and beautiful hand decorated converse trainers. The boys are exactly how you imagine them. Full of life with unlimited energy (exhausting!!).  We launched into filming almost straight away so not much time to chat. I was nervous-this was my first television appearance. However, every time the director shouted 'cut,' John and Edward made funny little jokes which started to make me laugh. At one point John (or was it Edward?) reached forward towards my face...ahhh what was he going to do?? "You have a hair on your face, it will show on camera" and he swept the hair away. "Oh, thanks” I said, a bit embarrassed! 

Filming on the terrace overlooking the great bath was next along with Stephen, the museum curator. Unfortunately every time he seemed to speak a lorry kept reversing, beeping as it went.  Having to say the same thing over and over again in a serious voice is quite difficult especially when you have John or Edward pulling faces at you! My favourite part was when the camera panned out across the great bath and we had to pretend to be having a chat and a laugh.

I am now also good at voice overs for short animations. I have it down to 46 seconds!! That includes 10 seconds for breathing!

Jedward went on to do filming at the Assembly Rooms. As they left the building I breathed a sigh of relief, I was exhausted!

Jedward’s visit to the Roman Baths will be on BBC 1 tonight at 4:30pm.

My Placement at The Roman Baths Part 2

The last week of my placement, I visited museums around Bath. Through these experiences, I had a better understanding of how museums are managed in UK. And the top three illuminating things I learned at the Roman Baths are that their priorities are visitors’ interests, learning projects, and the interpretation of the museum:

First of all, the museum focuses a lot on the public. The principle here is the museum belongs to everybody. At the Baths there is a meeting every Monday morning to discuss details of the museum for the past week and coming week. It is said that these details are the most important thing to ensure a better experience for visitors. The managers read feedback from visitors and resolve any problems immediately. This is what we would like to change in China. We used to impose our interests on the public, giving them exhibitions according to our interests. Now we try to put our focus on people rather than objects. 

A Major Davis Tour at the Roman Baths

Second, the learning activities are fantastic. They provide various workshops for children from under 5 to adults. People enjoy getting involved in the museum and the museum gives them a better life. They also provide workshops for disabled people and for people who have lost their jobs, helping them to get back into society. This inspired me to think what we should do in our museum, what we can provide to the public. Without consideration of audiences, the vitality of a museum could be lost.

Third and the most significant thing I learned here, is how to interpret the museum. They use a range of interpretation techniques, such as panels (text and graphics); audio guides; human guides; reconstructions; interactives; scale models and so on. These are aimed to complement each other and provide access to the visitors. This is what we need to introduce all aspects of museums to more people.

The Roman Baths Children's interpretation manual.

It is so important for a museum to have its own personality and to be accessible for everybody. Although there is a different situation and policy in China, we could not just apply the same or similar management to our museum, but it is significant to see it in different ways. It brings inspirations and lights my mind, we could have some positive social, cultural, educational and economic changes according to the reality of Chinese museum.

At last, I must express my thanks to everybody I met here. Everyone is so kind and generous to share, giving me very good memories of the three weeks. Thanks to you all and I will miss this fabulous autumn in Bath.

 Wang Pu

三周的时间说长不长，说短不短，我深切的体会到当地博物馆以着无以伦比的热情为人们服务。以下三点即是这次实习工作最大的收获：首先，这里的博物馆秉持观众的兴趣高于一切的理念并真正的实践了这个理念。咱们国内的博物馆正恰巧处于这样的一个变革期，我真真切切感受到在这里博物馆以人为本的方方面面，这对于保持一个博物馆的活力是至关重要的。其次我被各种各样的教育活动所吸引，我们一直在寻求如何做好博物馆的教育工作，这些活动给了我非常大的启发。最后也是最重要的一点，这里的博物馆讲解做得太棒了。对于一个藏品并不是那么丰富，面积并不是那么大的博物馆来说，他们采用了若干种方法来让观众了解博物馆。场景复原、数码影片、角色扮演、语音讲解、人工讲解、库房导览、发掘者导览、地下探索导览等等，每一种都做得非常细致，目的在于为观众提供更好的服务。以角色扮演来说，他们聘请了当地剧院资深的演员，由博物馆的考古学家来撰写台词和背景知识，每一个人的扮演都有着严格的要求和脚本。这让人思考在咱们中国，我们仅提供了单一的讲解，这又如何吸引到更多的观众呢。

三周的时间里，我就像一块海绵，绵绵不断的吸取着知识。中国博物馆和英国博物馆的体制、政策不同，我们不能也不可能照搬这样一套工作的方式，但重要是能够因此而得到启发，探索出自己的发展方式。

再过几日，我就要踏上回国的旅途，我感谢这里遇见的每一个人都和善可亲，都慷慨热情的与我分享博物馆的知识，这将成为2013年秋天最美好的回忆。