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OBJECT OF THE YEAR!
Finally, after 11 months, 34 objects and 12 winners, the ultimate competition you've all been waiting for has arrived. It's time for...
"It's such a well-preserved perfect object, which is pretty rare, considering that it is made from leather. It's never been worn, which leads to questions about why it was made in the first place. It might have been for a very small baby (but why make shoes for a baby of such a young age it wouldn't be able to walk anyway?) or it might have had some kind of ritual symbolism"
This was followed in February, by fellow curator, Jackie Keily's selection, a Roman decorated mount from Regis House, King William Street (KWS94): It was probably originally part of a vessel or a piece of furniture and shows a reclining lion with its front paws on a male human head. Jackie points out "The overall appearance is of a slightly resigned, smiling face with a distinctly Celtic look to it - it could be part of the Romano-Celtic cult of the human head, possibly a symbol of power over death. However, the lion in the present example would appear to be rather tame and therefore may not necessarily be associated with death but rather, perhaps, with conquest and the vanquishing of a weaker foe."
March's competition saw the first win for an object nominated by a LAARC member of staff, digital records officer, Joanna Wylie:
This is a Maori patu onewa, a specific type of hand weapon, found during a 1978 trial excavation at Hendre Road (HEN78), in a 19th century dump of rubble and clay. This example (date unknown) was made from metagreywacke, a dark grey stone, which may have been sourced from the Taringatura series from the South Island of New Zealand. A typical Patu onewa, it has a spatulate blade that tapers at the lateral margins and distal end, a tang (grip) at the proximal end & a smooth polished finish. The grip has a grooved knob and there is a hole in the centre, through which a wrist strap would have been fastened using dog skin or a strap of flax.
It is not known how this patu onewa ended up in a 19th century archaeological context in central London, but patu were popular items for collectors, with the first examples being brought back to Europe from the Pacific by Captain Cook and his crew in the 1770s. I chose this as it has special significance to me as a New Zealander working in the LAARC. It is a finely crafted artefact which I was very surprised to be shown soon after I arrived. I started to wonder - who had originally owned it and how did it arrive in England? Also, why was such a beautiful object discarded? The most likely scenario is that it broke, and thereafter lost value in the eyes of its new owner."
And keeping with the same pattern as the first two months, a fellow member of the LAARC records team, archivist Cath Maloney, nominated April's winner:
This was found during Tower Hill excavations (TOL79) in the cellar backfill of the south tower of the postern gate, a bone object with a cute little face. Likely to be early 16th century, it is possibly a gaming piece or dress ornament or an elaborate tuning peg. Personally, I like to think it's a tuning peg and that his nose was rubbed every time the instrument was tuned - hence it's disappeared!
May brought about the first and only victory for an object nominated by a LAARC volunteer; Guy Taylor's glass scyphus from Lime Street (IME83):
" Working on material in the LAARC is, in Forrest Gump's words, "...like opening a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get.", but a piece of this quality is really unusual. These fragments are from a late 1st Century cup called a Scyphus. Originally, it would have had two handles and been a straight edged bowl. The vessel is extremely high quality roman colourless glass which would have been carved out of a blown blank. Surviving Roman glass is fairly uncommon at the best of times and this is one of less than 15 known examples to have been found in London. It must have a prized possession of its original owner. This Roman cup was my 'Forrest Gump Moment' of last year. and I hope you will agree that it is worth voting for due to it high quality, delicate detail and rarity."
And in June, success went back to LAARC staff, as archaeological collections officer, Adam Corsini's object was voted winner:
I’ve gone for this snake skeleton which I came across a few years ago when it was returned from conservation. It comes from the site of 1 Poultry (ONE94)and was found amongst a load of rubbish in a medieval pit.
I thought it was fab the way the vertebrae connect and the care with which it was conserved. I haven't come across many snakes in the archive (though did once find one in a trench I was working in in Rome), and it sure beats the thousands of pig, cattle, sheep and cow bones we see on a regular basis.
July was the first of our specials and it was another win for the curators as Jon Cotton's choice was voted the best of the lucky losers:
"Had you been walking down Avenue Gardens (AGA81) in Acton one Wednesday morning in the middle of the wet May of 1981 you would have found me nursing a sore leg (legacy of a rash challenge on astroturf at the Crystal Palace Sports Centre the night before) and photographing the little beauty whose discovery had just taken us all by surprise (we were looking for a Bronze Age cemetery). So go on then, make a middle-aged man very happy – vote for my samian bowl and relive a dream of 1981 … post-Punk, pre-marriage, pre-kids … half a lifetime ago!"
After which, in a special August competition to celebrate his retirement, you chose this as John Clark's most memorable object:
"In 1982, excavations by Ian Blair in Foster Lane (OST82), close to Goldsmiths Hall, uncovered, in the bottom of a cess-pit dated to around 1300, a mass of fragments of beautifully thin and transparent glass beakers, decorated in enamel colours with lettering, human figures and animals. I first saw these in our Conservation Department, where we all admired the brightness and clarity of the colours. I think it was Kate Starling who drew attention to a published black-and-white illustration of a complete glass vessel in the British Museum, the ‘Aldrevandini beaker’, that was clearly very similar; Kate went on to do a marvellous job of restoring the fragments. They turned out to comprise parts of at least eight beakers, two of them with the maker’s name on – ‘master Bartholomew’, almost certainly the ‘Bartholomew of Zara’ who was working as a painter of glasses in Venice between 1290 and 1325. Glass vessels with this sort of decoration were made in Venice for only a short time, and, though they’re very rare, examples (mostly fragments) have now been found distributed widely throughout Europe. But the Foster Lane group is still the largest group ever found, and the discovery put the Museum of London firmly on the map among glass historians. It also got me a couple of trips abroad – to an exhibition in Bonn and a conference in Basel – and a quite undeserved reputation as an expert on glass!"
September saw a third John see his object win, as ex archive manager John Shepherd's glass sherd from Great St Thomas Apostle, (GTA89) won the former staff special:
"The object I've selected is not staggeringly amazing but very interesting. It is a fragment of a glass case (square) bottle and dates to the early seventeenth century, 1642 to be precise. Not very interesting you might say, but the owner (one Samuell Davis - the original Sammy Davis jnr) had scratched his name and a date onto it. I have no idea who he was - no one has ever tried to find out - but that is the only fragment of glass in the entire archaeological collection for which we know the name of the owner - and dated too."
And it was back to normal format in October, when you voted LAARC Curator Steve Tucker's Turkish Teabowl as winner:
"This Kutahya ware tea bowl, of Turkish origin and of early 18th century date, came from the houses which once fronted Narrow Street, Limehouse, London E14 (NHU99). These properties were once owned by privateers and marine business men that traded with countries around the Mediterranean and as far as Iran to China.
It was one of several finds selected for an exhibition that was intended to take place at the Museum of London Docklands, (and may yet do so), but in the meantime, it would be nice to see it win this competition"
And last month, the nominations came from 7 different departments within the museum, and the first out of two winners was Angela Wardle's brooch:
"This little copper-alloy brooch, superbly preserved in the muddy deposits close to the Walbrook stream at Number One Poultry, (ONE94) brings back memories of one of the most exciting Museum of London projects in recent years- the recreation of a Roman street in the centre of the town for the High Street Londinium project. The boat, its prow in the shape of a bird executed in a distinctly Celtic style, carries three men, perhaps warriors, with their shields hanging over the side. The brooch is far too small to be functional and it may be purely decorative, or, more intriguingly it might have symbolic or cult significance, perhaps the badge of a religious society. It was made on the continent and the only other examples come from what is now Germany and Switzerland - one can only speculate about its owner in cosmopolitan early Roman London."
and the second favourite was Visitor Host Leigh's Mummified Cat:
"Seeing as an awful lot of visitors assume we are the British Museum and ask us “where the mummies are”, I think this is the next best thing we can offer them.
This mummified cat was found during standard building recording at the Hoop & Grapes Public House on Aldgate High Street in 1980 (HAG80). On occasions cats like this one are found stuck up chimney breasts or sealed behind walls for good luck and to ward off evil spirits.
The cat was definitely one of the most popular objects the hosts have been shown, however, I’m not sure I’d like to see my own cat walled up for good luck"
And that's that!
12 excellent LAARC artefacts that have been chosen by you as winners over the past year are now needing your vote for one last time to crown them...
A huge thanks to everyone who has voted each month and another huge thanks to all those who nominated an object this year; Fiz, Glynn, Meriel, Graham, Roy, Jackie, Jenny, Chris, Sybil, Pamla, Joanna, Pam, Cath, Dan, Jon, Guy, Hazel, Jenny, John, John, Hedley, Karen, Francis, Andy, Steve, Angela, Alex, Helen, Tim, Leigh, Kate and Chris.
Thank you all for keeping archaeology entertaining as well as informative. You can keep track of the museum's choice of object of the month each month (funnily enough) by visiting the excellent blog pages:
Museum of London Blog Pages
Oh. I suppose it helps if you have the link to vote!
Vote for LAARC OBJECT OF THE YEAR 2009 by clicking here.
Voting closes at Noon on Wednesday 16th December and the winner revealed at the LAARC Volunteer Christmas Party. (announced here on the 17th)
Bye folks.
LAARC OBJECT OF THE YEAR!
Way back in January our first competition was won by Museum of London curator, Meriel Jeater's nominated Roman Shoe from Billingsgate (BIG82): The shoe is one of the smallest we have in our archaeological collection and there is some debate over who (or what) it was made for. The most striking detail of it is the swastika, which was a symbol of good luck. Meriel said she chose this shoe because "It's such a well-preserved perfect object, which is pretty rare, considering that it is made from leather. It's never been worn, which leads to questions about why it was made in the first place. It might have been for a very small baby (but why make shoes for a baby of such a young age it wouldn't be able to walk anyway?) or it might have had some kind of ritual symbolism"
This was followed in February, by fellow curator, Jackie Keily's selection, a Roman decorated mount from Regis House, King William Street (KWS94): It was probably originally part of a vessel or a piece of furniture and shows a reclining lion with its front paws on a male human head. Jackie points out "The overall appearance is of a slightly resigned, smiling face with a distinctly Celtic look to it - it could be part of the Romano-Celtic cult of the human head, possibly a symbol of power over death. However, the lion in the present example would appear to be rather tame and therefore may not necessarily be associated with death but rather, perhaps, with conquest and the vanquishing of a weaker foe."
March's competition saw the first win for an object nominated by a LAARC member of staff, digital records officer, Joanna Wylie:
This is a Maori patu onewa, a specific type of hand weapon, found during a 1978 trial excavation at Hendre Road (HEN78), in a 19th century dump of rubble and clay. This example (date unknown) was made from metagreywacke, a dark grey stone, which may have been sourced from the Taringatura series from the South Island of New Zealand. A typical Patu onewa, it has a spatulate blade that tapers at the lateral margins and distal end, a tang (grip) at the proximal end & a smooth polished finish. The grip has a grooved knob and there is a hole in the centre, through which a wrist strap would have been fastened using dog skin or a strap of flax.
It is not known how this patu onewa ended up in a 19th century archaeological context in central London, but patu were popular items for collectors, with the first examples being brought back to Europe from the Pacific by Captain Cook and his crew in the 1770s. I chose this as it has special significance to me as a New Zealander working in the LAARC. It is a finely crafted artefact which I was very surprised to be shown soon after I arrived. I started to wonder - who had originally owned it and how did it arrive in England? Also, why was such a beautiful object discarded? The most likely scenario is that it broke, and thereafter lost value in the eyes of its new owner."
And keeping with the same pattern as the first two months, a fellow member of the LAARC records team, archivist Cath Maloney, nominated April's winner:
This was found during Tower Hill excavations (TOL79) in the cellar backfill of the south tower of the postern gate, a bone object with a cute little face. Likely to be early 16th century, it is possibly a gaming piece or dress ornament or an elaborate tuning peg. Personally, I like to think it's a tuning peg and that his nose was rubbed every time the instrument was tuned - hence it's disappeared!
May brought about the first and only victory for an object nominated by a LAARC volunteer; Guy Taylor's glass scyphus from Lime Street (IME83):
" Working on material in the LAARC is, in Forrest Gump's words, "...like opening a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get.", but a piece of this quality is really unusual. These fragments are from a late 1st Century cup called a Scyphus. Originally, it would have had two handles and been a straight edged bowl. The vessel is extremely high quality roman colourless glass which would have been carved out of a blown blank. Surviving Roman glass is fairly uncommon at the best of times and this is one of less than 15 known examples to have been found in London. It must have a prized possession of its original owner. This Roman cup was my 'Forrest Gump Moment' of last year. and I hope you will agree that it is worth voting for due to it high quality, delicate detail and rarity."
And in June, success went back to LAARC staff, as archaeological collections officer, Adam Corsini's object was voted winner:
I’ve gone for this snake skeleton which I came across a few years ago when it was returned from conservation. It comes from the site of 1 Poultry (ONE94)and was found amongst a load of rubbish in a medieval pit.
I thought it was fab the way the vertebrae connect and the care with which it was conserved. I haven't come across many snakes in the archive (though did once find one in a trench I was working in in Rome), and it sure beats the thousands of pig, cattle, sheep and cow bones we see on a regular basis.
July was the first of our specials and it was another win for the curators as Jon Cotton's choice was voted the best of the lucky losers:
"Had you been walking down Avenue Gardens (AGA81) in Acton one Wednesday morning in the middle of the wet May of 1981 you would have found me nursing a sore leg (legacy of a rash challenge on astroturf at the Crystal Palace Sports Centre the night before) and photographing the little beauty whose discovery had just taken us all by surprise (we were looking for a Bronze Age cemetery). So go on then, make a middle-aged man very happy – vote for my samian bowl and relive a dream of 1981 … post-Punk, pre-marriage, pre-kids … half a lifetime ago!"
After which, in a special August competition to celebrate his retirement, you chose this as John Clark's most memorable object:
"In 1982, excavations by Ian Blair in Foster Lane (OST82), close to Goldsmiths Hall, uncovered, in the bottom of a cess-pit dated to around 1300, a mass of fragments of beautifully thin and transparent glass beakers, decorated in enamel colours with lettering, human figures and animals. I first saw these in our Conservation Department, where we all admired the brightness and clarity of the colours. I think it was Kate Starling who drew attention to a published black-and-white illustration of a complete glass vessel in the British Museum, the ‘Aldrevandini beaker’, that was clearly very similar; Kate went on to do a marvellous job of restoring the fragments. They turned out to comprise parts of at least eight beakers, two of them with the maker’s name on – ‘master Bartholomew’, almost certainly the ‘Bartholomew of Zara’ who was working as a painter of glasses in Venice between 1290 and 1325. Glass vessels with this sort of decoration were made in Venice for only a short time, and, though they’re very rare, examples (mostly fragments) have now been found distributed widely throughout Europe. But the Foster Lane group is still the largest group ever found, and the discovery put the Museum of London firmly on the map among glass historians. It also got me a couple of trips abroad – to an exhibition in Bonn and a conference in Basel – and a quite undeserved reputation as an expert on glass!"
September saw a third John see his object win, as ex archive manager John Shepherd's glass sherd from Great St Thomas Apostle, (GTA89) won the former staff special:
"The object I've selected is not staggeringly amazing but very interesting. It is a fragment of a glass case (square) bottle and dates to the early seventeenth century, 1642 to be precise. Not very interesting you might say, but the owner (one Samuell Davis - the original Sammy Davis jnr) had scratched his name and a date onto it. I have no idea who he was - no one has ever tried to find out - but that is the only fragment of glass in the entire archaeological collection for which we know the name of the owner - and dated too."
And it was back to normal format in October, when you voted LAARC Curator Steve Tucker's Turkish Teabowl as winner:
"This Kutahya ware tea bowl, of Turkish origin and of early 18th century date, came from the houses which once fronted Narrow Street, Limehouse, London E14 (NHU99). These properties were once owned by privateers and marine business men that traded with countries around the Mediterranean and as far as Iran to China.
It was one of several finds selected for an exhibition that was intended to take place at the Museum of London Docklands, (and may yet do so), but in the meantime, it would be nice to see it win this competition"
And last month, the nominations came from 7 different departments within the museum, and the first out of two winners was Angela Wardle's brooch:
"This little copper-alloy brooch, superbly preserved in the muddy deposits close to the Walbrook stream at Number One Poultry, (ONE94) brings back memories of one of the most exciting Museum of London projects in recent years- the recreation of a Roman street in the centre of the town for the High Street Londinium project. The boat, its prow in the shape of a bird executed in a distinctly Celtic style, carries three men, perhaps warriors, with their shields hanging over the side. The brooch is far too small to be functional and it may be purely decorative, or, more intriguingly it might have symbolic or cult significance, perhaps the badge of a religious society. It was made on the continent and the only other examples come from what is now Germany and Switzerland - one can only speculate about its owner in cosmopolitan early Roman London."
and the second favourite was Visitor Host Leigh's Mummified Cat:
"Seeing as an awful lot of visitors assume we are the British Museum and ask us “where the mummies are”, I think this is the next best thing we can offer them.
This mummified cat was found during standard building recording at the Hoop & Grapes Public House on Aldgate High Street in 1980 (HAG80). On occasions cats like this one are found stuck up chimney breasts or sealed behind walls for good luck and to ward off evil spirits.
The cat was definitely one of the most popular objects the hosts have been shown, however, I’m not sure I’d like to see my own cat walled up for good luck"
12 excellent LAARC artefacts that have been chosen by you as winners over the past year are now needing your vote for one last time to crown them...
LAARC OBJECT OF THE YEAR 2009!
And indeed, one last vote is all there is left as we wave goodbye to the LAARC object of the month competition after three years of fun. A huge thanks to everyone who has voted each month and another huge thanks to all those who nominated an object this year; Fiz, Glynn, Meriel, Graham, Roy, Jackie, Jenny, Chris, Sybil, Pamla, Joanna, Pam, Cath, Dan, Jon, Guy, Hazel, Jenny, John, John, Hedley, Karen, Francis, Andy, Steve, Angela, Alex, Helen, Tim, Leigh, Kate and Chris.
Thank you all for keeping archaeology entertaining as well as informative. You can keep track of the museum's choice of object of the month each month (funnily enough) by visiting the excellent blog pages:
Museum of London Blog Pages
Oh. I suppose it helps if you have the link to vote!
Vote for LAARC OBJECT OF THE YEAR 2009 by clicking here.
Voting closes at Noon on Wednesday 16th December and the winner revealed at the LAARC Volunteer Christmas Party. (announced here on the 17th)
Bye folks.
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