archaeology

The first three winners of the year all came from the same site - excavations at the Royal Mint in 1986 (MIN86). January’s was a beautiful carved bit of sandstone with decorated floral motifs; February’s was a wooden bowling ball with four holes for the lead used to weight it;

March’s MIN86 winner was a carved column capital with guidelines for the arches above. Following that, April’s competition was a Tudor special and the winner was this fab child’s finger whistle decorated with two birds of prey. It dates from the late 16th Century and comes from Braidwell Street (BRA88);

May & June’s Winners were both delftware vessels; May’s was a 18th Century merry man plate from Althorpe Grove (AG75) which would have been the second in a set of six. June’s is also 18th Century and comes from the Fleet Valley excavations (VAL88). It depicts a cheeky little lion, possibly a reference to Charles I

July’s victor was a bone plaque depicting a griffin which would have been mounted to a box. It was found in 1988 at Dunster Court (MCT88). August’s triumph was the leather purse from 1974’s Trig Lane excavations (TL74). With two decorative roundals, it would have been sewn to a second part with a flap coming over the top to close it.

September’s success was a superb example of Roman Wall Plaster from Dominant House (DMT88). It would have been the top of a wall panel and is decorated with blue and yellow outlines on the red background. The first of the two October winners rediscovered during the LAARC VIP project was a post med lead spoon from Cutler’s Street (CUT78), with the inscription “Remember The Poore”

The second LAARC VIP winning object was this potter’s tool from Lambeth excavations in 1980 (L54/80), complete with wheel and made of iron. And the final winner is this medieval mould from Winchester Abbey excavations (WP84) which creates lion motifs.

It’s now up to you to decide which one wins the pretigious title of

OBJECT OF THE YEAR 2008!!!

Vote for your favourite object by clicking Here

The winner will be announced on these pages on Friday 12th December

 The two winners of this month’s double whammy competition are:

 The potter’s tool from Lambeth (L54/80). With a wheel at one end and a toothed edge the other this tool was used to create the decorative features on ceramics. It is made from iron and was thought to be lost for several years. However, as always, it turned up eventually last year. It was then rediscovered last month during the LAARC VIP project and nominated for the competition.

 The second winner is this superb post med lead alloy spoon. Found at Cutler Street near Bishopsgate, it bears the inscription “Remember the Poore”. Who would have owned it remains a mystery and one has to wonder whether they really did remember the poor when using it…

For more information about either of these sites visit LAARC’s online catalogue and search for the sitecode

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/laarc/catalogue/

  This month there’s a double whammy! As so many cool finds are resurfacing during the LAARC VIP project, we’ve a VIP objects special: 6 candidates, 2 winners.

1) A Roman Cheese Press made from ceramic and found in 1973’s Borough High Street Excavations (106BHS73)

2) A pewter tankard from Cutler Street (CUT73), with an inscription from a tavern in Bethnal Green

3) A plaque from Dean’s Yard, Westminster Abbey, (WAM75) originally from a knife cleaner

 4) Medieval Scissors from Baynards Castle (BC72)

5) Iron Potter’s Tool from Lambeth (L54/80)

6) Lead Spoon from Cutler Street, with the inscription “Remember the Poore”

 To vote for your TWO favourite objects click Here

To find out more about the excavations visit the LAARC catalogue

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/laarc/catalogue/

This month’s winner with an incredible 100% of votes, goes to the fabulous fragment of Roman painted wall plaster from Dominant House excavations in 1988 (DMT88)

Roman walls were usually decorated with large panels, within which were individual images of people, fruit, flowers or whatever the householder wanted on their wall. Colours were created using various pigments and on occasions we find chunks of wall, that have two or three layers of painted plaster, where they’ve redecorated their room!

In 2007, new excavations in Lime Street discovered more fantastic wall plaster fragments, some of the best ever found in the country. Both excavations shed light on Roman interior decoration. Changing Rooms, eat your heart out!

For more information about DMT88 visit LAARC’s online catalogue and search for DMT88

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/laarc/catalogue/

The winning object for August’s second chance / lucky loser month is this lovely leather purse from Trig Lane (TL74 <426>)

It is the front of a two piece purse, cut from deerskin and decorated with stitching in the form of two circular panels with two undulating lines on each side of the stitch. There’s also a horizontal slit cut below the top edge with four further slots beneath this, which would have had drawstrings threaded through.

Every month, LAARC volunteers choose 3 objects from the collections to enter our object of the month competition. This time round, we’re running a special “Lucky Loser!” month, where three previous 2nd place objects get a second chance to win gold and enter December’s Object of The Year Competition.

 The first object this month was originally nominated in January and is a leather purse from Trig Lane (TL74)

The second was first selected in May and is the Hebrew inscripted Delftware plate from Mitre Street (MIR84)

The third item is up for the second month in a row and is the biscuitware figurine from Hibernia Wharf (HIB79)

Click Here to vote

You can also view and find out more information about the objects on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laarc/sets/72157604281666414/

Finally to find out more about the sites they’re from visit our online catalogue:

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/laarc/catalogue/

Happy voting!

If you want to let us know exactly why you voted for an object, you can leave a comment below.