LAARC VIP

LAARC VIP Project - Week 7 (by Glynn Davis)

This week our focus was limited to updating my side of the Project (general finds), as Adam is away fighting bulls in Madrid!

General Finds:
We are still currently working on our largest site to-date – Custom House. Although appearing to be somewhat of a slow week, volunteers have in fact updated a huge amount of pottery – 52 boxes out of 106! This is especially staggering considering the boxes are found to be packed to the brim. One box I updated contained 70 separate bags.
CUS73 is also the first site which has adequate publications. Volunteers have been using excavation reports to check some the illustrated pottery we have been repackaging.

Out of interest the Thames Discovery Programme (for which the LAARC is currently providing swivel chairs and other useful things like computers) will be focusing their initial FROGing on Custom House! Details about the project and how you can join in can be found at their newly deployed website: http://www.thamesdiscovery.org

With Adam back next week (and hopefully un-maimed), I think we will be get even closer to finishing site CUS73. Plus we’ve got the MoL specialists in: Animal Bone and Medieval Pottery!

Steady progress was made this week throughout all three strands of the project.

General finds:

Work continued on the material from custom house (CUS73), completing the 103 boxes of animal bone and making a start on the 106 boxes of pottery. A mixture of roman and medieval contexts were previously stored in small, multi stapled bags, which have a tendancy to get lost within the box. The repacked material is now stored in context order in good standard size bags with clear legable labels.

Workshops:

The workshops this week included a second run for Roman ceramic specialist, Amy Thorpe, who explained the various types of Roman pottery found from the sites volunteers have been working on.

The other workshop was lead by Post Medieval ceramic specialist Nigel Jeffries, fresh from his appearence on BBC’s Inside Out programme. Working his way through a brief history of ceramics, the talk focused on tin-glazed earthenwares, stonewares and transfer wares, including an explanation of the story depicted on the willow pattern plates - the chinese equivalent of Romeo & Juliet.

Metal Store:

Finally overcoming the Beddington Sewage Farm material (BSF81-87), volunteers moved on to complete sites from 1981, including some impressive material from Swan Lane Car Park (SWA81) and even transfer all the finds from huge sites such as Billingsgate Lorry Park (BIG82). The next hurdle is HOR82-86; the Horse Fair site in Kingston.

 Eastern Cemetery Sites:

The University of the Third Age are now in their 6th week also and continuing with general finds from the site. This week they tackled the animal bone. For more infomation as to how they’re getting on visit their wiki : http://laarcvipu3a.wetpaint.com/

 LAARC VIP Project - Week 5 (by Glynn Davis)

General Finds:
This week volunteers have achieved a huge amount with repackaging the general finds. Having finished 106BHS73 at the end of last week we have not only completed updating all material from the next site BLH73 (Bush Lane House) but have careered on into our largest site to-date: Custom House (Sugar Quay, Lower Thames Street). We have managed to update a plethora of Animal Bone – exactly half of the material in only three days (48 boxes’ worth!). Due to the interest shown by volunteers we have arranged for another workshop with our Museum of London, zoological specialist – if not at least to settle an argument over supposed bear claws!

Metal Store:
This week Adam and volunteers have been sorting, repackaging and updating a painstaking site with copious accessioned, metal objects: BSF81-87 (Beddington Sewage Treatment Works, Mile Road). This has led to us completely filling the first set of new racking with registered finds!

One discovery this week was a medieval potter’s tool for decorating ceramic pottery. This has been added to a titan ‘Object of the Month’ competition. You can place your vote at:
http://mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/archaeology/2008/10/31/object-of-the-month-october-2008/

Museum Specialists:
Our MoL Specialist this week – Nigel Jeffries – enlightened us on Post-medieval Ceramics. Sites 106BHS73 and BLH73 produced an array of material. Below is an ensemble of red fired clay ceramics including a cullender, coin jar and ‘metropolitan slipware’ style jug. Other interesting pieces included the common ‘Willow patterned’ plate and some lively Delftware!

Roman Cemetery Sites:

For more info, take a look at http://laarcvipu3a.wetpaint.com/

Well into the project now and continuing to make great advancements in both strands of the project.

General Finds.

Glynn and his team of volunteers this week finished off their second big site - 106BHS73 - which had produced some excellent Roman material last week and some equally impressive post medieval sherds this week.

To compliment their work, we held a roman pottery workshop in the Ceramic & Glass store with MOL archaeology specialist, Amy Thorpe and found out about amphorae, samian, burnished wares and mortarium.

Metal Store

The metal store tackled the tricky year of 1980 this week. The first half of the week saw vip volunteers join existing LAARC volunteers working on the huge site from Southwark Street - 15SKS80. There are over 2000 individual metal artifacts from the site,  and they were previous stored by object type but have now been reorganised into material then registered find number order. They now await packing with foam or acid free tissue.

There were no U3A volunteers this week, but there return next week when they start to tackle the general material from MSL87 - Mansell Street.

 If you would like to find out more about any of the sites, you can type in the sitecode on LAARC’s online catalogue:

http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/English/ArchiveResearch/ArchiveOnline/

and all LAARC’s photos for this and other projects can be found on flickr:

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

LAARC VIP Project - Week 3 (by Glynn Davis)

We are well underway with the VIP Programme now - everyone has settled in and we are making great headway with both projects! Volunteers this week have discovered a smorgasbord of artefacts through repackaging objects in both the Metal store and General finds!

General Finds:
As of Monday we completed updating general finds from the VIP’s first major site - Milk Street 1972! And without pause we launched into the next one - 106 Borough High Street 1973. As of today we have managed to repackage all of the Roman pottery from the site which was a real task considering the poor state the material was in. More decorated Samian pottery was found this week, but my personal favourite is a rare Roman Cheese Press (below left). At this rate 106BHS73 should be completed by the end of next week!

Metal Store:
Not only have volunteers done a great job with the general finds this week, but the metal store project has also come along in leaps and bounds. Adam and volunteers have managed to segregate and update Registered and General material from all 1970s excavations. Although unidentifiable iron seems to prevail in the metal store, there have been some exciting discoveries. An inscribed spoon and tankard from site CUT78 (Cutler Street PLA Warehouses) are two amazing post-Medieval, lead artefacts. Close-ups of these and photos of other artefacts and the VIP Project can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laarc/

Roman Cemetery Sites

For more info, take a look at http://laarcvipu3a.wetpaint.com/

LAARC VIP Project – Week 2, (By Glynn Davis)

The second week of the LAARC’s VIP project has really started to make an impact on the Archive – with new volunteers on board, new shelving space acquired and a study of Milk Street’s archaeology by Museum of London specialists.

General Finds:
Having started repackaging pottery from the 1972 Milk Street excavation (MIL72) last week, this week we have really achieved a lot! All Ceramic Pottery has been repackaged and ordered as well as all the Animal Bone, and we have made a start on the site’s Building Material. Along the way we have discovered some interesting animal scenes on Roman Samian Ware and the remains of a few moggies amongst the large collections of Animal Bone. Already our work shows the vast improvement that can be made to the storage and packaging of material as well as the extra shelf space – in addition we’re discovering artefacts that have been completely forgotten about!

Metal Store:
Although focus has been on the general finds this week, Adam and volunteers have still made great headway in the metal store. All site codes to 1975 have been segregated and some fantastic artefacts have been brought to light. A metal plaque belonging to an antique knife cleaner (researched by Andy) will certainly be entered for our object of the month. In addition a database has started to be complied to make sure we know where all this material is being moved to!

Roman Cemetery Sites

For more info, take a look at http://laarcvipu3a.wetpaint.com/

Museum Specialists:
This week we started our workshops with the Museum of London specialists. Jacqui Pearce examined some of the reconstructed pots from MIL72 - some great examples of Kingston Ware (London) and Surrey/Hampshire border Ware. The Glass & Ceramics store was a great resource for seeing how the site’s examples fit into the history of London’s ceramics.
Alan Pipe took us through some of MIL72s huge amount of animal bone, pointing out the subtle zoological differences between Cow, Sheep, Pig, Horse, Cat…and Duck!