LAARC VIP/U3A Project 2008 - Recently Updated Pages

Week 10 - 10/12/08

laarchaeologist — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:23:49 CST

Japanese visitors viewing the Archive with Adam, Angela and Alan

This week was the last one of our shared learning project at LAARC, the volunteers had all been very busy at home researching and preparing their projects for our final presentation, which I as leader eagerly awaited.

Adam had received a request from a Japanese newspaper - The Yomiuri Shimbun - for a reporter to come along to interview himself and a couple of the U3A volunteers to learn about both LAARC's volunteer programme and the U3A's involvement and some information about the U3A in general. Adam showed them around the archive, the before and after effects of our volunteering and explained why things needed updating. Hideki, took lots of photos during the visit.

Time had flown by and it was time for the presentations. I started with a short introduction and then Roy Stephenson kindly talked about this, our second, U3A SLP at LAARC and indicated that the U3A would be welcomed back for a third session - wonderful news. Roy said a little about all of our project topics and Susan started the ball rolling with her Roman London Collage. Following topics covered Dolphin Images in Roman Art, The Influence of the Acanthus in Design, Bricks and Tiles, Roman Clothing and Fashion, Fine Black Ware Pottery in London, Letters to Rome from Londinium and finally Roman Games.

Our Japanese visitors stayed for all the presentations which was really encouraging and Roy, Julie Carr, Eloise and Dan had also given their valuable time to listen to our efforts, and of course Adam controlling the power point presentations.

The presentations were all excellent and I think showed how much everyone enjoyed their volunteering at LAARC. I think it has been a really good SLP.

Carol

Diary Blog

laarchaeologist — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:15:16 CST

Week 0 - 18/9/08
Week 1 - 24/9/08
Week 2 - 1/10/08
Week 3 - 8/10/08
Week 4 - 15/10/08
Week 5 - 29/10/08
Week 6 - 5/11/08
Week 7 - 12/11/08
Week 8 - 19/11/08
Week 9 - 3/12/08
Week 10 - 10/12/08

Week 9 - 3/12/08

laarchaeologist — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:01:44 CST

The penultimate week and time to create some powerpoint slideshows in preparation for the presentations next time.
For some, new skills were learnt as they put together their first powerpoint presentation, learning how to add and organise new slides, insert images, resize images, save their work and print out handouts.
Judging by the slides the presentations look set to be another round of excellent research topics and I'm looking forward to hearing them next Wednesday.

Week 8 - 19/11/08

Carr — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:50:28 CST

Week 8 - 19/11/08Week 8 was due to see the group commencing their research for their projects, but everyone seems to have really enjoyed our packing and we opted to carry on packing ....

Adam was only back from his well earned holiday on Wednesday morning and it was straight into a busy day with U3A volunteers having opted to pack instead of sitting quietly doing their research! We split into two groups with one group packing accessioned bricks/tiles, tenderly wrapped in soft tissue paper, and the other group packing perhaps some more interesting items like clay pipes (although they were obviously not Roman)

Some of the group also took the opportunity to join other LAARC volunteers in the ceramic and glass store with Jackie Pearce from the MofL giving a fascinating insight into the making of many Medieval and Post Medieval ceramic items. The ceramic and glass store houses a wonderful collection in glass cases, only normally accessible to researchers, so as well as the items that were out on the table for discussion from the Custom House and Milk Street digs, it was a great treat when Adam unlocked the cabinets and selected items for Jackie to talk about in detail.

Next week is one of our "free" weeks, and the group will be taking the chance to continue their research. We will assemble on 3 December to refine and hone our presentations ready for our final week on 10 December.

Week 7 - 12/11/08

laarchaeologist — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:48:39 CST

This week we had an interesting talk by Kathy who showed us the way a dig was divided into grids. How everything was catalogued and added to a map of the area. As Adam was away sunning himself Dan took us for the packing and labelling session. It was Building Materials, mostly tiles which we think may have been discarded because they were not fired correctly or had been broken.

Week 6 - 5/11/08

Carr — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:38:54 CST

More general finds this week - working methodically through the site's animal bone, including horse and dog.
Teams started by organising material into context order, then moved on to repacking and relabling the bags of bone.

A "bag of bones" from our repacking efforts today

Week 5 - 29/10/08

Carr — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:38:45 CDT

After a week's break, volunteers moved on to the general finds archive of MSL87 and tackled pottery. We were very lucky that LAARC's conservator, Liz Goodman, gave a presentation about conservation which all found very interesting and resulted in quite a few questions which cut our time short on repacking a little, however, Liz's talk emphasised the necessity for all finds to be stored in a way that preserved them for future researchers. In conservation Do nothing that cannot be undone being the lesson learnt this week.

We were on the "bulk" finds this week, working in pairs, and for some of the volunteers it was a little like tackling a jigsaw puzzle, but there were interesting finds along the way. The labelling was slightly different and no foam or tissue paper needed for the bulk items.

Volunteers have been thinking about their projects for the final presentation, which is really good with possible topics covering : bricks and tiles, black pottery, dress, agapanthus, food and herbs, Roman London collage, games and jewellery

Week 3 - 8/10/08

Aceh — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:04:35 CDT

This video was useful for week 3 because...

today we packed artefacts! The good, the Bad and the Ugly from Mansell Street!
We started off with fragments of tile and tesserae, not that interesting, a bit ugly in fact.

So then we moved on to work on the good. And they were really good. Bone, Glass, Flint, Ivory, Stone and Jet.
Already some possible candidates for object of the project, including a beautiful reconstructed glass bottle and a 18th century bone/ivory decorated napkin ring.
The day finished with volunteers continuing the ceramic vessels from last week- some in a pretty bad state. But not once packed properly.
Volunteers were also introduced to registered finds cards, organising finds within boxes and how to write box labels correctly.
Alan's Flue Tiles - See thread below

Week 4 - 15/10/08

laarchaeologist — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:57:22 CDT

Week 4 saw the volunteers complete their time spent with registered finds and today we concentrated on metals. During the first half of the session Susan, Dreena and Lilias, reorganised and sorted out the copper alloy artefacts, including a post medieval corkscrew, whilst the rest tackled the pretty nasty iron remains from the site.
However, although these rusty blobs seemed fairly uninteresting, we then looked at their associated x-rays and discovered that whilst some failed to show anything, others really highlighted the original object beneath the rust.
For the second half of the session all volunteers got to repack a large piece of iron, almost all of which were roman hobnail shoes. Again closer inspection of the x-rays really highlighted the hobnails and added to their interpretation.

Week 2 - 1/10/08

laarchaeologist — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:42:54 CDT

Boxes at the start of the session .................................Boxes at the end of the session
Week 2 and the first real hands on week. Today volunteers learnt how to pack their first finds from the site and we started with registered ceramics. Previously these vessels, ranging from large amphorae to delicate fineware, had been stored in boxes of all sorts of shapes and sizes, with unimpressive packing (mainly newspaper from 1988 - interesting reads in themselves).
The first step was to identify which standard size box was needed, followed by which type of packing material (foam and acid free tissue; use of bags or laying out of objects)
Once packed, volunteers were told how to correctly fill in a new registered finds label (or accession label), noting Sitecode, context, registered finds number, material, object name and period, if known.
Finally, new box labels were written.
The next stage that will carried out is to check the corresponding registered finds cards and mark up that these objects have been seen today.

Information

laarchaeologist — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:40:15 CDT

British Museum Roman Evening
MoLAS publication

British Museum Roman Evening

Carr — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:53:08 CDT

The British Museum have a Roman Evening on Thursday, 23 October in the Great Court running from 18.30 p.m. which might prove of interest and includes some musical performances, dancing and food and drink . The evening is free, which is an added bonus. As we will not be at LAARC on the Wednesday, it might serve to give you your "Roman fix" for the week !

Their website gives details : http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar/roman_night.aspx

MoLAS publication

Carr — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:46:25 CDT

Please see the following link to take you through to the MoLAS publication of 2000 regarding the eastern cemetery of Roman London Excavations 1983-1990 covering the Mansell Street Dig : MSL87 and MST 87. The publication is available at LAARC to look at if you make a request through Adam or Cath Maloney http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/english/publications/pubDetails.htm?pid=11

Week 1 - 24/9/08

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:22:53 CDT

The first week really served as an introduction both to the project and to each other.
Jean Davidson, assistant co-ordinator for shared learning projects in london, welcomed everone and spoke a little about shared learning projects, after which Adam introduced himself and LAARC.
Following this, each Volunteer told us a little about themselves and then Carol & Adam went into a little more detail about the project itself.
The session ended with a tour of the archive, focusing on the material the group will be working on and of course the necessary tea and biscuits!

Jean has now added four photographs taken at Introductory Meeting on 24.9.08. Please view the photo album and add names and comments!

First meeting

Alegnajay — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:32:15 CDT

Today I met Adam Corsini and the rest of the team whom I will be working with on the LAARC project. Adam took us on a tour of the storerooms where all the artefacts are stored. Rows and rows of shelves filled with large 'shoeboxes' which contains all manner of things which have been dug up from various sites in London. It is unbelievable how much material there is. We were given a brief of the work we would be doing mostly repacking, labeling and generally 'tidying up'. Looking forward to starting next week. Angela

Week 0 - 18/9/08

laarchaeologist — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:56:44 CDT

In preparation for the start of the project, volunteers joined Museum of London's Jenny Hall, senior curator of the Roman collections, for a tour around the gallery.
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Permanent/RomanLondon.htm

Visit to Roman Gallery
A very interesting tour which gave you the feel of what London was like in Roman times. Our guide was excellent and very well informed. I found the coffin of the lady at the end most intriguing. It is a pity her bones are still in a cardboard box!
Angela

Entry by Carol : I found the visit to the Prescot St Dig Open Evening on Wednesday 17 September excellent. There was an opportunity to look at the latter stages of the dig, an opportunity to handle some of the finds and an excellent talk regarding the Prescot St area of the Eastern Cemetery of Roman London. The dig that we will be repacking for LAARC was just up the road from Prescot St in Mansell St, so this really brought our proposed project to life.

David gave an excellent demonstration of GIS (Geographical Information System). The amazing software programme enables the storing and viewing of referenced data, maps, images, sites and finds, a programme that really brings things into perspective even for the very basic amateur.

Have a look at this link to see some of the recent finds on the site : http://www.lparchaeology.com/prescot/galleries/photo-diary-11th-september-2008/set/72157607317822708

Entry by Carol : Skeletons at Wellcome Collection

I hope some of you will have had the opportunity to visit the Wellcome Collection in Euston Road to view the "Skeletons" exhibition, which includes a skeleton from our project site "Mansell Street" which is labelled as area G within the exhibition. The skeleton is of a 46 year old male from the Roman period. If you are unable to get to the exhibition before it closes on 28 September then have a look at this link to their website : http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/exhibitions/skeletons/index.htm

Staff

GlynnDavis — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:42:58 CDT

Adam Corsini
Glynn

Glynn

GlynnDavis — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:36:37 CDT

My role within the Archive involves sourcing and managing volunteers as part of the Volunteer Inclusion Programme (VIP) funded by the Museum Hub till March 2009. Having identified a number of projects, the first of our two volunteer programmes will kick-off at the end of September with an aim to updating the Archive’s general finds and reorganising the metal store. This will pave the way to providing greater access to material which in some cases hasn’t seen light for 30 years, whilst generating much needed space for London’s infinite archaeology!

Participants

laarchaeologist — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:18:55 CDT

This page lets you find out more about the U3A volunteers working on this year's project. Click on their names below or in the navigation panel on the left hand side of the page.
Susan
Carol
Sally
Alan
Angela

Angela

Alegnajay — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:06:59 CDT

Member of Hillingdon U3A. Have had an interest in Archaelogy since I was a teenager but never participated in any research before now. Used to watch Sir Mortimer Wheeler on TV. Enjoy London walks which explore the history of the city. Looking forward to this project with great interest especially the research.