York Museums Trust Blog

It’s mornings like this that you realise how lucky you are to live and work in York. OK, most people might think that’s a bit crazy on a cold foggy morning. But, cycling down the river to avoid the traffic, I did realise how weird and wonderful it looked. Mist curling over the river, sounds drifting from the railway station, water as smooth as glass due to the lack of wind all made for quite an atmosphere. And of course a morning commute that involves getting away from the traffic can’t be bad.

For an archaeologist, there’s nothing like getting your hands dirty. Wild Wednesdays (our free outdoor activities in August on – surprise, surprise – Wednesdays), and an adult education course, has given us archaeologists at the Yorkshire Museum a chance to do just that. Armed with scheduled monument consent we have been exploring the potential of archaeology in the gardens by reopening a trench dug in the 1950’s. Even better, we have been working with the York branch of the Young Archaeologists’ Club – they love a bit of digging, and normally only get one chance a year to get their trowels out, so this was a bit of a treat for all of us! We opened the trench on Friday to give them a chance to enjoy getting grubby just like we do. They trowelled, sieved their spoil and finally sorted their finds. And we didn’t even get rained on (much). I really enjoy working with people who are as enthusiastic as our YAC members (enthusiasm is so infectious!), especially when at the end of the day there’s a general chorus of “When are we diggin’ again?”.

Well, that was one of the most bizarre (but most fun) afternoons I have ever had! Today families were given the chance to try and protect two eggs – one was to be launched in a rocket, the other was to be thrown off the roof of the musem. And, of course, the aim of the game was to see if your eggs had survived.

For me the fun was to be had because I was one of the lucky members of staff who was able to go up to the roof of the Yorkshire Museum and throw eggs off it. It was really odd to be up there for the first time (it’s a little difficult to get to, and of course only employees with good reason to are allowed on the roof), to look down on people, and to be flinging away carefully prepared eggs. We had to throw the eggs far enough for them to stay away from the edge of the building and land on a target, but at the same time hope that a child wouldn’t be really disappointed if their egg hit too hard. One egg hadn’t been so well secured in a polystyrene cup and came flying out of it about half way down, smashing right into the middle of the target. The parachute gently followed it and came fluttering down all by itself… 

 We’re doing it all again tomorrow. I’m sure I can find the time to have fun throwing eggs off the roof  help out my colleagues with an important activity!

One of the great things about working in a museum is the variety of the things we get up to. I think all the different things we do are all the more enjoyable because we don’t have to do one task all the time. It doesn’t seem long since we excitedly acquired the Cawood sword and in November I went to Germany to pick up a twice life-size stone head from a loan. We’ve been doing some work in the galleries to put objects on display that have previously been in storage, and that can be quite delicate, carefully handling objects with gloves and so on. What made me think of the variety, though, was the distinctly different job of constructing shelving in the off site stores yesterday! From careful, close work to moving around large chunks of metal and more bolt tightening than you could imagine… but, do you know, I think it’s the variety and complete changes of scene in the job that attracted a lot of us in the first place.

Well, two Young Archaeologists choose some lovely objects to display, at least.

Some of you may remember my earlier post mentioning that the winners of the Young Archaeologist of the Year  Award were coming to the museum.  James and Jocelyn, and their families, had a great time exploring the stores. They examined, and handled, all sorts of artefacts including Roman glass, medieval pottery, prehistoric axes and Viking antler.  As part of their prize the two winners picked some interesting objects to go on display, including a sword, stone tools and some gold.

Nicky Milstead, who helps run the Young Archaeologists’ Club, popped over to the museum today to help us put it all together. The objects Jocelyn and James chose make a really fun case full. I’m hoping we’ll leave the display in for a few weeks to allow other budding archaeologists to see what James’ and Jocelyn’s favourites were. Who knows, maybe they will be putting museum displays together in a few years time?

Following a nation-wide competition, we’re going to be receiving some special visitors the weekend after next - the winners of the Young Archaeologist of the Year Award, which is run by the Young Archaeologist’s Club. The winners are going to come for a VIP visit to the Yorkshire Museum stores, and will be able to see and handle all sorts of objects which aren’t usually on display. I’m really looking forward to it because we are going to ask them to pick a few objects each, which will go on display in the museum foyer. I can’t wait to see what they choose!