York Museums Trust Blog

(This blog was actually written some days ago, concerning the Hands on Archaeology day, but I haven’t been able to get on-line to post anything! So here it goes, days late:)

There’s nothing like a day at work, elbows deep in fish guts. OK, elbows might be a bit of an overstatement, perhaps up to my fabric bracelet (collected from festivals) is the more appropriate amount of guts tackled today. I think I will smell best of everyone tonight! But anyway, there was a Hands on Archaeology theme at the museum today, which made the day more out of the ordinary, after the general confusion of me just returning from a holiday and not having a clue about the admission prices for this shindig. It was fantastic, and should definitely be repeated. Walking around the museum, whilst taking the scenic route to the loos’, I saw stalls with colleagues presenting various interesting things, from iron to jewels to fabrics to yes – fish.

I stayed the first time to explore the fish thing further. I am somewhat of an animal rights lunatic, though I do eat fish, but have this strange fascination for icky and gooey wonderfully smelly dead animals. Or perhaps not all animals. It mainly scales down to fish. My family owns a cottage in the Finnish archipelago, and I spent many summer weeks there during my childhood gutting fish. Catching and gutting fish were the most interesting parts of the summer. And here I had fish in front of me, and 6000 year old flint to gut it with. I’ve never gutted anything with 6000 year old tools. So I scratched a bit of the scales off before feeling that perhaps I should return to front desk. But I returned later to gut a whole fish, and cutting off its head, alongside a small child doing the same, being equally excited by the yucky texture. It’s amazing that a piece of flint, basically a piece of rock that has been in the ground for six millenniums can still de-scale, gut and decapitate a fish. I found it somewhat challenging but by no means impossible, and it left me sort of proud of my work. Out then to the Roman style cooker in the Museum Gardens to cook the little beast, and then to be consumed. I felt like a true warrior. Except that I didn’t actually catch and killed the fish. I merely played with its carcass. But it was very, very cool.

And then there was some fish left over, that I got to take home. Even though I think the smell will never leave, this was a really fun day. And we, in my house, will be well fed too.

My first day back in the office and i’m introduced to a new member of the team who was happily sat on my colleague’s desk. I  must admit that working in museums is definitely not dull and boring as you never know what tomorrow will bring! Today i met Yorkie-saurus! Yorkie for short -  is a colourful looking remote control robotic dinosaur that was created by the fabulous Science team at the Yorkshire Museum - he is fantastic!  He moves forward, backward and can also swivel. I’ve been informed that Yorkie will be making his appearance to visitors next week at our Dino-robots Family Challenge Day. Visitors including me (during my lunch break of course) - will be given the chance to build and name their own remote control dino-robot and  enter their creation in our special dino race - it’s going to be fun. Can’t wait for lunchtime next Wednesday!

The first time I met Prince Philip he wished me a very Merry Christmas. It was a hot day in mid summer. Fast forward a few years and I see him in the flesh again, also in mid summer but much less hot and decidedly muddier. He was at the Yorkshire Show with his wife, The Queen. They had come to celebrate the show’s 150^th anniversary - a century and a half of showing agriculture at its best.  And, just like the Queen, York Museums Trust decided to mark this occasion as well, only without the blue hat. For three days a team of enthusiastic (very enthusiastic seeing as though we were up at 6am) staff members and volunteers manned a variety of activities, crafts and artefacts looking at the history of farming. More than 6,000 people came to learn things such as what the Roman’s brought to Yorkshire and how to squash a rat Victorian style. A map of where the women in the Land Army were based in Yorkshire created many nostalgic trips back to a time when they looked after land. Many city girls had never seen a cow before, but a lot stayed after the war, some as newly weds.  Gaby’s psychedelic horses caught the eye of passers by, and a life-sized milkable cow with milk bottle ears provided ample entertainment for children while their parents chewed the cud. For many the big draw was the incredible model of a steam engine and thresher. With its attention to detail and intricate design it was a labour of love for its creator. It was no surprise that it literally stopped people in their tracks, especially those who had worked on life sized versions in the past. And it was the object where most often roles were reversed, with the visitor very politely informing staff what did what.  Although I didn’t get to meet the Queen and Prince Philip, some of the Trust’s staff did. Amy, Lucy, dressed as a milk maid, Christine, dressed as a land girl and Jim dressed as a Monk/Obi Wan Kenobi, were all invited to meet her majesty, and very nice she was too apparently. But not a mention of festive tidings from Philip.

Agate is a semi-precious stone often used in jewellery. It is a form of the mineral Quartz, known as Chalcedony. It is only known as agate when it is banded as shown by this specimen. There is almost always a difference in colour and translucency between individual bands. This example is a polished, oval flat cabochon and is 33 carats in weight.

The name agate comes from an occurrence in the river Achates (now the Drillo) in the South west of Sicily The old term of achates does not quite equate with our modern agate, since other minerals, including some alabasters, were also known as achates.

Agate is by no means uncommon in Britain and is known from several localities. Scotland in particular is known for particularly high quality agates. In Southern Perthshire, the Ochil Hills have produced many fine agates in the past and continue to do so today.

Info. by - Stuart YORYM : 2006.107

This is a porcelain three-tier table centrepiece by Rockingham and stands about 2 feet tall. It was made at Brameld & Co. between 1830-1868 and was decorated by Alfred Baguely in the same design as a dessert service made for William IV in 1830.

It is an incredibly complex decorative piece of 10 parts, combining modelling, matt and burnished gilding, painted scenes on the base (Hawes water from Thwaite force and Lowther Castle and Park) and tiny painted Civil War scenes on the bowl at the top. It is a beautiful though somewhat gaudy piece on its own, but imagine it covered in flowers, fruit and desserts on a Rococo period table….

From the Arthur Hurst Bequest to the Yorkshire Museum in 1940. Currently in store 

 Information by - Helen

YORYM:2000.4708

Most people would think of this as ‘stained glass’, but would you believe it’s actually painted? It’s one fragment from a collection of pieces acquired from excavations. This medieval glass has survived really well in unfavourable conditions. Much buried medieval glass decays terribly.

Looking at the intricacy of this single piece of glass, you can just imagine the hours of work which must have gone into a whole window. Church windows would have been a truly impressive sight to the vast majority of the population. Most windows would have been a shutter covering a hole in the wall!

Info. by - Katherine

YORYM : 2007.6077

As part of my retrospective documentation work I came across this exquisitely preserved fossil brittle star.

It is from the Middle Jurassic 195 - 189 million years old.

Although it does not have a locality the preservation and matrix indicate that it comes from Dorset.

Info. by - Stuart

YORYM : 2007.4563

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!

click for a better view

This is a domino-sized piece of soapstone engraved in reverse with the words “Julius Alexander’s salve for irritations”.

It is one of only 60 such stamps world-wide. Cosmetic branding was as important to the Romans as it is to us today. This stamp ensured that people knew they were getting ‘ the real McCoy ‘ and not some forgery.

It was found on the Mount by the Dickinsons - a farmer and his nephew who worked land on which the Mount School now stands. They worked very closely with local archaeologist Peter Wenham in collecting and plotting Roman objects from their land.

Their collection of artefacts now forms part of the archaeological collections at the Yorkshire Museum.

Information by - Andrew Morrison

YORYM 2006.2878

This late Viking style sword has just been given to the Yorkshire Museum. It was found in the River Ouse at Cawood is one of the most significant swords ever found in North Yorkshire. Its design is a mixture of late Anglo-Scandinavian (Viking) and early medieval features and this gives it an exciting and interesting place in the development of sword design.

On either side of the blade there is an inscription made up of capital letters. They most likely represent initial letters of a number of Latin words that would make up a saying of some importance to the owner.

The sword was allocated to the Yorkshire Museum through the Government’s ‘Acceptance in Lieu’ programme whereby items considered to be national treasures are gifted to museums to offset some inheritance tax that would otherwise be due from the owner. This is the first such allocation that has ever been made to the Yorkshire Museum.

Described in the big book of swords as of “outstanding importance”. It is probably made by the same hand or ‘workshop’ as a near identical sword in the Oslo Museum which is dated to A.D. 1100.

We will be working with the Cawood Castle Garth local history group to discover more about the sword and its discovery.

Info. by - Andrew Morrison

YORYM : 2007.3086