Curator's Pick: Bryan Sitch
Post categories: Curators' Picks
| 11:35 UK time, Thursday, 10 June 2010
We are asking curators from museums around the country to take a look around the site and pick out a few objects that appeal to them or remind them of other objects and stories.
Bryan Sitch is the Curator of Archaeology and Head of Human Cultures at . He's wandered around the site and been reminded of how objects come to light and collections are often built from a combination of expertise and serendipity:One of the wonderful things about A History of the World is the way it brings to light things in private possession that museum curators and archaeologists would not find out about otherwise. Family heirlooms are a case in point. We just don't know what's out there.But it seems that where there are always enterprising individuals who spot a gap in the market.
A Medieval ewer found near Hadrian's Wall had occupied pride of place on the Smith family's hearthÌý for over a hundred years before it came to the Manchester Museum to be identified. It was such a thrill to see it. And the family had cherished it.
A Viking gold arm ring remained unreported until the death of the finder, a York builder. It was among his personal possessions and was later acquired by the Yorkshire Museum as Treasure. We can only suppose that the piece was found somewhere in or near York.
It's very important to record details of where things have been found. If we know where things come from they are far more meaningful for research purposes. The pins from London mounted on a card complete with details of where they come from are wonderful. They reminded me of some of my first cataloguing jobs in museums where very often the only information I had to go on was what was written on the card to which the objects were still attached.
Acquiring objects from workmen on sites for a modest sum of money was a time-honoured way of collecting. It could prove counter-productive, however. Some workmen forged antiquities for sale to gullible collectors. Two labourers called became notorious for their shameless 'discoveries'.I'd never heard of Billy and Charley and the - it's a great story of two Victorian hustlers. But perhaps more upsetting than discovering something isn't what it seems, is finding something that is and then having it taken away from you.
The Medieval objects they 'found' during the excavation of London Docks had dates on them in modern Arabic numerals! Initially some museum curators were taken in. Nowadays they are known as Billies and Charlies. The Manchester Museum has one of Jonah and the Whale and it's great fun!
I am delighted that the beautiful Rudston charioteer mosaic in Hull Museums is on the website. Seeing it reminded me of the one that got away. The Roman had been lifted ready to go to the museum in 1948, only to disappear overnight. What happened to it is one of the great unsolved mysteries of East Yorkshire archaeology. I can only hope it will one day be recovered.So there you go, things lost and things found. There seems to be a bit of every type of thing on A History of the World.
At least one antiquity has made it back from oblivion. An Iron Age sword and scabbard stolen from Peterborough Museum was recovered in Germany and returned in 2007. We often think about the repatriation of cultural property as the debate over high profile cases like the Elgin Marbles or the Bust of Nefertiti but it obviously works at regional and local levels too.
Comment number 1.
At 13th Jun 2010, Kai wrote:I'd like to know how museums think about displaying objects.
Without getting too cheesy and avoiding the bad reconstruction where possible, it would be amazing to see some of these objects as they would have been used when originally created, in their own social contexts. Most old things seem to fit quite well into a well lit glass case, or even in the packed collection of Pitt Rivers museum. But they were never designed to be displayed that way (I presume...). Seeing these objects in their original setting, being surrounded by other things adds a completely different dimension to them.
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Comment number 2.
At 21st Jun 2010, Jill Cook wrote:Kai raises an interesting point much debated by museum curators and there is more than one answer. Although many of the objects were not made to be seen in glass cases, some such as the swimming reindeer, were undoubtedly valued and cared for (curated)by those that made and saw them. Some may even have been passed down through generations as heirlooms. To appreciate the skill and artistry of such pieces it is often necessary to lift and separate them so we can see, understand and enjoy them. Placing them in a reconstruction of the archaeological context based on excavation plans can be interesting as well, although this does not really give a picture of daily life and activity and can be more mystifying, connecting us to a modern procedure of discovery but distancing us from history. Further more, for the oldest periods we can only construct what things might have been like from excavations plans. Organic materials such as wood and fabrics rarely survive so we can only imagine what things might have been like. Imagine someone trying to recreate what your home is like,if they only had a plan of the foundations and a few of your possessions. However, where things have been deliberately placed in a permanent way such as in a burial, it is important to put things together as they were left. See for example the reconstructed arrangement of the items placed in a late Iron Age grave at Welwyn in the British Museum's Room 50. Last and least decisions on style and resouces may have an influence.
Jill Cook. Senior Curator Dept Prehistory & Europe, British Museum
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