I have also been sent this lovely line drawing of my find – and can now see the images of the find on the PAS database
The image was drawn by David Williams and is copyright of PAS
Line drawing of Treasure Find
April 19th, 2006 by veniconeProvisional Valuation
April 19th, 2006 by veniconeI’ve heard today from Laura Dance at the DCMS regarding the gold fragment. She says :
“My colleague Helen should be writing to you today with the provisional valuation for this find and the information that it will go before TVC on May 19th.
Unfortunately the provisional valuation arrived back just slightly too late to make it into the briefing for the April meeting.”
The journey continues – and despite wee hiccups like this, I feel that there have been no long unnecessary delays at any step of the way.
I see that there is a consultation paper in the pipeline to move some of the administration from the DCMS to the British Museum – this should make things even better in the long run
African Archaeology study day
April 10th, 2006 by daniel pettBP Lecture Theatre, Clore Education Centre
Saturday 6 May 2006
09.30 Registration
10.00 Opening remarks
Nicholas Badcott, British Museum
10.10 The archaeology of Africa: an introduction
David Phillipson, University of Cambridge
10.45 Excavating in Egypt: on the Western frontier at Kom Firin
Neal Spencer, British Museum
11.20 Coffee/tea
11.45 Sudan’s ancient cultures
Julie Anderson, British Museum
12.20 Cities and states along the Middle Niger
Kevin MacDonald, University College London
13.00 Lunch (please make your own arrangements)
14.10 The archaeology of the forest kingdoms of West Africa
Kodzo Gavua, University of Ghana
14.45 Bananas, iron and cattle: the archaeology of Great Lakes Africa
Andrew Reid, University College London
15.20 Coffee/tea
15.45 Swahili archaeology, new ideas and research
Mark Horton, University of Bristol
16.20 Managing the archaeological heritage of Southern Africa
Webber Ndoro, ICCROM
17.00 Closing remarks
David Phillipson, University of Cambridge
Admission £28, BM Friends £25, Concessions £18
Tickets from the Box Office +44 (0)20 7323 8181 or boxoffice@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
10.00-16.45 daily OR send a cheque, payable to ‘British Museum Great Court Ltd’, with your
name, address and the title of the event to: Box Office, The British Museum, Great Russell
Street, London WC1B 3DG.
Learning and Information Department
Telephone +44 (0)20 7323 8510/8850
Facsimile +44 (0)20 7323 8855
learning@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Great Russell
Iron Age Curator job at the BM
April 3rd, 2006 by daniel pettThe post holder will support later prehistoric (800BC – 100AD) research and curation in the Department of Prehistory & Europe. This will involve registration and liaison on collections management of the later prehistoric collections, dealing with Treasure, Portable Antiquities and public enquiries, as well as assisting in the development of exhibitions and engage in innovative research to develop knowledge and understanding of the later prehistoric material.
Further details and an application form can be found in the attached file.
Finds.org.uk shortlisted for web accessibility awards
April 3rd, 2006 by daniel pettWe recently entered the Jodi Mattes accessibility competition for websites, which is an annual event in memory of a girl who was an employee of the British Museum.
The code for finds.org.uk is now divorced entirely from style, with CSS driving the aesthethics of this site completely, as you may be able to see from the switching style sheets employed throughout the site (except here, where I haven’t got the code built into the wordpress template!).
This is a technique that I picked up from the website alistapart.com
However, we run 3 sites now, and 2 of these will need further work to bring them up to scratch. New financial year and we’ll get on it. Maybe I’ll get an assistant!
The web is how I have learnt all my computer skills and there’s some great stuff out there. For example, Roger Johansson publised a series of articles on his website regarding the issues of accessibility (456bereastreet.com). Several of the recent articles are absolute gems, and they have taken me to some new tools for testing our website. It’s revealed flaws that I can eradicate really easily, so that this site becomes more and more accessible. This is a really overlooked area for most of the Heritage sector in Britain! Over the next few weeks, I’ll analyse some of the other websites in our area and see how they compare to ours. Could be interesting!
Details of the awards and the other shortlisted sites can be found at this web story at the 24 Hour Museum Website. I would have posted this sooner, but I’ve been skiing in New Hampshire. I wish I was still there…..
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART35390.html
Medieval seals online
April 3rd, 2006 by daniel pettThe National Archives is trying to establish an online medieval seal database. The details for this are below.
MEDIEVAL SEALS ON-LINE can become a reality only if it has funding from the Heritage Lottery
Fund. The application must show that it would have wide support and would be of wide use and
interest.
If you think it would, please complete and send to me the form. All we need is evidence of your
interest. If you would like to add any brief comment on a separate sheet of paper, this would help
even more – or write to me.
If you know of anyone else who is interested, please help us by passing this leaflet on to them. If
you would like further copies please contact David Rollason.
The many thousands of wax seals attached to documents in the Middle Ages are not widely
accessible. Yet they are not only important for researching the lives of those who used them; they
also provide a fascinating and revealing conspectus of medieval Britain: images of kings and
bishops, castles and abbeys, towns and craftsmen, and a host of other images, religious, comic,
amorous or moral.
MEDIEVAL SEALS ON-LINE is concerned not only with seals of kings, bishops, knights,
monasteries and the like, but also those of ordinary people (almost unknown, although in fact
some four-fifths of all surviving seals). This will be a new source of historical evidence – for
individuals, for the craftsmen and their markets, for the law, for art and design, for popular taste
and for much else. The 20,000 seals to be dealt with – a valid sample for research – will be about
5% of all those surviving.
MEDIEVAL SEALS ON-LINE will open up this little-known part of our national heritage
· To everyone interested in the Middle Ages
· To teachers, museum curators, and anyone concerned with education
· To those researching the Middle Ages, especially the people and families of the
period
MEDIEVAL SEALS ON-LINE will offer:
· An interactive introduction dealing with how seals were used; how they were made;
what their designs mean; what they can tell us about architecture, dress, armour and
heraldry, religious imagery and popular piety, women, kingship, class structure, and
even humour.
· Images of seals available for study and research as well as for exhibitions, museum
displays etc. These web images will be supplemented by higher resolution versions
stored on CDs to provide a further research resource.
· A catalogue, fully searchable under many different heads: names of owner and user,
date, region, design, inscription etc. Exact consistency of description, even for
detailed elements of design, will make the catalogue a tool of great value for medieval
study and research.
Colonel Bogdanos speaks at the Antiquaries
April 3rd, 2006 by daniel pett
The largest audience for an ordinary meeting in living memory gathered at Burlington House on 23 February, to hear US Marines Colonel and District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos describe the events that took place at the Iraq Museum in 2003 and the ‘continuing cultural catastrophe’.
Fellows, MPs, Peers and distinguished guests from the cultural heritage sector attended the first Annual APPAG Lecture, a collaborative event between the Society and the All-Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group. The invited audience included Neil McGregor, director of the British Museum, John Curtis, also of the British Museum, and Lords Redesdale and Montagu representing APPAG.
This was a lecture ‘from the heart, not the pen’ and the Colonel’s zeal for his subject was in no doubt as he gave probably the most passionate and dynamic lecture seen at the Society. Bogdanos dispelled some myths about the looting of the museum, explaining how much of the theft had been highly targeted and how some pieces first thought stolen, had actually been hidden away by museum staff for safety.
Bogdanos praised institutions such as the British Museum for their swift and organised response, but was less positive about organisations whose protests had not translated into action.
‘Unesco was so angry, they held six conferences in the first few months alone,’ the Colonel said to slightly nervous laughter. ‘Can you imagine how furious they were?’
An amnesty initiated by the Colonel resulted in the recovery of over a third of the stolen objects. Since then, he has continued his crusade to recover more and to expose the illicit antiquities trade which is supporting, in part, insurgency and terrorism in Iraq.
While Colonel Bogdanos’s lecture inevitably attracted differing opinons amongst Fellows at the meeting, there was clearly a consensus of admiration for his ability to enthuse and motivate. The message was clear that resources were needed to protect archaeological sites in Iraq and eradicate the international illicit antiquities trade and it was incumbent on the cultural heritage community to lobby for those measures.
The content contained within the Blog's pages do not represent an official position from any of the organisations associated with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. They are solely those of the post's author.
