Images of Arthur: The Legend and the Man
19.6.09-30.9.09
Feared warrior, chivalrous knight, or magical ruler, the legend of king Arthur remains as tantalising as ever. This summer Glastonbury Abbey, the predicted resting place of the King and his captivating wife Guinevere, will host this special exhibition that will explore the mystique surrounding the sixth-century leader. Examining who Arthur was, why he is linked to Glastonbury Abbey and how his cultural legacy has developed from the medieval world to the present day. The displays will appeal to young and old alike and provide a crucial insight into shifting perceptions surrounding the enigmatic leader. For more information contact James Fenton, Watershed PR, 200 St Andrew's Road, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3BS, tel 01308 420 785, mob 07780 976 163, email james@watershedpr.co.uk, web www.watershedpr.co.uk.
Making History: 300 Years of Antiquaries in Britain
11.7.09-4.10.09
Rarely seen treasures from a major London museum collection are to go on show for the first time in the north of England and will be at The Sunderland Museum & Art Gallery after successful stops at Stoke-on-Trent (3.10.08-3.1.09) and Salisbury (17.1.09-21.6.09). Guest curated by the historian David Starkey, Making History celebrates the contribution of the Society of Antiquaries to our appreciation of the past and is a must for all history enthusiasts. Among the items on display are an 11th century copy of Magna Carta, a Tudor portrait of Henry VIII and an inventory of his possessions at the time of his death. There are early archaeological discoveries and 18th century prints; for genealogists there is the ultimate family tree, The Roll Chronicle. This lavishly illustrated scroll dating from the mid 15th century charts the descent of Henry VI from Adam and Eve. This is an innovative tour that brings together artefacts of national and local interest. Among the local exhibits is the Benwell altar, which was among the first discoveries to have been recorded and preserved from Hadrian's Wall in the 18th century. The touring exhibition is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund who awarded £305,500 and has evolved from the exhibition created to celebrate 300 years of the Society of Antiquaries, shown to wide acclaim at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 2007. It is supported by a fully illustrated website, which contains more detailed information on all the exhibits, including a timeline and further reading. For information and images please contact Jane Beaufoy, Communications Officer, The Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE, tel 020 7479 7086, fax 020 7287 6967, email j.beaufoy@sal.org.uk. Website: www.sal.org.uk/makinghistory.
Catastrophe! The Looting & Destruction of Iraq's Past
Opened in April last year in Chicago (with a candle-lit vigil and a book of the same name) on the fifth anniversary of the pillaging of the Iraq National Museum (see feature and My archaeology, Sep/Oct 2006). It told the story of the country's wider archaeological losses at the hands of thieves and insensitive military actions. That September the US Congress ratified the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Britain, meanwhile, hitched armed conflict to the now delayed cultural heritage bill, leaving the UK increasingly isolated in its failure to ratify the convention, even as the MoD claims informally to be acting as if it has (feature Nov/Dec 2008). The showing of Catastrophe! at the Society of Antiquaries of London (Jun 10–26) offers Westminster politicians, and the rest of us, a case study in why the convention matters. The panels go to Durham University for the conference on Appropriating the Past (Jul 6–8) and then to Newcastle's Great North Museum.
The unseen Mary Rose, Croydon
to 7.8.09
These intriguing pieces of carved (and in one case charred) wood give an extra frisson when you realise what they are. The clue is in the date of their loss, July 1545: they went down with the Mary Rose off Portsmouth, and were used to hold lighted matches to the powder of loaded cannon (did retired mariners, one wonders, collect them to embellish fireside stories?). Along with over 200 other objects from the ship, many never exhibited before and the first time for such a collection to leave Portsmouth, they can be seen at the Whitgift Conference Centre, Whitgift School, Haling Park, Croydon CR2 6YT till Aug 7. With such artefacts one hardly needs more, but "state-of-the-art multi-media displays" are promised, with facial reconstructions of a gunner and bosun, and the skeleton of the carpenter's dog. There are extensive school workshops and concessions. If the objects in Hidden Treasures from the Mary Rose were in the British Museum's Great Court, people would be queuing out at Euston Station.
Inspired by Stonehenge: Bruce Bogle
to 20.9.09
What do you do if your obsession overflows your garage? You can put some of it on tour, which is what Julian Richards did last year when Salisbury Museum exhibited old guidebooks, festival posters, teacups, cards (all posted with messages) and other memorabilia, under the title Inspired by Stonehenge. But the stuff keeps coming. First Bruce Bogle, one of 16 wooden Beatles caricatures that mysteriously came and went at the stones in 1966, emerged from another garage, and the one-time Manchester student creators finally fessed up. Now the exhibition, with Bruce, has moved to the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes (till Sep 20), which has added material from its own collection of Stonehenge ceramics and books. And if that's not enough, there is a new book of the show (Hobnob Press, £4.95). The site really does need its own museum.
Anglo-Saxon Art in the Round
to 5.9.09
Anglo-Saxon Art in the Round was the title of an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, celebrating its purchase of the De Wit collection of gold and silver coins (Briefing Sep/Oct 2008). It has since been to Norwich, and is now at the Ipswich Town Hall Galleries (till Sep 5). As well as the coins and the Boss Hall brooch from Sproughton (right), visitors to Ipswich will be able to see objects from the Coddenham bed burial, Suffolk, in their first public excursion. English Heritage stepped in to help when a seventh century cemetery was discovered at a gravel quarry in 1999, where at least two of the graves had been timber-lined chambers. In one (imagined, left), a woman's body had been lain on a wooden bed, one of less than 10 bed burials known from England; objects recovered included over 100 pieces of metalwork, small pieces of wood and fabric, a purse, jewellery and shoe buckles like those in the rich Prittlewell grave, Essex.
Rosetta Stone, British Museum
The British Museum has the Rosetta Stone, and plenty of stone carvings and mummies, but with the opening of the tomb-chapel of Nebamun in January, its presentation of ancient Egypt moved into new realms. The paintings that glorified the walls of a "scribe and grain accountant" in 1400BC have had a rich history (the location of the tomb itself is not known), from arrival in London in 1821 to the lengthy and challenging restoration of the largest pieces. They are now displayed, in the museum and on the BM's website, in striking walk-around context as astonishing works of art, to be seen, we are told, as intended.
Leeds City Museum: reopened
from 13.9.08
The new Leeds City Museum opened on September 13, in a conversion of the former Civic Institute building in Millennium Square. It has five galleries, a central arena and a special exhibitions space; a new discovery centre is being created near Clarence Dock. This is the first purpose-built home for Leeds's artefacts since the original museum on Park Lane was bombed in 1941. It closed in 1965, when the functions moved to the Central Library, but these too closed in 1999. Now you can tour World View (with an opening exhibition about Africa), Life on Earth, Ancient Worlds (pictured, featuring Greece, Rome and Egypt), Leeds Collectors and The Leeds Story (where you will find local archaeological artefacts such as jet beads, an iron age pipe made from a sheep's leg bone and fragments of the Anglo-Scandinavian cross from Leeds parish church). The focal area for all of these is the Leeds Arena, whose floor is a giant map of the metropolitan district.
Guildhall Art Gallery: Roman collection
In December Museum of London Archaeology, with the City of London, launched London's Roman Amphitheatre, the publication of excavations under Guildhall Yard in 1985–99. Of the many recent excavations in London, this is one of the more remarkable, both for the discovery and description of a key structure of the Roman city, and for the conservation and display of the remains, which seem to have risen from the depths to become part of the contemporary world. In 1885 the site became the Guildhall Art Gallery, which was destroyed in the 1941 blitz, then replaced and reopened in 1999. During the new construction, the amphitheatre's eastern entrance, arena palisade, seating bank and drains were uncovered; founded around AD74, the amphitheatre was rebuilt 50 years later in masonry but was largely demolished by the mid-fourth century. Now, alongside the collection of British painting and sculpture, excavated artefacts are on permanent display, including jewellery, ceramics and this bone hairpin decorated with the head of Minerva.
World Museum Liverpool: Ancient Egypt
As part of continuing development since its reopening in 2005, World Museum Liverpool launched a new gallery in December, to join its other archaeology and excellent ethnography rooms. The Ancient Egypt gallery is on the face of it conventional, even old-fashioned, with artefacts in cases, informative labels and dioramas painted on the walls. But those features, together with storylines about everyday life, culture and, of course, death, actually make for a quiet revolution in the presentation of ancient remains from the Nile valley. While the Manchester Museum fussed about whether or not to hide its mummies (an "official statement" on the issue being the first thing you are asked to read if you innocently visit its website), Liverpool's Egypt curator Ashley Cooke had been taping interviews with expatriate Egyptians, writing speeches with which actors could impersonate pharaohs (in received accents) and dockworkers (in Liverpool accents), and researching the collection's story as well as its country of origin. The result, in which Victorian showmen, rapacious collectors and the blitz pay their part, is informative and entertaining. Ancient Egypt emerges as an inseparable part of British industrial urban history.
Last updated 17 July 2009 by Seren Langley
Deadline for inclusion into British Archaeology issue 124 is 9pm Sunday 11 March 2012, on sale 6 April. Please email Briefing with details or updates of your event for the next magazine as soon as possible. Submissions are accepted at any time for online entries. Plain text electronic submission is always preferred, ie in the main body of an email. Please do NOT send 'docx' format attachments.
Database last updated 8 February 2012 by Seren Langley.
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