National Museum of Ireland

Follow this link to view archaeological news and information from the National Museum of Ireland: http://www.museum.ie/archaeology/

Celebrating Ceramics from York’s collection

There are currently three exhibitions running in York, Scarborough and Wakefield, celebrating the ceramics collection of York Art Gallery:

Fired Up – Celebrating Ceramics from York’s Collection

York Art Gallery
17 September 2005 until 15 January 2006

FirePlace – Celebrating Ceramics from York’s Collection

Scarborough Art Gallery
24 September 2005 until 8 January 2006

WA Ismay – A Passion for Pots – Celebrating Ceramics from York’s Collection

Wakefield Art Gallery
30 September 2005 until 4 January 2006

For more details, visit the York Art Gallery website

Mysteries of Medieval London Unravelled

A new gallery at the Museum of London from November 2005

So what was it really like to live in London 600, 1000 or even 1500 years ago? Did '1066 and all that' matter much to Londoners? Where on earth did London go for 200 years? And what has all this got to do with the city we live in today? The answers to these and other questions that have been exercising the minds of scholars for decades, can be found in the Museum of London's new Medieval London gallery opening at the end of November. With over 1500 objects on display, the gallery will tell the story of London from the end of Roman rule in AD410 to the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558.

From a humble wicker fish trap and a child's toy, to luxury goods made of ivory and coral, amber and glass, the objects combine to spark the imagination and re-create a city of richness and variety, enterprise and ideas.

Savage weapons found in the Thames are a reminder of the Viking invasions and that, on two occasions, London only survived by the skin of its teeth. It may come as a surprise to learn that King Alfred, who re-founded the city in 886 is the man we should all thank for the fact that London is here at all.

Spectacular archaeological finds of recent years will include a section of original riverfront timbers, a Saxon brooch from Covent Garden and a 14th century trumpet found in Billingsgate. Objects excavated from the remains of 13th century Jewish houses in Milk Street will be displayed for the first time. Some small keys from the lockers of patients in St Mary Spital hospital; a child's vest and a set of loaded dice are just some of the objects that bring a sense of ordinary people so vividly to life that visitors may find their heads full of ghosts as they make their way home down Wood Street, Cheapside and the other medieval streets and alleys of today's City. It is worth exploring, for this is the area of London where it all happened.

A new audio-visual display on the Black Death will envelop visitors in the words of the people who experienced the horrors of the disease when it struck. The catastrophe wiped out half the city's population and had a greater effect on Londoners than the Great Fire of 1666 (which only killed a handful of people) or the two World Wars.

Popular assumptions about castles and chivalry, disease and dirt are put under the spotlight, but, happily, pointy-toed shoes are not a myth. A wonderful collection of these 'poulaines' have been restored by the latest technology to some of their original ridiculous splendour. Next to them is a battered old shoe stretched out of shape by a large, and what must have been a very painful, Medieval bunion.

Recent discoveries and new research have changed thinking on important events. Pieces of a priory window smashed up on the orders of Henry VIII at the Reformation have been given pride of place at the end of the gallery, mounted dramatically against a sheet of etched glass. For the people of England, Henry's break with the Catholic Church was the medieval equivalent of the events of 9/11. Spiritually, intellectually and even physically, it changed people's world for ever and propelled them into a new age.

By the middle of the 16th century, London had all the beginnings of the city we know today. It may have only taken half an hour to walk across London, a city with only one bridge, over a hundred churches and one alehouse for every 50 people, but it was already a capital city and commercial and financial centre, a thriving port, a shopping mecca and centre of fashion. It was a cosmopolitan city of around 120,000 people and there were problems with traffic, overcrowding, sanitation and crime.

Sounds familiar?