Pompeii and Herculaneum at the British Museum and the Roman Finds Group conference

It was a case of Pompeii overload yesterday as I attended the Roman Finds Group's conference at the British Museum and went into the related Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition not once, but twice during the day.

To mention the excellent conference first, its not my intention to break down every word said by every speaker, but here are some of the more thought-provoking things they said, as I saw it.

Dr Paul Roberts (British Museum) - 'Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum'

Dr Roberts is the lead curator of the exhibition and gave an honest and personal account of the displays, to which he has clearly committed a lot of time and love. As you'll read below, I think he's pulled it off magnificently.  His pleas to Roman specialists to try and understand the limitations and intended audience of museum exhibition interpretation was particularly familiar to anyone who has been involved in constructing displays.

It was also interesting to note that 95% of the exhibition's content has come from Italy (much of it leaving the country for the first time), and that this is the first exhibition to feature both Pompeii and Herculaneum in the title, giving the smaller site an equal billing that it so richly deserves.

Professor Ray Laurence (University of Kent) - 'Pompeii: from City Streets to People and Houses'

Professor Laurence took us back outside the houses to the streets that surround them, and certainly made me reflect that, in my ignorance, I had always taken a very 21st Century view of streets and roads - seeing them very much as simply places for traffic to travel down.  An increase in scholarship over the last decade or so has started to change our understanding of the role and use of streets, not just in the way that carts and pack animals used or, just as importantly, didn't use them, but also in how the location of shops, water features and shrines indicate how the streetscape was a place for socialising and the teaching of children, and certainly not just somewhere for vehicles to trundle down.

Alex Croom (Tyne and Wear Museums) - 'Housework in the homes of Pompeii and Herculaneum'

Alex Croom looked back inside people's houses, to the furniture and evidence of household activities.  This stems from her own research in recreating the furniture for the interior of the various buildings reconstructed at Arbeia Roman fort in South Shields.  Issues such as the use of chests and cupboards for longer and shorter term storage (including practical issues such as how sticky used oil lamps become), the fashion of having crisp laundered creases in clothes and even what the Romans stuffed their mattresses with were all tackled.  Even the issue of toilets, chamber pots and dealing with cess pits were discussed - a dirty thought but of course a necessity of life and a practical issue every household had to deal with.

Dr Andrew Jones (University of York) - 'One pot and its story'

In a shorter talk, Dr Jones introduced the 'AAPP' - the Anglo American Project in Pompeii, and he was the first of a number of speakers talking about their involvement with that project.  The AAPP has been re-excavating Insula VI.1, just inside the Herculanean gate (at the top left of the plan below).

Dr Jones' talk focussed around a single amphora, broken during the earthquake of AD62/3 and buried when the bar it was in was repaired.  Inside the broken amphora was a brown soil, which when sieved revealed thousands of tiny fish bones - evidence that its contents were 'garum', the fermented fish sauce the Romans were so fond of.  Analysis of the bones and ceramic fabric has revealed that the sauce contained bonito and sardinella fish, and was made on the Spanish / Portuguese border.

Dr Ria Berg (Institutum Romanum Finlandiae) - 'Did all Pompeiian women have mirrors?'

Dr Berg's research has investigated the frequency and distribution of mirrors and other 'mundus muliebris' (toilet articles) in Pompeii.  She discovered that most mirrors were found in domestic contexts, rather than as possessions gathered by fleeing inhabitants and discovered with their bodies.  Only around half of the houses she studied had mirrors, and these usually only contained one.  Only the largest houses had more than one mirror (such as the House of the Menander and the House of Paquius Proculus).  The location of these mirrors revealed that they were usually stored with other toiletry articles, but in more general storage cupboards rather than in bedroom settings.

Equally interesting was the number of mirrors found in buildings that might have served as brothels ('luparnar'), suggesting some form of communal use, or represent the personal grooming of the girls working there.

David Griffiths (University of Leicester) - 'From dusk 'til dawn: lamps and lighting in Pompeii'

David Griffiths was the second speaker involved in the AAPP project, and his research centres around the socio-cultural and economic implications of lighting in the Roman world.  His study of the lamps from Insula VI.1, specifically those from the House of the Surgeon, demonstrated the growth in artificial light throughout the 1st Century BC.  His work in progress on the amount of olive oil required to light certain homes, business and public buildings is a fascinating step into the more practical realities of keeping the many oil lamps required to light a busy town burning.

Dr Hilary Cool (Barbican Research Associates) - 'Becoming Consumers: the inhabitants of a Pompeiian insula and their things'

Dr Cool's talk opened by challenging just how representative the fabulous material remains from Pompeii are of Roman towns across the empire.  By looking at the objects in use at the point of the eruption, a unique picture of older objects still in use combined with emerging fashions and technology can be gained.

This was demonstrated through the study of glass vessels and loomweights from Insula VI.1.  The glass vessel assemblage showed the emergence of blown glass and a greater variety of forms in the years leading up to the eruption.  In the case of loomweights, the assemblage suggested that, in contrast to the glass, older warp weighted loom technology was still in use at a time when it had been superseded in other places, even in Britain.  However, rather than being seen as evidence of Pompeii being backwards, this is evidence of the traditional role of the Roman matron as a provider of cloth for her family, and these antique loomweights therefore served an important purpose, but not one directly related to their function.  They were symbols of respectability and tradition.

Dr Richard Hobbs (British Museum) - 'Small change in ancient Pompeii'

The conference was entertaining completed by Dr Hobbs, another speaker involved in the AAPP project.  The coinage recovered from the excavations at Insula VI.1 have presented a large and unique assemblage of 1,500 coins, particularly important for determining exactly what coinage was in circulation at the time of the eruption.

The most fascinating element of the talk, though, was the series of coins of the 2nd Century BC from Marseilles (Massilia) and Ibiza (Ebusus).  These were imported into Campania, possibly even in one large, deliberate shipment, but then copied locally.  The Ebusus coinage is particularly interesting as it features imagery of the Egyptian dwarf god Bes.  Dr Hobbs proposed that this image may have been chosen because of Bes' associations with wine and merriment, and that these early coins were being introduced to be used in such contexts.

So there you have it.  A very well organised conference with a great range of entertaining speakers which complemented the themes of the exhibition well, and provided a wonderful insight into the new research being carried out in these most fascinating of archaeological sites.  Huge thanks are due to the Roman Finds Group for arranging it.

The British Museum's exhibition 'Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum' was one that I've been dying to see ever since I first heard about it being planned through the museum grapevine about 3 years ago. I'm delighted to say that it lived up to my every expectation - which not every well-hyped exhibition does.

The first thing to say is that the object selection truly is stunning. The range of iconic objects is second to none, and it must have been a nightmare transporting and installing some of them, let alone managing issues such as environmental controls and security.

Chief among these awkward displays has to be the reconstructed garden fresco from the Villa Arianna at Boscoreale.  The effect is wonderful, and reminded me of the display of the garden frescoes from Livia's vill at Prima Porta in Rome's Palazzo Massimo.

The second triumph is simply the approach and layout. Pompeii and Herculaneum are far too often talked about in fatalistic terms, but this exhibition is about life rather than death. The decision to focus on the Roman home was a brave one, as it means that many facets of the sites are omitted entirely (I don't remember a single brothel reference or mention of the amphitheatre and its famous riot for instance) but it works wonderfully. The use of the layout of Pompeii's House of the Tragic Poet as a model for displaying artefacts in domestic room groupings, with effective but understated set dressing and sound effects worked a treat, and gave the objects from different houses a unity that most books on Pompeii struggle to achieve.

The inevitable Pompeiian body casts were there of course (including the headlining dog), but were wisely limited in number and handled very sensitively, and the interpretation and selections of possessions displayed alongside them made their stories touchingly human.

The carbonised wooden furniture from Herculaneum was perhaps the star of the show, as even going to visit the sites doesn't present the opportunity to see them, which is a real shame. The baby's cradle rightly attracts a lot of attention, but the whole selection of tables, chests and decorative fragments are mind blowing to those of us used to Romano-British archaeology, and it takes a conscious effort to remind yourself just how old they are, and that they're not replicas.

There has been a fashion in British Museum exhibitions over the last few years to have a video presentation of some kind, but the one shown here is definitely a more engaging and graphically inventive presentation than ever before, with some nice playing with words to describe the progress of the eruption, while at the same time linking the ancient city of Pompeii with the modern inhabitants of the Bay of Naples.

So did I enjoy it? Absolutely.  Will I go back and see it again? Hopefully.  Is it as good as going and seeing the sites for yourself?  Not quite, but it is one of the most engaging exhibitions the British Museum has put on in years and deserves all of the plaudits it receives.

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Waterlogged wood and phallic pendants - new discoveries in Roman London

I have been reading with great interest about the new discoveries in London - the 'Pompeii of the North' as some newspapers would have it.  You can see the major news coverage from the BBC and Guardian through these links, but basically, excavations on the site of what will be Bloomberg's new HQ have been producing some rather amazing finds.

Because the excavation is on the site of the River Walbrook (now no longer in existence), the deposits are waterlogged, providing an amazing level of preservation of organic material such as fences, shoes and over 100 fragments of writing tablets.  There has even been the discovery of a wooden door.

The site looks as if will prove to be of immense interest to those of us with an interest in Romano-British religious belief and cult practices.  The name 'Walbrook' is already well known as the site of the London Mithraeum (an underground 'temple' used by members of the cult to the Persian deity Mithras).  The original site was discovered in 1954 during post war building work, and these new excavations have uncovered a new section of the structure.  Hopefully, the finds will shed even more light on this already fascinating and important site.

Also of interest is the fact that the site has uncovered the largest collection to date of a type of pendants known as 'penis and fist pendants'.  These pendants are known mainly in bone, but are also occasionally found in bronze, and have a penis at one end and a hand at the other, making a gesture known as 'mano fico', or 'fig hand'.  This is when the thumb is pushed between the index and middle fingers, and also has rather sexual connotations.  Rather than being sexual in nature, however, both of these symbols were used as good luck symbols in the Roman period, and the pendants were believed to have been worn to ward off bad fortune (or the 'evil eye').  These particular pendants are associated with the Roman military, so it will be very interesting to see exactly what context this large collection comes from.  The picture below shows one of these pendants, found in Lincoln.

The plan is apparently to display the finds in the new complex when it opens in 2016, and I for one can't wait to see them.  In the meantime, I wish the Museum of London archaeologists the best of luck with the mammoth post-excavation process they now have to go through.  I'm sure the quality of the finds will make it a fascinating one, and I'm equally sure there will be many more revelations as the finds and environmental data are studied in more detail - particularly as the writing tables are deciphered.

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The Mithraeum at Rome's Baths of Caracalla

I was recently very excited to hear that a mithraeum underneath the Baths of Caracalla in Rome has been restored and reopened to the public.

A mithraeum is an underground temple used by worshippers of the Persian deity Mithras.  The male-only cult became popular in Rome in the 1st Century AD, particularly with soldiers, and mithraea have been found across the Empire, including in Britain.  One feature of the cult is that it was very secretive about its initiation rites and practices.  A famous and distinctive image found in numerous mithraea is the 'tauroctony' - the bull slaying scene.  The images below, of a tauroctony and the head of Mithras, are from the Walbrook mithraeum in London and can be seen in the Museum of London.

The example at the Baths of Caracalla is exciting because it is linked to such an important and prominent public structure.  I very much hope to see it at some point, but in the meantime I have been waiting for someone who has visited it to post some good images on the web.  I'm pleased to say that the 'Leaping Without a Net' blog has just done such a thing, so head over there now to see them.

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Bronze at the Royal Academy

On Friday I managed to get chance to visit the Royal Academy's well-hyped Bronze exhibition just before it closes (though the pedant in me thinks it should should surely have been called 'Copper Alloy'). The main draw for me, as I suspect it was for many other archaeologists, was to see the controversial Crosby Garrett helmet on public display for the first time, but more of that shortly.

I'm always slightly wary of art exhibitions that feature archaeology, as the tendency is to show archaeology as little more than a source of 'ancient art' - of interest purely for its aesthetic value. I was also a little perturbed by the entrance price of £15, though I'm conscious that my membership of the Museums Association means I get into most museum exhibitions in the country free, and thankfully avoid the costs that 'normal', full price paying visitors have to stump up each time. It certainly has an effect on the way you view and experience an exhibition.

The first thing to say is that the selection of objects was simply stunning - the chronological and geographical variety was very well planned and executed. The curators deserve applause for a wonderfully successful mixture of the spectacular and the unusual, the ancient and the modern. I never knew what would be round the next corner, but I was never disappointed when I turned it.

The thematic arrangement worked well, allowing objects to be logically grouped, but in themes wide enough to retain a sense of variety in each room. Although often overlooked, whoever did the lighting also deserves credit, as great use was made of dramatic lighting without causing distracting shadows or blinding the audience.

One minor gripe would be the labelling. Why was there only one label for each object when there was clearly space for the label to be repeated, stopping crowds of people jostling for position to read it? Also, the interpretation had a tendency to fall into the minimalist 'art' category, when some objects were crying out to have more detailed stories told. Often, crucial details about an object appeared on the introductory panels to each room rather than on the object label itself.

There was also some odd juxtapositioning of objects, labels and wall panels which caused avoidable bottle necks. This was most notable in the very first room, where the single tiny label for the large 'Dancing Satyr' statue (on a large flat plinth) was placed at the same corner of the room as the introductory text on the wall, causing people to congregate in one tiny space and struggle to read either text properly.

Every exhibition of this type brings you into contact with objects and artworks you didn't know existed, and Bronze had some memorable moments indeed. I'm sure I'm far from the only visitor struck by the scale, drama and sheer quality of the large scale Perseus holding aloft Medusa's severed head.

I was also pleased to discover a gilded Romano-Gaulish statuette of Mercury that I didn't know existed, though it was portrayed with such musculature that without the caduceus it was holding, it would surely have looked more like Hercules!

So what about the Crosby Garrett helmet, the star of the show for those of us who have followed its controversial history since discovery? Naturally, and understandably considering it is on loan from its mysterious new owner, the exhibition label made no reference at all to its discovery, auction sale or the questions it has raised about the aptness of the current description of 'treasure' under the 1996 Act.

Despite being an undoubtedly spectacular object, I'm afraid seeing it made me feel more sad than awestruck - its immaculate appearance the result of hurried restoration to maximise auction profit rather than careful conservation to reveal archaeological information. A textbook example of an important archaeological object turned into a shiny art exhibit. I'm afraid I'd rather have been at Tullie House museum in Carlisle looking at 60-odd pieces of stabilised metal with a reconstruction drawing of 'how it might have looked' than the shiny, over restored objet d'art presented here. It certainly draws comparisons with the lengthy and painstaking archaeological conservation work that has been done on another recent Roman cavalry helmet find - from the Hallaton site, now on display at the wonderful Market Harborough Museum.

Overall though, I won't let my niggles over the legal status of archaeological finds detract from an excellent and eye-opening show, which proved itself worthy of that entrance fee.

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Spirit in Motion - my Paralympic experience

Following on from our trip last month to see the Olympics (see my blog post here), my wife and I have just spent two days enjoying some events during the final weekend of the Paralympics, which we were lucky enough to get tickets for at the first time of asking.

We were especially pleased that our events across both Games enabled us to experience a range of venues, both on and off the main Olympic Park.  So here's what we saw...

Swimming

We spent the Friday evening at the swimming pool (well, Aquatic Centre if you're being posh) and the evening immediately set a trend for our Paralympic sessions - seeing China win a lot of medals.  We actually had a rather personal reason for wanting to see the swimming, which is that my father in law is a double Paralympic swimming medallist.

Our seats were, of course, way up in the Gods, and I struggle to think of a time when I've climbed more flights of stairs in one go. People were genuinely gasping for air at the top, and bottles of water intended to last the whole evening were vanishing in one gulp on a very hot and humid evening.

One advantage of the swimming is that there is a very quick turnaround of races interspersed with medal ceremonies so there is little time to get bored. We saw a succession of races with some British and Chinese interest, and it's fair to say that my wife was far the happier with her country's haul at the end of the night!

Just when it seemed that team GB would end the night without any reward, the Women's 4x100m relay team, languishing in 5th at the halfway point, put on a storming finish to take silver on the line.  Cake? Iced.

Table Tennis

Our busy Saturday began with an early morning trip across London (we were staying with friends in the north) to the southwest and the Excel centre. The setup was quite good - as we had tickets specifically for the table tennis we had good seats and didn't have to queue, but our tickets also allowed us to get into other events on that day - we just had to join in with the masses and hope to get a seat before they all went.

Table tennis is a sport we both enjoy playing so it was fascinating to see it played at a top level, and the quality of play on show made it easy to forget that the competitors were physically impaired.  Naturally, the two team finals we saw ended with China winning both golds...

Wheelchair Fencing

This event was something of a surprise, as we used the advantage of the aforementioned open ticket to pay a quick visit to this fascinating sport.  Team GB were actually playing, but because of the layout of the arena we could hardly follow any of that match, and watched a bit of Russia v Ukraine instead.  We actually didn't have long before we had to travel to our next venue, but even so it was nice to be able to see a few bouts and appreciate the skill and agility on show.

Wheelchair Basketball

One of the most popular events of all, the basketball was being held at the 'North Greenwich Arena' - otherwise known as the O2.  We decided to use the Emirates Skyline cable cars to cross the river (despite the enormous queues and farcical ticketing system), which, although we'll probably never use it again, it's nice to say we have.

The basketball session consisted of two matches - the bronze medal (GB versus USA) and gold medal (Australia v Canada) matches.

Despite a valiant comeback early in the second half, the USA ultimately turned GB over relatively easily, though the crowd gave some noisy encouragement.

In the final, it was clear to see why Australia and Canada were there, as their movement and shooting were first rate and the match was easy to get caught up in, even as a neutral.  I confess to not being a fan of 'normal' basketball in the slightest, but something about the wheelchair version of the game makes it a better spectator sport.  It was a close game in which Australia had led early on but Canada came good at the end to claim the gold.

So there it is - four more sports in three more venues to complete our London 2012 experience.  It meant a lot of travelling and some very late nights, but being able to say 'I was there' at some key events is priceless, and something we'll always treasure.

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