Unearthing the new archaeology displays

A new display of stone artefacts
© Pitt Rivers Museum

During the VERVE: Need Make Use project, the team have refreshed displays and created entirely new exhibits.  The previously empty desktop cases on the Upper Gallery are now being filled with new displays of archaeology. We hope the public will find their way up to the top floor to uncover these artefacts.




Here are a few highlights from the displays:

Female ceramic figure 1921.54.1
© Pitt Rivers Museum

In Case 4: Ceramics is a female figure (1921.54.1) from Cyprus dated to the Bronze Age (1800-1600 BC). It was donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum by George Davis Hornblower in 1921.

This terracotta female figure has been hand formed and is hollow. The details have primarily been painted on with dark brown pigment, with some impressed and incised into the clay. The figure has a striking pose, which is believed to symbolise female fertility. According to Professor Vassos Karageorghis this figure is a rare example of the Astarte-type figure (Karageorghis, 2004). Astarte is an ancient Middle Eastern goddess. This figure shows a transition point in the development of such figures from a plank shape to more three dimensional shapes. The figure’s actual provenance is unknown as it was purchased at a sale in Egypt in 1908.

Bronze mirror 1887.1.414 © Pitt Rivers Museum

This broken bronze disc mirror (1887.1.414) is in Case 7: Metals. The mirror is from Ancient Greece and is dated to the 4th century BC. The label on the mirror in Greek is literally translated as ‘Athens vi / The skull of a woman from / a tomb at Vari in Attica, / excavated in the / year 1866. There are also / more bones and a bronze / mirror 250-500 / BC.’  The mirror was transferred to the Pitt Rivers Museum from George Rolleston at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Rolleston purchased the mirror from Athanasios Rhousopoulos in 1871. The mirror would have had a shiny, reflective surface but, over time, the metal has corroded. 

 

Rush matting fragment 1937.44.13 © Pitt Rivers Museum

In Case 8: Organic Materials are two fragments of rush matting from Bee Cave Canyon, Brewster County, Texas, USA. Bee Cave Canyon is a large rock shelter that was excavated between 1928 and 1929 by the Museum of the American Indian in conjunction with the University of Cambridge. The site has evidence of walled rooms, rock paintings, worked stone and also yielded a considerable amount of perishable materials, revealing a lot about the prehistoric people that lived there.

The fragments on display are a piece of twill plaited basketry or matting (1937.44.13) and a corner piece of chequer plaited matting (1937.44.17). They were donated by Lewis Colville Gray Clarke, who was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge from 1937. Artefacts from the site are housed in the National Museum of the American Indian, which is now part of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as in Cambridge's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, also accessioned there in 1937.

This is just a sample of the objects on display with interesting stories to tell, so come to the Museum to find some more...

Madeleine Ding and Sian Mundell
VERVE Curatorial Assistants


References

Karageorghis, V. (2004). 'Kypriaka XV' in Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus. Nicosia: Dept. of Antiquities, pp. 169-74

Craft on the Grass: Pitt Fest 2015

Unlike the blazing sunshine of previous years, the September morning of our third annual Pitt Fest dawned cold and drizzly. Would the weather dampen the appetite of event-goers? Not at all; more than 3300 people came to make, handle, listen, watch, dance, eat, drink and be inspired on the Museums’ lawn – exceeding last year’s attendance by at least 10%.

Volunteer Tim Renders and the Museum's Director Dr Mike O'Hanlon welcome visitors to Pitt Fest 2015
© Pitt Rivers Museum

So what is the point of Pitt Fest? Of course it’s a great deal of fun but there are more fundamental reasons behind it. Two of VERVE’s aims are to impart a clearer message of what the Museum is (or can be) about, and to increase participation. The project’s interpretation of the Museum is not necessarily one of anthropology or ethnography but of technology. Many of the collections are handmade, pre-industrial artefacts that suggest intimate knowledge of materials, design and techniques. Pitt Fest takes just some of the ingenious craft processes evident in the collections and makes them accessible and immediate outside the Museum, to re-engage people of all ages with their hands, and to see things ‘being made’ to contextualise and reanimate those static objects sitting behind glass.

Romilly Swann of The Outside demonstrates natural dyes © Pitt Rivers Museum

This years theme was 'handmade' crafts. So visitors to ‘Pitt Fest: Handmade’ could learn about dyeing techniques with The Outside, fire-making with Axe and Paddle Bushcraft, see a pole-lathe in action with Alistair Philips, or have a go at stone carving, leatherwork or basketry with Nancy Peskett, Katherine Pogson or the Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Of course no festival is complete without music, shopping or food, and we tried to inject a global flavour into our line-up; you could try Tibetan dumplings or Peruvian ceviche (raw fish) whilst listening to Ugandan song or Brazilian capoeira, before perusing the market stalls of fair-trade and local artisanal goodies.

Families could have a go at face-painting, object handling making badges or a host of other creative activities run by museum volunteers. All day long, the these tables were filled with people of all ages busy making clay pots, paper hats, stick harmonicas, peg dolls and willow hurdles.

Volunteers and expert paper milliners Emma and Megan (left)
and staff from the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) from Reading (right) © Pitt Rivers Museum

Krisztina helping a child decorate a peg doll @ Pitt Rivers Museum

  

Volunteers Liz and Martin teach people how to weave willow © Pitt Rivers Museum

Volunteer Damon showing a visitor an mbira (thumb piano) © Pitt Rivers Museum

To get a taste of the day check out our short film:

Pitt Fest: Handmade! 2015 from Pitt Rivers Museum on Vimeo.

Putting on a festival takes enormous amounts of time, planning, brawn, and goodwill. We are grateful to the many staff, collaborators and volunteers who helped make Pitt Fest 2015 such a success. Now time to start planning next year!

Redisplaying Naga baskets

Our work creating new displays along the upper tier of the Museum's ground floor (Court) continues. Currently we are turning our attention to the north side, focussing on Naga material, including a large number of Naga baskets. The Naga comprise several tribal groups living in northeastern India and northwestern Burma. The Museum has rich Naga collections, largely due to substantial donations by John Henry Hutton and James Philip Mills in the 1920s. 

The old display of Naga baskets (with new lighting) © Pitt Rivers Museum

Watercolour of Naga man with dao, 
shield and basket. 1893.7.14 

As part of the project, our plan is to significantly improve the Naga baskets display, which has been unchanged for many years. Such baskets were made and used by men, associated with the Naga tradition of head-taking, which is no longer practised. They are varied in construction and appearance, decorated with carved wooden heads, monkey skulls, boars'  tusks, goat hair, grass and palm tassels and even whole birds. We want to improve how these objects are mounted and reduce the number of items in the case to create more space for them to be seen and appreciated individually, rather than just as a collection.

The old display contained 32 baskets, tightly packed into two display cases. They all have long handles but being so tightly packed meant that many of the handles had been folded inside the basket, plus many of the attached tassels overhung other baskets or were squashed against the bottom of the case making access difficult. In addition, many of these tied-on decorations have become detached.

Now, all the baskets have been removed from their cases to be carefully catalogued and photographed. They are undergoing conservation treatment which involves being cleaned of any surface dust acquired whilst on display, and securing any damaged basketry or detached decoration back in place.

Most of the baskets were previously displayed by tying a short length of string to the rim and hanging them from a nail in the back of the case. Being positioned like this for many years has caused damage to the fragile woven cane structure so the new display will have individually-made mounts to provide much more support for each basket.

The new display will be designed to make it easier to see each individual basket and also show some of the elaborately woven straps, previously hidden inside each basket. This new layout incorporates 22 of the original baskets, meaning we have had to decide which baskets to remove and put into storage.

1929.22.15  © Pitt Rivers Museum

The decision on which baskets to remove (or 'deselect') was made jointly by members of the curatorial, conservation, technical teams based on various criteria - if it was too fragile to return to display, how likely it would be for the fur, bird skins and hair to be attacked by moths, the style of basketry and decorations used, and whether these demonstrated a suitable variety of techniques and materials within the theme of the case.

For example, this basket was not included in the new display for two reasons: we were concerned that it was vulnerable to pest damage (moths love fur and hair tassels!). Also it lacks any carved figures or skulls so it did not fit with the faces and figures that have so far informed the theme in the Court phase of redisplay - “the world is watching: performance and ceremony”.

As well as allowing the carrying straps to be visible for the first time, the new display will allow the outline of each basket to be clearly visible, whist new lighting will help draw visitors' eyes upwards, illuminating the baskets' shapes and colours.

The technicians' planned layout for the new Naga baskets display © Pitt Rivers Museum

The baskets that did not make the final selection have been stored in bespoke boxes since their unusual dimensions meant they would not fit any standard sized ones. This is a relatively common problem at Pitt Rivers, so many of us are very good at producing boxes made from corrugated plastic.

It is envisaged that the project's redisplay work in the Court will be completed by Spring 2014 so do come take a look at these lively arrangements of masks, figurative sculpture and re-lit boats from around the world...as well as this fascinating collection of Naga baskets.