Summer Digging at Berkeley (Throw Back Thursday)

Who doesn't love a muddy bottom all the way home?

Landrovers come with their own unique ecosystem, a rare balance of moss, mould, rust and rain puddles on seats!

Take post-excavation sorting outside into the sunshine!

Archaeology has learned so much from the building profession - we too stand around watching one person at work (motivation is integral to productivity)

Part of the Green Apple Scheme-funded temporary exhibition all around Berkeley

Another fantastic exhibition designed by Bristol students at the Jenner Museum (and another at the Castle)

Science or supernatural possession? The case of the moving statue

Archaeologists tend not to believe in ghosts or superstitions on the whole, but now and then eyebrows and questions are raised when the inexplicable presents itself. The case of the independently moving Egyptian statue is a case in point. And this story comes with time-lapse video proof!

Material Culture: 9/11 and Ground Zero

"Excavating Ground Zero: Fragments from 9/11" is Penn Museum's latest exhibition offering. Housed in a small room, some 15 objects retrieved from Ground Zero are displayed alongside video footage, photographs and information panels detailing the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Centre.

Visitors are invited to respond to the exhibition and recount their own experiences in written form. The simple every day objects recovered from the site by archaeologists and anthropologists (a melted keyboard, glasses, a visitor badge, window glass) evoke remembrance of the ordinary people who lost their lives on that day.

The events of 9/11 are ingrained on the USA's collective conciousness. This display will hit a nerve for many, but its small-scale approach (rather than a multi-level exhibition) will hopefully create a more personal and intimate experience for visitors, avoiding a shock-factor show. See more: www.penn.museum

Amazing Animals: Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel

First unearthed in 1996 in a rescue excavation in Lod, ancient Diospolis, Israel, a large and extraordinarily detailed floor mosaic was recently lifted from its site and conserved. Found in a large villa believed to belong to a wealthy Roman, the exquisitely preserved floor dates to about AD 300. This glorious mosaic is in the United States for a limited time before it returns to Israel to become the focus of the Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Center. The Legion of Honor is one of only four museums to display this treasure before its final and permanent installation in Lod.

Exhibition curator Renée Dreyfus says, “Other Roman mosaics have been found in Israel, but this one is exceptional in its lively imagery and its excellent state of preservation. We are thrilled to be able to display such an amazing work of art in our museum and think about what a great city Lod must have been in Roman times. Each excavated work in the Holy Land reveals so much about the history and people who lived in this remarkable land.”

Read more here

The Dogu of Japan and the 'Goddess' of Europe

A collection of tiny, broken ceramic feet, ornate goggle-eyed statues and the famed ‘Grimes Grave Goddess’ are among 100 prehistoric figurines going on show at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts next week to enable a comparison between a matching (but totally unconnected) tradition of human model making in Japan and Europe thousands of years ago.

‘Unearthed’ features six ornate Jomon figurines (known as dogu) from Japan which are up to 16,000 years old. The beautifully carved statues are remarkably well complimented by a collection of Neolithic and Eneolithic statues from the Balkans which date back 8,500 years.

The exhibition creators say the comparison of both sets of figures made by villagers in totally unconnected regions, has thrown up “intriguing similarities and differences.” Many of the statues have been made to be hand held and are typically about 5 cm in height (2.3cm at smallest). Both sets are made from similar materials and have breaks in similar places.

"There may never again be the chance to see this many ancient objects from the worlds' two great figurine traditions together in one exhibition. It is impossible to look at these evocative European figurines and Japanese dogu and not be transported to mystical worlds from deepest prehistory,” said the exhibition’s curator Douglass Bailey, of San Francisco State University.

Bailey said the exhibition’s purpose was to question the use of the figurines in both cultures to add to both an historical, anthropological and archaeological knowledge. He wants visitors to ask: What did these objects mean to their makers? Were they goddesses and gods? Were they toys? Were they portraits? To help explore these questions visitors to the exhibition will be given a biscuit-fired figurine by artist Sue Maufe.

“Small things, especially ones that look human, allow us to think about our place in the world in new ways. [The exhibition] develops this notion and creates fresh opportunities for us to reconsider who we were in the past, who we are today, and who we want to be,” said Andrew Cochrane, unearthed curator, University of East Anglia.

'Unearthed' opens on Tuesday 22nd June and runs until Saturday 29th August at the Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich www.scva.org.uk

(Story Source)

The Lost World of Old Europe

The Ashmolean Museum has a fantastic new exhibition looking at the Danube Valley, 5000-3500BC. The exhibition runs until the 15 August - better book my train ticket!

http://www.ashmolean.org/

Although archaeological work has taken place in the region since the end of the 19th century, there is little awareness of the wealth of its prehistoric cultural heritage due to the confines of the late 20th century ‘Cold War’.