This placement offers an exciting opportunity to work with the collection held at the British Museum’s research centre in Reading, BM_ARC. Participants will support new analyses of wall paintings from Lullingstone Roman Villa working with the excavation archive and the extensive assemblage of painted plaster from the site.
Department: Archaeology
Supervised by: Professor Hella Eckardt Dr Richard Hobbs, Senior curator of Roman Britain and late Roman collections, The British Museum
The Roman villa at Lullingstone, Kent, was excavated by G. W. Meates between 1949 and 1961. During the excavations a number of rooms produced painted wall plaster from six different locations. However, plaster from only one of these locations (the "house church"; a series of Christian paintings), was reconstructed for display at The British Museum. The remainder of the plaster includes 1000s of block painted and figurative fragments, and has recently been repacked for research at BM_ARC, alongside a paper archive that Includes site notebooks, journals, plans and photographs. To date this extensive painted plaster assemblage has only been marginally studied, but attests to a variety of styles and periods of decoration throughout the life of the villa, and potentially the changing beliefs of the people who lived there. Painted plaster also remains in situ at Lullingstone, within an underground room (the “Deep room”) at the villa site, in the care of English Heritage. The placement student will assess the paper archive alongside the repacked plaster, to understand how the groupings related to excavated areas of the site and specific rooms and walls. Tasks include: - assess the catalogued archive for Lullingstone at BM_ARC and provide a report on the its contents; - identify parts of the archive that can be related specifically to the extant fragments of wall plaster (e.g. room codes etc). - work with British Museum staff, to build a catalogue of material from the different spaces at Lullingstone.
Archive and object-handling: laying painted Roman plaster grouping out by spatial association. Archive assessment and report writing. Repacking and pinning artefacts to Museum standard. Selection and photography of key Roman figurative and stylistic elements from amongst the plaster assemblage.
• Computer literacy (e.g. experience of using Microsoft Excel) • Knowledge of different archaeological materials and categories of artefact, especially Roman period finds. • Past experience of, and/or willingness to learn about, archaeological finds recording and post-excavation analysis. • Carefulness and good attention to detail • Manual dexterity. • Ability to participate in photographic recording • May have a wish to develop an existing interest in research in a museum setting, or a material culture specialism, but note that previous experience is not essential.
Research skills in a museum setting: an appreciation of documentation history and paperwork from an ‘old’ excavation Research environments in a National Museum: The applicant will be introduced to other departments, including scientific research, to help build an understanding of how research works across a National Museum. Accuracy and catalogue construction for analysis of archaeological assemblages and associated excavation archive. Supervisory skills: team working and leading in a museum setting.
BM_ARC, Thames Valley Science Park, Shinfield, Reading
08:00 – 16:00
Monday 17 June 2024 - Friday 26 July 2024
The deadline to apply for this project is 5pm on Friday 5th April 2024. To make an application, please go to the following link and complete the application form: https://forms.office.com/e/pMgea0dAHv. To find this project in the application form, please filter ‘school of project applying to’ and select School of Archaeology, Geography & Environmental Science