Durham University Museum of Archaeology

Last updated

Durham University Museum of Archaeology
Palace Green Library 2, Durham.jpg
Durham map small.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Durham, England
Former name
Durham University Museum
Established1833 (1833)
Location Palace Green, Durham, England
Coordinates 54°46′28″N1°34′35″W / 54.77444°N 1.57639°W / 54.77444; -1.57639
Type University archaeology museum
AccreditationUK Museum Accreditation Scheme, Arts Council England [1]
Key holdingsOswald-Plique collection, Lanchester diploma
Collections Prehistoric, Ancient Greek, Roman, early medieval, medieval, post-medieval
Visitors30,000 [2]
CuratorGemma Lewis [3]
Owner Durham University
Website www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology.museum/

The Museum of Archaeology, founded in 1833, is the archaeology museum of Durham University in England and was the second university museum in England to be open to the public. It is mostly focused on the archaeology of north east England with some national and international artefacts. The collections range from the prehistoric to the post-medieval, including the internationally important Oswald-Plique collection of Samian ware and the first complete Roman fleet diploma to be found in Britain. It is the repository for development-led archaeology finds in Durham City.

Contents

The Museum of Archaeology is part of Durham University Museums, Galleries and Exhibitions, along with Durham Castle Museum and Durham University Oriental Museum. [4]

History

The Old Fulling Mill on the bank of the River Wear, home of the museum from 1833 to 1876 and 1975 to 2014 Durham Kathedrale.jpg
The Old Fulling Mill on the bank of the River Wear, home of the museum from 1833 to 1876 and 1975 to 2014

In 1833, the year the university opened, the Old Fulling Mill on the River Wear below Durham Cathedral became the university museum. [5] It was the second university museum in England to be open to the public. [6] [lower-alpha 1] In 1876 it moved to Bishop Cosin's Almshouses on Palace Green. [9] The early collection included a large number of natural history specimens, including "an almost complete collection of British birds", many donated by Thomas Gisborne, along with Roman artefacts from Binchester. [10] In 1892, The Antiquary praised the Binchester collection as being "of first-class archaeological value" but concluded that overall "their museum reflects no credit on the University of Durham". [11]

At the start of the first world war, Durham's lecturer theatres were commandeered and the museum was converted to a temporary lecture theatre. [12] The building had never been satisfactory as a museum, so it was decided to rationalise the collection, disposing of some of the more eclectic items of little educational value and moving the others to where they would be most useful. The collection of British birds went to St Hild's College, other scientific specimens to the science laboratories, the Binchester collection was moved to a room used primarily for lectures in history, and other objects to the university library. [13]

The university appointed Eric Birley as its first lecturer in archaeology in 1931, and he added material to the teaching collection from his excavations at Hadrian's Wall. In 1975, the museum was re-opened in the Old Fulling Mill, now concentrated purely on archaeology, with further galleries being opened in 1986. [2] However, the location was prone to flooding and outside the main tourist areas. In 2014, the museum re-located back to Palace Green, to the Wolfson Gallery within the Durham University Library complex. [5] Since 2021, the research collections have been stored off-site. [2]

Collections

Two parts of the Lanchester Diploma PLAQUE (FindID 769649).jpg
Two parts of the Lanchester Diploma

The museum's collections cover the prehistoric, Ancient Greek, Roman, early medieval, medieval and post-medieval periods. [14] Items of interest include the Bronze Age Houghall Sword, a Ewart Park sword from 700–900 BC found on the Houghall campus of East Durham College just south of Durham in 1996; [15] the internationally important Oswald-Plique collection of over 4,500 pieces of Samian ware, acquired by Birley in 1950, which formed a reference for Oswald's 1936–7 Index of Figure Types on Terra Sigillata and Stanfield and Simpson's 1958 Central Gaulish Potters, both of which remain standard reference books; [16] [17] Roman artefacts from the Victorian excavations at Binchester and Birley's 1930s work at Benwell on Hadrian's Wall; [18] and the Lanchester Diploma, the first complete Roman fleet diploma to be found in Britain, discovered in Lanchester, County Durham, by a detectorist in 2016. [17] [19] [20]

The bulk of the collection is from development-led archaeology, with the museum being the repository for archaeology carried out in advance of construction in Durham City and the surrounding parishes. [18] [21] These include bone fragments of Durhams earliest known resident, carbon dated to between 90BC and 60AD, that were found at 18-29 Claypath in 2016–17 prior to the construction of student residences on the site; [22] as well as one of the UK's largest collections of post-medieval glass, with over 100 bottles from the 17th and 18th centuries recovered from earlier excavations on Claypath in the 1990s. [18] [23]

Silver denarius of Emperor Caracalla from the Piercebridge assemblage, deliberately cut in three directions Roman Coin, Denarius of Caracalla (FindID 103709).jpg
Silver denarius of Emperor Caracalla from the Piercebridge assemblage, deliberately cut in three directions

The collection also includes the Piercebridge River Assemblage, over 4,000 Roman artefacts recovered from where Dere Street crossed the River Tees, thought to be mostly votive offerings thrown from the bridges; [18] [24] and the Durham River Wear Assemblage, over 13,500 objects recovered from the River Wear below the 12th-century Elvet Bridge; [14] [25] [26] as well as archives and finds from the Durham City Survey. [23]

Notes

  1. ↑ The first was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 1683; [7] Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum would not open to the public until 1848 [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashmolean Museum</span> University Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford, England

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677. It is also the world's second university museum, after the establishment of the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1661 by the University of Basel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman sites in Great Britain</span>

There are many Roman sites in Great Britain that are open to the public. There are also many sites that do not require special access, including Roman roads, and sites that have not been uncovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piercebridge</span> Human settlement in England

Piercebridge is a village and civil parish in the borough of Darlington and the ceremonial county of Durham, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 113. It is situated a few miles west of the town of Darlington. It is on the site of a Roman fort of AD 260–270, which was built at the point where Dere Street crossed the River Tees. Part of the fort is under the village green. The village is sited where the York-Newstead Roman road known as Dere Street crosses the River Tees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dere Street</span> Roman road that ran from York in England to the Antonine Wall in Scotland

Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge and continuing beyond into what is now Scotland, later at least as far as the Antonine Wall. Portions of its route are still followed by modern roads, including the A1(M), the B6275 road through Piercebridge, where Dere Street crosses the River Tees, and the A68 north of Corbridge in Northumberland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology</span> Museum in London, England

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London is part of University College London Museums and Collections. The museum contains 80,000 objects, making it one of the world's largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese material. It is designated under the Arts Council England Designation Scheme as being of "national and international importance".

William Greenwell, was an English archaeologist and Church of England priest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lanchester, County Durham</span> Village and civil parish in County Durham, England

Lanchester is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England, 8 miles (13 km) west of Durham and 5 miles (8 km) from Consett. It had a population at the 2011 Census of 4,054.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications</span> Iron Age hill fort in North Yorkshire, England

Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications, a huge Iron Age hill fort, sometimes but not always considered an oppidum, comprising over 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) of ditches and ramparts enclosing approximately 300 hectares of land, are situated in Richmondshire, North Yorkshire, England. Whether Stanwick was the stronghold of Venutius or Cartimandua, or perhaps of them both for a brief time before their acrimonious split some time after 51 AD, it is certain that this settlement was one of the most important in Brigantia, the Brigantes kingdom during the early stages of the Roman occupation of Britain. The site is a scheduled monument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cliffe, Richmondshire</span> Village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England

Cliffe is a small village and civil parish in Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. A stream called the Glen runs through the village to the Tees. It is in the Teesdale and Yorkshire Dales national park. It is about 6 miles (10 km) west of Darlington, 10 miles (16 km) north of Richmond and near Piercebridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piercebridge Roman Fort</span> Roman fort in Durham, England

Piercebridge Roman Fort is a scheduled ancient monument situated in the village of Piercebridge on the banks of the River Tees in modern-day County Durham, England. There were Romans here from about AD 70 until at least the early 5th century. There was an associated vicus and bath house at Piercebridge, and another vicus and a villa south of the river at Cliffe. The Victorians used carved stones from this site when they built St Mary's church at Gainford. Part of the site is under Piercebridge village green.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Birley</span> British historian and archaeologist (1906–1995)

Eric Barff Birley,, was a British historian and archaeologist, particularly associated with the excavation of the forts of Hadrian's Wall, notably at Vindolanda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Birley</span> British archaeologist

Andrew Robin Birley is a British archaeologist and the Director of Excavations on the site of Vindolanda. He is the son of Robin Birley and grandson of Eric Birley, who founded the department of Archaeology at Durham University. He graduated from the University of Leicester in the summer of 1996 and has been working on the site for 18 years, ten of which have been in full-time employment by the Vindolanda Trust.

The year 2007 in archaeology

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinovia</span> Roman fort in County Durham, England

Vinovia or Vinovium was a Roman fort and settlement situated just over 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of the town of Bishop Auckland on the banks of the River Wear in County Durham, England. The fort was the site of a hamlet until the late Middle Ages, but the modern-day village of Binchester is about 2 miles (3 km) to the east, near Spennymoor. The ruins are now known as the Binchester Roman Fort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heathery Burn Cave</span> Cave and archaeological site in the United Kingdom

Heathery Burn Cave is a cave near Stanhope, County Durham, England, in which a large collection of Late Bronze Age weapons and tools was discovered and excavated between 1859 and 1872.

This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Crowfoot Payne</span> British Curator, Egyptologist

Joan Crowfoot Payne was a British archaeologist specialising in the study of lithics from the Ancient Near East and worked as Cataloguer of the Ancient Egyptian collection at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Jennifer Foster is an English scholar of prehistoric and medieval archaeology, who specializes in the study of artifacts, particularly metalwork.

Nina Crummy is a British archaeologist and artefact specialist, especially of Roman material culture.

There are 292 scheduled monuments in County Durham, in North East England. These protected sites date from the Neolithic period and include barrows, a medieval hospital, ancient Roman sites, castle ruins, Iron Age forts, bridges and Anglo-Saxon crosses. In the United Kingdom, the scheduling of monuments was first initiated to insure the preservation of "nationally important" archaeological sites or historic buildings. The protection given to scheduled monuments is given under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979

References

  1. ↑ "About Accreditation: List of Accredited Museums". Arts Council England. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "History of the Museum". Durham University Museum of Archaology. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  3. ↑ "Our Staff". Durham University Library and Collections. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  4. ↑ "Museums, Galleries and Exhibitions". Durham University. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  5. 1 2 Mark Tallentire (13 March 2013). "Archaeology museum on the banks of the River Wear is on the move". The Northern Echo .
  6. ↑ Mark Tallentire (6 October 2008). "It's amazing what turns up in the attic". The Northern Echo.
  7. ↑ "History of the Ashmolean". Ashmolean. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  8. ↑ "Our History". Fitzwilliam Museum. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  9. ↑ Joseph Thomas Fowler (1904). Durham University: Earlier Foundations and Present Colleges. F. E. Robinson. p. 65.
  10. ↑ Joseph Thomas Fowler (1904). Durham University: Earlier Foundations and Present Colleges. F. E. Robinson. p. 102–103.
  11. ↑ Roach le Schonix (November 1892). Edward Walford; George Latimer Apperson (eds.). "Notes on Archaeology in Provincial Museums: No. XV – The Durham University Museum". The Antiquary: A Magazine Devoted to the Study of the Past. Vol. 26, no. 35. Elliot Stock. pp. 193–196.
  12. ↑ C. E. Whiting (1832). The University of Durham 1832–1932. The Sheldon Press. p. 221.
  13. ↑ C. E. Whiting (1832). The University of Durham 1832–1932. The Sheldon Press. p. 288.
  14. 1 2 "About Our Collections". Durham University Museum of Archaeology. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  15. ↑ Rosemary Zakrzewski; Ian A Colquhoun (2016). "The Houghall Sword and Houghall in the Late Bronze Age". Northern Archaeology. Northumberland Archaeological Group. 22: 23–33. doi:10.5284/1101073.
  16. ↑ Ashley Barnard (22 June 2022). "Exhibition of Roman artefacts on display at Durham Museum". The Northern Echo.
  17. 1 2 "Roman". Durham University Museum of Archaeology. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  18. 1 2 3 4 "Museums, Galleries and Exhibitions: Museum of Archaeology Collections". Durham University Library. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  19. ↑ Gavin Havery (20 July 2017). "Metal detectorist finds Britain's first Roman Fleet diploma near Lanchester, in County Durham". The Northern Echo.
  20. ↑ Tony Henderson (11 July 2017). "Incredible fleet diploma detailing naval career of its holder is unearthed near Roman fort". Chronicle Live.
  21. ↑ "Deposit of Archaeological Material". Durham University Museum of Archaeology. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  22. ↑ "Durham archaeological dig reveals 'earliest resident'". BBC News. 11 February 2020.
  23. 1 2 "Post-medieval". Durham University Museum of Archaeology. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  24. ↑ Hella Eckardt; Philippa Walton (4 August 2021). "Bridge over troubled water: Roman finds from the Tees at Piercebridge and beyond". Current Archaeology.
  25. ↑ "River Wear excavation yields historical treasures". BBC News. 19 June 2014.
  26. ↑ "Durham River Wear Assemblage Project". Durham University Department of Archaeology. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.