EXCAVATED
Who knows what lies under the ground?
Objects might be excavated as part of an organised dig, or dug up by a dog in the park! Either way, the object will gain new meaning from the people who found it.
Assyrian Saucer Lamp
Whilst this lamp was excavated in the 1950s from the ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud, it was somewhat disregarded by its excavators. Mallowan devotes the majority of his report on the excavations to the discussion of his ‘outstanding’ finds of elaborate ivory plaques, compared with which a plain ceramic lamp perhaps appeared rather insignificant. Although little to no specific information was known about the lamp's provenance until recently, this researcher discovered that it was in fact discovered in a military fort, although it appears to have remained unused during its life there due to a lack of burn marks around its spout and rim.
Predynastic Egyptian Pot
This object was excavated in the early 1900s on a Petrie excavation funded by the EEF. This pot was part of his personal collection he retained upon returning from the dig and was sold to the UCL Petrie Museum in 1913 to augment the Amelia Edwards collection. The gender of the individual this pot was buried with is unknown along with the location of the bones. The fact that this pot was imported into Egypt from Palestine before burial was not discovered until recently. The pot has since been maintained as part of the UCL collection, but no research has taken place directly into its history.
SAVED
Imagine finding a piece of history in a skip.
Objects that are though to be worthless by one audience might not be worthless to everyone! Sometimes it takes happy serendipity for an object to be saved from destruction.
Death Mask
After being discarded by the Slade School of Fine Art, the death mask, along with the rest of the Noël Collection, was retrieved from a skip and brought back to UCL. However, the true significance of the Noël Collection remained unknown for many years, until the discovery of a book by Robert Noël detailing exactly what the Collection is.
Hans Gruneberg's Mice Skeletons
In 2011, professor Sue Povey of the UCL genetics department incidentally found these mice skeletons in a bundle of items which were about to be thrown away from Wolfson House. She immediately realized that they had belonged to Grüneberg. This, to her mind, meant that they were "part of UCL history," and that they belonged in the Grant Museum.
In an email addressed to the curator of the Grant, she explained that although the museum certainly already owned quantities of similar objects, it would be a shame to dispose of the mice.
Today, the mice are kept in stores at the Grant Museum.
What does 'found' mean to you?
UNDERSTOOD
Is an object less valuable before it's completely understood?
Things might be kept by their owners for no particular reason, or because they are appreciated. However, objects can have different meanings, and different values, depending on how much we know about them.
Crookes' Tube
This object was owned by the UCLH medical physics department, however it appears that it was never used. Crookes' Tubes are often appreciated for their aesthetic appearance rather than their scientific function, even if the owner does not know what they are. The tube was later recognised to be a Crookes' Tube by Professor J S Clifton, Director of the Medical Physics department in the 1970s and 80s, and donated to UCL's Sciences and Engineering collection.
Assyrian Saucer Lamp
Until the initiation of this project, the context in which this object was used remained relatively unknown: it was in fact thought to have been a foundation deposit, placed in the foundations of a house as a symbolic offering to bring health and wealth to its inhabitants. Its actual provenance is entirely different: it was excavated from the storage section of a military fort. This discovery naturally changes the way in which we must consider the lamp: most importantly in terms of its function rather than its symbolic role. However, it is important to keep a range of different perspectives in mind when considering its original use, bearing in mind that more specific material research is necessary to fully uncover the purposes for which it may have been produced.
Predynastic Egyptian Pot
Previously no research had taken place directly into this pot and its biography - our Object Report activity changed this. Whilst it was difficult to find out any further information about the pot's exact history, due to limits on time, it is hoped that by bringing the object to the forefront of current research this will change. Current projects discussing the role of colonial powers in archaeology and their influence on the cultures over which they ruled is of particular interest and applicable to this object. This researcher hopes that in revealing the significance of this object she can encourage more scientific analysis to find out what it would have contained and more about its importation from Palestine.
RECOGNISED
Have you ever had to look twice to realise what something is?
Misunderstood objects might be recognised by an expert, a member of the public for whom they mean something in particular, or a student doing a research project!
'The Brown Dog Affair' Papers
The research done on “The Brown Dog Affair Papers” understands its significance to be a challenge of a simple and linear view of history, as presented by L. Bayliss in his published account of the events of a vivisection on a dog at UCL. Thus, the correspondence between L. Bayliss and Provost Ifor Evans contributes to a more plural history of the events.
In Roland Barthe’s words, historical readings should become "an inter-textual activity forming ties to a vast corpus of past and present texts which breaks down the linearity and coherence of history. We read, we remember, we intersect – no origin, no end, no version, only fragments in the enormous grid of history".
Death Mask
In 1883 Robert Noël, the creator of the death mask and the collector of the rest of the Noël Collection published a book called Notes, Biographical and Phrenological Illustrating a Collection of Casts. The book gives details on each of the plaster heads in the Noël Collection, and was found by chance by two students of Museum Studies MA at UCL in 2014.
The true meaning and significance of the entire Noël Collection was quickly realised, and once again the Collection can be appreciated for what it truly is.