Curator interview: Beneath Our Feet Exhibition
- rachelthompson63
- Mar 27, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: May 20, 2024
The Old English word “dustsceawung” means, literally, “a contemplation of dust.” It’s an understanding not of what’s been lost, or the transience of things, but of how the past persists in the present.
I was really interested to see this exhibition was going to be at the local Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge (one of several university museums on my doorstep).
I'd actually recently been in touch with the museum to ask if they would be interested in discussing a residency opportunity with me. This isn't something they formally have in place, but the curator of the exhibition, (and also archaeologist) invited me to meet him at the exhibition to walk round it and ask him some questions.
About the exhibition
Beneath Our Feet: Archaeology of the Cambridge Region is an exciting new exhibition coming soon to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The displays explore what local archaeological discoveries can tell us about the lives of those who walked this landscape centuries before us.
The exhibition includes objects from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology’s collection, as well as loans from: The British Museum, the Fox family, Girton College, Cambridge, Museum of Cambridge, Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, Oxford Archaeology, Cambridgeshire County Council and Robert Law.
Two particular features of this exhibition have jumped out at me.
Teenage girl burial:
"The exhibition features results of the latest scientific research; particularly the isotopic analysis of the bones and teeth of a 7th Century teenage girl, whose burial was discovered in 2012. The analysis revealed not only her European origins, but also her approximate age when she moved to Britain and the state of her health prior to her death. When excavated by Cambridge Archaeological Unit she was found to have been buried lying on a bed, one of only 18 so-called bed burials (where the individual was laid to rest on a bed, indicating they were a person of importance) discovered in the UK".
Cecil Jones:
"Beneath our feet are the traces of where people have lived, worked and died for thousands of years in Cambridgeshire. By selecting specific times, places and individuals we aim to provide a snapshot of what life might have been like and how we know about it.
When the archaeologist Cyril Fox set out on his bicycle 100 years ago to investigate Cambridgeshire’s past, he could never have predicted how much our knowledge would grow. New technologies and scientific techniques mean that we can reveal details of past lives that would have been unthinkable even a few decades ago. Many different people – archaeologists, farmworkers, metal detectorists, ordinary people out for a walk – have contributed and continue to do so as new discoveries are made every day".
I loved looking at the maps that Cecil Jones made, and the curator even had an old edition of some of them in a book which he showed me.
Some interesting things I learned from my chat with the curator:
An old Saxon poem called 'The Ruin' was a recommended read.
Extract:
'...The earth’s grasp holds the builders, rotten, forgotten,
the hard grip of the ground, until a hundred
generations of men are gone. This wall, rust-stained
and moss-covered, has endured one kingdom after another,
stood in the storm, steep and tall, then tumbled....'
I learnt about Lidar:
Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is an airborne mapping technique, which uses a scanning laser to very accurately measure the distance between the aircraft and the ground. It allows highly detailed representations of relief or terrain models to be generated, often at spatial resolutions of between 25 cm and 2 metres.
Also - Thermoluminescence
A way of dating terrain based on the quantity of radiation it contains and stores from the sun.
A local site to visit
My visit was really informative and satisfying to tap into the more archaelogical contexts. It's a big subject, and the geological tech side of it all is particuarly unknown to me. However, I feel these are all things I can continue to research. Ideas of energy being contained or measurable in something conjures some really interesting visual ideas. The more I learn about these science topics, the more I see ways in which science an art are so balanced and intertwined. I'm also pleased to have made this point of contact at the museum and would like to keep some conversations going!
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