Museum name: Tullie
Location: Carlisle
Spotlight on: Reform through research requests – how a rosary bead changed our approach to caring for human remains
How did a rosary bead change our (@TullieCarlisle) approach to caring for human remains? Research into an unusual burial find among rescued archaeological material led us to rethink storage & documentation of an entire assemblage.
The Story:
Tullie is home to approximately 7,000 boxes of rescued archaeology from Carlisle Archaeology Unit, which collapsed in the early 2000s. Due to the unit’s collapse, the majority of the sites rescued were still in post-excavation phases and the processing of these sites is a longstanding and ongoing objective of the museum.
The material currently in the museum’s backlog includes the rich archaeological assemblages from across the city which was once home to the largest fort and only city along Hadrian’s Wall. The site of Blackfriars Street in Carlisle’s city centre now hosts an M&S but it was once a multi-layered site with evidence stretching from the Flavian to a medieval Friary of the Blackfriars. The site was one of the first to give professional insights into both the domestic Roman and Medieval aspects of Carlisle.
The Friary Church and graveyard was active from the mid 13th century to the 15th and over 100 articulated skeletons were excavated. One of these skeletons became the research focus of a PhD student, due to a group of beads, identified as possibly rosary beads, which were found with it. These are of interest because of the lack of small finds traditionally found in Christian burials. Being prompted to examine the Human Remains has sparked a wider project in the museum, as it highlighted the substandard storage and documentation surrounding the material.
Over the course 2019 and 2021 (when covid permitted), the entire assemblage was repacked anatomically and appropriately, reducing the box numbers required for storage by 50%. The repacking to archive grade standards has allowed for inventory standard documentation to be maintained.
The Blackfriars Street assemblage is just the first step of Tullie addressing the Human Remains elements of its rescued backlog. An internal store move has created a space for all Human Remains to be stored together and will both bring accessioned and backlog collections up to the new standards outlined in Tullie’s updated Human Remains Policy.
Recent Comments