Join the TDP, Historic Royal Palaces, Thames21 and the City of London

Archaeological Society for two days on the Tower Beach! Get down on to
the Towers foreshore and see what you can find. Experts will be on hand
to help identify what you discover and there will be family activities taking
place on the Tower wharf. If you fancy beating the crowds and having
a sneak preview of the archaeology of the Queens backyard, then why
not join our special guided walk on July 17th? More details and booking
information can be found here: http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/events/
tower-beach-walk. More details for the Open Foreshore can be found
on the TDP website http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/events/tower-of-
london-open-foreshore-2014
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THAMES DISCOVERY PROGRAMME
SUMMER 2014
Written by The TDP Team
HELP! WE NEED SOME MONEY!
(Please)
As you may know, the TDP
was generously funded by the
Heritage Lottery Fund from
20082011. Since then, we have
been fundraising in order to
support the project at Museum
of London Archaeology so that
we can continue recording and
monitoring the fragile archaeology
of the foreshore, and keep running
events and activities that engage
people with Londons great river.
Whether youve come along to a
guided walk, taken part in fieldwork,
read an article, a blog or attended
a lecture: youve experienced a
little of what we do, and what we
wouldnt be able to do without your
support. Like we love to say around
here, an archaeologist is for life, not
just for Christmas! To donate, visit
our website thamesdiscovery.org
and click on the JustGiving button.
Every little helps. THANKS!
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Tower of London beach on
Open Foreshore Day
Events 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
Other News 5
Other News 6
IN THIS ISSUE
TOWER OF LONDON
OPEN FORESHORE
Back for more: 1920 July 2014
Written by The TDP Team
Feeling generous?
You can easily donate at thamesdiscovery.org
EVENTS
27 June2 November
BRIDGE
Drawing on the museums
significant art collections, Bridge
is the largest art exhibition ever
to be staged at the Museum of
London Docklands and features
rarely seen contemporary and
historical artworks, alongside
photography and film, to consider
the significance of bridges
within Londons landscape. The
exhibition is FREE and open
every day at Museum of London
in Docklands.
For more information see http://
www.museumoflondon.org.uk/
docklands/whats-on/exhibitions-
displays/bridge/
12 July
GREENWICH FROG WALK
The Greenwich FROG are
leading a Festival of Archaeology
guided walk to the Old Royal
Naval College foreshore why
not join them for an evening stroll
by the river?
http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/
events/greenwich-frog-walk-3
7 August
ROCK OF AGES
Decipher the marks left by
masons over hundreds of years.
Join built heritage specialist
James Wright from MOLA for
this lecture and find out more
about stoneworking and marking.
Tickets include a glass of wine!
For more information and to book
see http://www.thamesdiscovery.
org/events/rock-of-ages
September
TOTALLY THAMES
Set aside some time in your
diaries to explore the foreshore in
September as part of the Thames
Festival. The TDP will be part of
a guided walks programme with
trips to foreshore sites across
London every day for 10 days!
The Totally Thames website holds
just a taste of what is in store in
September check it out.
Totally Thames see http://
totallythames.org
TDP guided walks see http://www.
thamesdiscovery.org/events/totally-
thames-foreshore-walks
CALENDAR
The TDP are teaming up with our friends
at the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS)
to host a joint conference. The NAS-
programmed day will be on Saturday 15th
with the TDP-programmed day on Sunday
16th November. Confirmed speakers
include: Dr Colin Martin, University of St
Andrews; Dr Innes McCartney, Wrecks of
WWI; Kevin Stratford, MAST; Dr Joanna
Hambly, SCAPE Trust; Richard Keen, Roman
wrecks of Guernsey; Daniel Pascoe, HMS
Invincible 1758; Gary Bankhead, University of
Durham; and members of the TDP Foreshore
Recording and Observation Group.
The conference will be held at the Museum
of London, 150 London Wall, London, EC2Y
5HN. More information will soon be available
on our website thamesdiscovery.org/events-
home
1516 November
TDP / NAS
CONFERENCE
DONATE FOLLOW US
FEATURE
We thought it be fun to run through the last few months of activities in one grand
sweep, as this is our first newsletter since the end of January. Since then, here are
some of our stats: we ran 17 guided walks, gave 15 lectures, trained 60 new FROGs,
ran 5 workshops and even managed to shine our shoes (OK, maybe not the last one).
Weve run guided walks with members of the public, the London Cultureseeekers
group, students from the University of Notre Dame (USA), the Institute of
Archaeology and also for Victor Kegan, the successful bidder during our Auction at
the last TDP Foreshore Forum (pictured next page). Weve visited foreshore sites
across London including Custom House, Cannon Street, Charlton, Greenwich,
Vauxhall, Bermondsey and Rotherhithe have a look at what The Londonist had to
say about our rainy day visit to Rotherhithe in May http://londonist.com/2014/05/
secrets-of-the-thames-foreshore.php.
You can now view two recent lectures about Thames archaeology online! In April,
Nathalie gave a lecture about the TDP at the Society of Antiquaries. If you werent
able to make the lecture, you can catch up digitally and watch the lecture here:
http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/frog-blog/society-of-antiquaries-lecture-online.
Gustav Milne, TDP Director, gave a lecture as part of the prestigious Gresham
College seminar series in May. The lecture revolved around the work undertaken on
the Elizabethan shipwreck recovered from the Princes Channel. You can watch it
here: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/professors-and-speakers/dr-gustav-milne.
FROG training took place at Custom House and Greenwich this year. We were
really lucky to have Southampton PhD student Michael Lobb on site at Greenwich
to show the FROG how to 3-d laser scan on site. We ran a number of different
workshops before and after training, including the Foreshore Roadshow with Nigel
Jeffries (MOLA Specialist) and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and Medieval and
Post-medieval Pottery. Courtney and Eliott also taught a workshop on maritime
iconography with the Nautical Archaeology Society: check out the pictures from all of
these events on our flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thamesdiscovery
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From FROG Training to
Pottery workshops: a little bit
about the last few months
Written by the TDP team
FROGs learn about 3-d laser scanning on site at
Greenwich with Michael Lobb
3
A beautiful 18th century
ship rudder
FEATURE
It was difficult to avoid the advent of The Vikings in the new exhibition hall in the
British Museum. Im sure Im not the only FROG who had a look, both at the show and
the new exhibition space.
Inevitably an exhibition of this kind has to focus. The emphasis appeared to be on the
Viking martial man, perhaps playing to the popular stereotype that sees the Vikings
as the archetypal exponents of raping and pillaging. Nevertheless, there was some
stunning metalwork on show with everything the well-accoutred fighter might need,
including decorated swords, shields and mail. For those more relaxed moments
between attacks on the nearest settlement or monastery, there were games,
including the Lewis chessman, which had made the journey south.
For me, the Roskilde Boat was definitely the star of the show. Illustrations dont
prepare you for its size. The way in which it was displayed with commentary on its
construction and possibility use was fascinating, and there are connections with some
of the ships timbers which weve found on the foreshore. All those hours cleaning
Thames mud from planks, keels and sterns havent been wasted.
I couldnt help but compare this exhibition with Vikings!, which I saw at the National
Museum of Scotland (NMS) last year. This featured items from the Swedish
History Museum in Stockholm, focusing on domestic life and death. The contrast
between the presence of the Viking woman at the heart of this exhibition and her
near invisibility in the British Museum was striking. There was some overlap the
ubiquitous Lewis chessmen but the NMS exhibition concentrated on day-to-day life
including textiles, jewellery and metalwork. There were some excellent examples of
the work of Viking craftsmen and women but with an emphasis on the everyday that
was absent from the exhibition at the British Museum.
This may reflect the different aims of the two shows. The Vikings played to their
popular, military stereotype while Vikings! recognised that every culture has a
domestic hinterland which is as important and interesting. One cannot thrive or
survive without the other.
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The Vikings:
Exhibition review
Written by Selina Springbett
4
View of the Baltic sea from a stone
ship monument in Sweden
OTHER NEWS
FIND SPOT
Long-standing FROGs might
remember that at the end of the
Heritage Lottery Funded project in
2011 we undertook an evaluation of
the FROG experience. As it has been
nearly three years the time has come
to ask for your views again.
Can you help? MOLA is undertaking
a survey to gain more knowledge
about our current and potential
volunteers. The short survey is under
20 questions and shouldnt take too
long...we promise!
We would be grateful to hear
from you, so that we can better
understand how you find
volunteering with MOLA, or if
you would like to volunteer in the
future. If you know anyone who is
interested in volunteering please
pass this link along, or to complete
the survey yourself see https://www.
surveymonkey.com/s/DN36BNZ
By the TDP
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MOLA SURVEY
Our friend Woolwich John, a London mudlark, is graced by the finds gods.
He certainly was when he happened upon this figurine of Priapus, the Greek
god of fertility. Priapus is often referred to as the son of Aphrodite (goddess
of love and beauty) and Dionysus (god of wine). Priapus was first written
about in the 4th century BC where he is described as warlike and was greatly
revered. Heres where it gets really interesting. Priapus was the patron god
of merchant sailors in ancient Rome and Greece: a protector for those at sea
and a navigational aide in harsh waters. Interesting that he ended up in the
Thames...perhaps he was deposited there purposefully? For more info see
http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/frog-blog/more-from-woolwich-john
By the TDP
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The Priapus gurine
The winners of the guided
walk auction prize: braving
the rainy foreshore
5
Eliott and Courtney recently gave a paper at the Institute for Archaeologists
conference on community archaeology in the intertidal and coastal zones.
Now its off to Istanbul (not Constantinople)! They will be giving a lecture
at the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) conference in
September. The EAA conference is one the largest conferences on European
archaeology and theyre really pleased to be going back. If youre interested
in finding out more check out their website https://www.eaa2014istanbul.org
By the TDP
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TURKEY OR BUST
OTHER NEWS
In March 2014 MOLA received initial funding from the Heritage Lottery
Fund to begin the Development phase of the project CITiZAN: the
coastal and intertidal zone archaeological network. From London
to Kent to Yorkshire to Norfolk, the CITiZAN team has since been
channelling Patsy Cline: these boots really were made for walking. Here
are some of the highlights of the first few months of the project.
So far its proven to be a true English coastal adventure for this southern Californian.
We started the project off with a crash course in English geography, plastering large
maps of England all over the wall in front of my desk, courtesy of the TDP team. Its
Courtneys-county-conundrum no longer, and in fact I think my geography is pretty
impressive at this point (just dont ask me about anything landlocked). Weve been
shocked by the number of enquiring emails weve received in this first few months
from keen individuals and organisations, many of whom are working in the intertidal
and coastal zones. So planning pilot projects to see what CITiZAN would look like
on the ground has been truly enjoyable. Eliott and I were lucky enough to run a
pilot project with the West Norfolk and Kings Lynn Archaeological Society and the
Nautical Archaeology Society. Kings Lynns leader Dr Clive Bond keeps busy leading
this group of interested and passionate individuals who have a wealth of maritime
heritage on their doorsteps. We trialled our new timber vessel pro formas and got
nice and muddy on the foreshore of the River Ouse. We also trialled these pro
formas with FROGs in Brentford and visited the foreshore of Folkestone Bay in Kent.
Weve been uploading pictures from our various adventures, which you can check
out on the CITiZAN flickr page here https://www.flickr.com/photos/citizan
Besides running pilot projects weve been talking with stakeholders, planning with
our project partners, scoping potential training sites, giving (embarrassing) interviews,
and writing lots of reports. Were due to submit our application for the full project
grant this summer, so fingers, toes and knees are crossed for a positive outcome. Feel
free to get in touch if you would like any more information.
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CITiZAN hulk recording with
the West Norfolk and Kings
Lynn Archaeological Society
and the Nautical Archaeology
Society in Norfolk
Written by Courtney Nimura
CITiZAN HITS THE SHORES...
...and discovers Englands coasts
The Thames Discovery
Programme is hosted
by Museum of London
Archaeology
Tel. 0207 410 2207
thamesdiscovery.org
TDP, Mortimer Wheeler House
46 Eagle Wharf Road, London
N1 7ED
Eliott
ewragg@mola.org.uk
Nathalie
ncohen@mola.org.uk
Courtney
cnimura@mola.org.uk