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Bibliography

Websites

Staffordshirehoard.org.uk. (2019). The Staffordshire Hoard. [online] Available at: http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/

Tate. (2019). ‘Tate Thames Dig’, Mark Dion, 1999 | Tate. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dion-tate-thames-dig-t07669

En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Tamam Shud case. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamam_Shud_case

Wikipediaorg. 2019. Wikipediaorg. [Online]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial_in_Anglo-Saxon_England

Wikipediaorg. 2019. Wikipediaorg. [Online]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_House_Anglo-Saxon_cemetery

Wikipediaorg. 2019. Wikipediaorg. [Online]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo

Wikipediaorg. 2019. Wikipediaorg. [Online]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prittlewell_royal_Anglo-Saxon_burial

Bbccouk. 2019. BBC News. [Online]. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-48203883

Tha-engliscan-gesithasorguk. 2019. Tha-engliscan-gesithasorguk. [Online]. Available from: https://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/education/anglo-saxon-clothes-women

Msuedu. 2019. Msuedu. [Online]. Available from: https://msu.edu/~aarondan/methodsofarchaeology.htm

Wikipediaorg. 2019. Wikipediaorg. [Online]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excavation_(archaeology)

Archaeologyexpertcouk. 2019. Archaeologyexpertcouk. [Online]. Available from: http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/archaeologicalexcavation.html

Pasthorizonstoolscom. 2019. Pasthorizonstoolscom. [Online]. Available from: https://www.pasthorizonstools.com/Complete_Archaeology_Tool_Catalogue_s/1820.htm

Wikipediaorg. 2019. Wikipediaorg. [Online]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_paganism

Oldenglishtranslatorcouk. 2019. Oldenglishtranslatorcouk. [Online]. Available from: https://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk

Art

Hirst, D. (2017). Treasures From the Wreck of the Unbelievable. [Varied sculpture] Venice: Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi.

Dion, M. (1999). Tate Thames Dig. [Wooden cabinet, porcelain, earthenware, metal, animal bones, glass and 2 maps] London: Tate Modern.

Books

Christie, A. (1976). Sleeping murder. New York: Bantam Books.

Fenn, F., Polt, A. and  Doty, A. (2010). The thrill of the chase. Santa Fe, NM: One Horse Land &  Cattle Co.

Films

Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable. (2017). [film] Directed by S. Hobkinson. UK: The Oxford Film Company.

Artefacts

The Staffordshire Hoard: an  Anglo-Saxon Treasure, Anglo-Saxon [Gold Silver Stone Garnet]. At: Birmingham  Museum and Art Gallery; Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent .  2010.LH.10, 2010.0138

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Critical evaluation

In my original project proposal, I aimed to explore real and fictional portrayals of lost treasures, something I feel I have achieved. The key influences over my project are the Staffordshire Hoard and Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable by Damien Hirst, both directly influencing my outcome. I wanted to create something inspired by true events with a fantastical twist, which is a good description of what I produced. Originally, I considered hiding my work out in the world, to be one day discovered, something I didn’t go with in the end, opting to present my work in a museum-style exhibit. I intended to craft the artefacts myself, something I tried but abandoned due to time constraints. I think what I’ve created is a good evolution of my original idea, carrying the same intent but presented differently.

Whilst I do think I could have used more research sources, everything I did in this project was fuelled by research, both primary and secondary. My influence of the Fenn Treasure led me to focus on the thrill of lost treasure which led to the Staffordshire hoard, something that went onto become one of my key first hand sources after I visited the hoard in person, and researched other treasures whilst I was there. This influenced me to investigate artists that based their work around museums leading me to Mark Dion which influenced my presentation at the exhibition. Damien Hirst’s Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable was a huge influence, inspiring me to create a mockumentary to go along with my work. Drawing upon the Staffordshire hoard I went out and did some metal detecting of my own to gather first-hand evidence of the area where the hoard was found and the experience of hunting for lost treasure. I gathered information on features of Anglo-Saxon burials and archaeological procedure to ensure my work was accurate and used references to mythology, lifestyle and Old English to create the story of Licettan which is described in the exhibit and film.

This project has seemed an unending series of obstacles. Originally, I had intended to create a hoard of treasures from around the world but realising time would be an issue I limited it to those found in Anglo-Saxon burials. This however, helped me decide on the story of my piece, narrowing down the options. Using less authentic items made me more creative and added a twist to my work. Rather than creating an accurate burial the work now displays an optical illusion, where upon closer inspection the burial is obviously fake, making the illusion of authenticity more impressive. When planning the grave, I found the skeleton I’d got was missing bones, so improvised by using other bones in place of the missing ones. When finding a location, I contacted the owner of some land I thought would be effective, rather than settling for my garden. When creating the artefacts, I tried numerous different techniques for the items, having to cover up mistakes. To have the right look for my display I contacted the local museum to see If they had any display cases I could borrow. After staging the dig, items were damaged and required cleaning, so I repainted and cleaned each item for display. When making the film I arranged dates and times with the actors and worked with little, with no tripod or exterior microphone, having to balance the camera on what I could and work in post to improve the sound quality.  

For practical skills, I’d decided that I wanted to craft everything myself but struggled with time management. I used papier mache and clay, painting with acrylic and sanding to age. It took me 2 weeks to create 3 items and there was no way I would be able to create everything I wanted within the time. I resorted to modifying items rather than making them and limited the scale. I spray-painted items, used hot glue for detailing, tried marbling with watered down acrylic, the dry brush painting technique, worked with metal and bonded it with plastic, used photography, film, graphic design, film editing and numerous techniques in set creation. I tried things that I never tried before, successfully and otherwise. Failure has led me to new techniques that worked well. I think my methods with the creation of artefacts could have been more skilful, I am proud of the burial set as I think I achieved what I set out to create.

In time management I suffered the most. Most changes in my project came from time constraints, including making multiple trips to the location to get footage around the bad weather, using single takes for the film, working with restricted resources without enough time to upgrade and working against losing daylight to finish the burial set and acquire enough footage and photographs. Whilst struggling with this I’ve neglected my written journal and had to catch up afterwards and left my blog un-updated for long periods. I never constructed a plan of action daily and lack of direction caused a lot of problems. Better time planning and daily reflection would have greatly helped.

Overall, I’m pleased with my outcome. I don’t believe it’s perfect, or entirely as planned but I think what I’ve produced is something to be proud of. I think the film is the biggest area for improvement, better equipment and more time would have helped and better editing software. I have rushed towards the end and I think the best thing would have been to start everything sooner. This would have left more time to work on my journal and I wouldn’t have worried about rescheduling due to weather. I think the burial set is the strongest part of my project and the photos captured the scene very well, so I think they are a great strength also. I am pleased with the presentation of the exhibit and I think the project overall is a good representation of the work that went into making it.

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Presentation evaluation

I’m generally pleased with the outcome of the presentation of my work. Ideally, I’d be able to show my burial set in the ground on location, but as this is impossible, I had to try and capture the feel the scene had in my presentation. I think making the poster featuring the full image of the grave so large really helped to sell this and I’m pleased with how it looks. I think it would have been more impressive if the poster was full size on a 1 to 1 scale of the original, but the poster being themed around the museum helped to capture a different aspect of the project that I think is equally as effective.

I’m very pleased with the museum look, I think the display of the images alongside the poster look effective, as if showing a glance into the journey of the artefacts from discovery to being on display. I think the text I included explaining the story of the exhibit also really helped to sell the look, as it compliments the other text explanations well. I’d typed out descriptions for each of the artefacts and numbered them, then printed out the corresponding numbers separately. The numbers are next to each artefact, so that the matching description can be identified, as in real museums. I displayed all the artefacts in the large clear case, then laid out the sword in the wooden case. The shape of the wooden case meant that it worked only to best display a long, thin object, so I thought the sword would be perfect for this. I also lined the bottom of this case with white paper to make the sword stand out more, and I think this was a good choice, as it aligns better with the other displayed items. I was worried that all the other artefacts might look crowded in the one case, but it turned out to be large enough to space out the artefacts nicely, so that everything could be seen clearly. I also like the way that the screen is displayed, slightly raised at eye level for the film to be viewed. Overall, I think that all the elements of the presentation have come together very well to create an effective visual where nothing is overshadowed by anything else.

The only things that I think could be improved are some presentation details. The cases are displayed on top of a table which I covered with white paper, and I don’t think it looks entirely neat. The paper doesn’t hang smoothly and isn’t entirely even in some places. Whilst this doesn’t affect the presentation on top of the table, it does make the sides look a bit shabby. The paper had also fallen off a few times as it is only held down with double sided tape. If I were to improve it, I might use a white cloth instead. There is also a chair in the background of the photo, which is for disabled access in an emergency, so couldn’t be taken off the wall. Obviously, there is nothing I can do about this, but it does look odd and might be confusing as to if it is part of the display or not, however as it is out of my control, it just has to stay as it is.

All in all, I’m happy with the presentation, and I think adding any more might have been too much. I think the relatively simple design, with lots of plain white space best resembles the aesthetic of a museum, and I think that this was the best possible way to have all aspects of my work on display.

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Finished exhibit

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Finished exhibit

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Trying different photo display ideas for the exhibit

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Exhibit Poster

I made this poster to head the ‘museum exhibit’, based on other museum posters that I have seen. I used GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) to create the poster and for the exhibit I printed it A1.

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Finished Film

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Final Photographs Part 2

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Final Photographs Part 1

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Cleaning and retouching the artefacts

After the dig all of the artefacts were covered in mud and every item required cleaning. To remove the mud I followed the same practice used by archaeologists, soaking the items in warm water and scrubbing with a toothbrush. I needed the items to be clean as I want to display them as if they were in a museum, and artefacts are always cleaned for display. I’ve included an image of the two brooches, one after cleaning and one caked with mud. 

 Some items had sustained damage to the paint either during the dig or in cleaning, so I had to respray several items gold. This brought back the original shine, as well as covering up where the paint had come away. In most cases the paint had been protected by the sealant but the paint seemed to have come away in patches that I had missed originally.

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Creating the burial

Upon arriving at the location the first thing to do was section off the area where I wanted to dig with pony tape. The tape tricks the ponies into thinking that it is an electric fence, so they wont attempt to go under it and disturb the site where all my stuff and the dig was. I lay down on the ground to determine how large the hole should be, as I estimated the ‘deceased’ would probably be about my height. Digging the hole took an incredibly long time and I had to keep stopping because it was so tiring. The hole stopped when I hit clay, as this was harder to dog and I decided that the hole was deep enough. I had to repeatedly stop digging to cut away roots which were in the way. Fortunately I’d brought garden clippers with me, as I’d read that they are a frequent obstacle for real archaeologists, and I’d probably encounter the same problem.

Embedding the skeleton in the grave was less tiring but probably took the longest, as it meant building back up areas of the grave that had been previously dug out and smoothing and moulding the earth to look as if it had been dug away from what was a natural formation. Reaching clay turned out to be a positive here, as the clay was a much easier tool to work with to embed the skeleton than the top soil. When I was making the rib cage I decided to cut up the pieces I’d originally intended to use to make them look more like ribs and conceal the edges under the earth. By the time I’d buried the whole skeleton I’d left the spine part and the feet out, as they were more of a hindrance to the overall look than a benefit. 

I then laid out the artefacts where I wanted them to go and embedded them with soil the same way I’d done the bones. I decided to remove the coins from the pot I’d originally put them in, as I thought they looked better that way. By the time I’d finally completed the set up the sun had just begun to set, so all of the photos I took are in a golden light which I thought was great luck, complementing the gold theme of the burial. I took photos of the finished set up, then laid out the items I’d brought with me for the archaeological element and photographed them. I took some photos of the grave under excavation including digging and brushing the artefacts, and recorded some footage as well. My Dad’s arms feature in this footage and some photos as he was with me after helping me to dig the hole initially. (I would like to add he only helped me dig the hole, all of the burial was done by just me!)

I started digging at about 11am and finished taking the last photos just after 7pm, so the whole process from start to finish took just over 8 hours to complete.

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Preparing for the dig

In preparation for the dig I laid out the skeleton and all the artefacts to plan where everything would go in the burial. The artefacts I’m using are the two statues, beads, brooches, cape pin, torc, pin, chalices, sword hilt and blade fragments. I laid out the skeleton in correspondence with the positioning of bodies in other burials, although this might change depending on the direction of north at the location.

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Making a sword hilt

I made the sword handle from a honey spoon and six adornments from an old bed that we were throwing out. I attached these all together with hot glue, the stick of the honey spoon acted s a sort of spine for the handle, as the pieces were hollow. The cross-guard was made from a copper pipe which I flattened with a hammer. I wanted to decorate the cross-guard with hot glue, but I found that hot glue didn’t stick to the copper. I then tried wrapping copper wire around the cross-guard and handle but it didn’t look right and came loose. In the end I used solder wire, which is very soft and was easily shaped. I made two kind of snake shapes by wrapping the solder around a wooden spoon, then moulded them to the curve of the cross-guard. I stuck them on with gorilla glue, and attached the handle to the cross-guard with gorilla glue also. I applied two coats of gold spray paint and sealed it in with modpodge. Finally I used a thin, flat piece of rusted metal that I’d found on the farm where I was going to set up the burial when I was metal detecting there to be the remnants of where the blade had once been. I stuck this on with gorilla glue and clamped it down until it was dry. The rest of the rusted sword blade will also be made from fragments of rusted metal found whilst metal detecting.

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Gold treasures

To make the chalices I added detailing with hot glue, then sprayed the cups gold with spray paint. I originally intended to add gems to the cups, but decided against it. The brooches and pin were also sprayed gold on both sides. When the paint was dry, all items were sealed with modpodge.

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Marbling beads

I took a set of wooden beads then added a marbled effect to try and make them look like glass or ceramics. To create the marbled effect on these beads I used a watered down acrylic paint in a variety of colours and poured it over each bead, then painted by hand the marbled effect on in a slightly different colour. When the paint was all dry, I sealed it in with modpodge. 

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Locations part 4