Monsters and Moonlight
At the opening of the Staffordshire Hoard Gallery, there were hundreds of precious objects on display, but I was searching for just one; the Story Hoard.
The front cover of the Story Hoard book
This leather-bound trove of poems, stories and riddles, which now sits on the wooden table in the Mead Hall area of the new gallery, is filled with creative responses to the Hoard. Here are not just facts but characters, not just information but imaginative reflections too. All written, and illustrated, by talented local people, including writers at the Kings Norton Writers’ Group, ESOL students from Birmingham Metropolitan College, metal detectorists and members of the public.
Story Hoard open at the frontispiece with illuminated text by Doreen Goodall
In our writing groups, which ran from winter 2013 to spring 2014, we aimed to be inspired not just by what we know about the Hoard but what we don’t know. We wanted to dream up characters and scenarios, to imagine life and people then. We thought much about what might have happened to the treasure before, and after, it came to lie in the ground.
Writers from the Kings Norton Writing Group at work on Story Hoard
We also examined works of Anglo-Saxon literature, such as the mysterious poem Deor. We thought about what it means to be human, and inhuman, now and then. We read the epic poem Beowulf and though about the role of the hero, and the antihero – the monster, in the Anglo-Saxon mind.
The writing group at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Then we got down to nuts and bolts. We began to write and write and write. We paid particular attention to working with detail, and capturing our imaginative ideas with images, metaphors and accurate, unusual words. The opening lines of Evan Wang’s poem, The Hoard, rage us back through time in a most thrilling and ominous way.
The sword
goes through the body
Just like thunder.
The natural world, particularly weather and the seasons, is revealed in many of the responses, perhaps prompted by our imaginings of what has stayed the same and what has changed in human experience. In Lisa Grace’s poem Untitled, sunlight reveals an ancient warrior:
Coppery tints shine in sun’s midst
Catching my image powerful and true
Of warrior, spear, helmet and shield.
We tried hard to use rhythm, rhyme and vocabulary in meaningful and forceful ways. In Lorraine Boyce’s poem, My Monster, words, and their effective placing, awaken a magnificent creature on the page.
It’s shining metallic, thick headed, foul mouthed
Lurching much closer it marks out our time.
That last word is important. Much of our thinking was around time, and timelessness, particularly what has changed in our lives over the last fifteen hundred years, and, more importantly, which elements of human nature and experience have stayed the same. Anglo-Saxon soldiers Hagan and Edwin, in Lavinia Bousfield’s story Two Brave Warriors, speak for fighters in many battles:
‘Edwin huddled in his cloak to keep the night air from his body. Time passed slowly until he saw the dawn coming. He turned in the direction he heard a bird whistle. Too late, he realised it wasn’t a bird.’
Story Hoard open at one of Heather Anderson’s images and one of Lavinia Bousfield’s pieces
Things are often not what they seem in these tales. In Doreen Goodall’s The Pilgrim and The Shepherd an elderly traveler’s journey takes a very unexpected turn when a mysterious shepherd befriends him:
‘During their walk the pilgrim found that the total of the shepherd’s conversation was sheep, goats and monsters. Apart from that, much to the old man’s chagrin, he moaned incessantly about everything.’
There’s a good, odd, reason why, but you will have to read the story to find out what it is. Surprise and suspense is everything, and everywhere in this collection.
We tried to explore structure, and worked hard to give our stories beginnings, middles and unexpected endings. We thought about journeys as a crucial part of a story. We looked into motivation, particularly what a character wants and why. In Heather J Anderson’s story, The Dream, a hen-pecked schoolteacher experiences a strange escape from his marriage and job:
‘My students are looking at me to help them clarify what they have heard on the news report. I feel all the colour drain from my face as I pick up my marker to point to an area on the map on the board behind me. Suddenly I get the stabbing pain in my shoulder…’
Just as the Staffordshire Hoard is abundant with riches and gems, so is the Story Hoard. I hope you will search through, either using your hands in the Mead Hall, or using your keyboard; you can view the Story Hoard online here. I promise you will find treasure.
Helen Cross,
Writer
Writing group participant comments
Lavinia Bousfield adds:
‘I would like to say how much I enjoyed viewing the Saxon Hoard and the completed Saxon Book on display. I felt proud to see the stories and art work submitted by our writing group from Kings Norton Library, and all the other contributors involved in the project.
The sensory table displaying the pieces of gold was quite fascinating. I found the beautiful workmanship that went into producing the gold pieces by our ancestors quite remarkable. History is here for all to see, and we can learn more about the lives of the Saxons.
This is an exhibition well worth visiting.’
Ann Cullen writes:
‘I found the Stafford Hoard Exhibition exciting and very interesting. I was amazed at how clever the Anglo Saxons were, particularly in jewellery making. Some of the designs on swords, daggers and other items are so tiny and yet they are perfectly set out. The garnets are beautiful.
There are some very significant stories about the way of life of the Anglo-Saxon people – the superstitions, the constant battling of tribes, the burial of the hoard and much more.
I would recommend the exhibition to all. It is a story of history set in a great presentation. I recommend it as a suitable and exciting exhibition for young and old.’
Staffordshire Hoard Challenge for Museum Cake Day
To celebrate Culture Themes’ museum cake day #MusCake on June 19th, the Staffordshire Hoard conservation team are challenging you to bake a Staffordshire Hoard inspired cake (or biscuits) and to post a picture of your creation on our Facebook page or tweet us. The best entry will receive a goody bag of Staffordshire Hoard merchandise and feature on the Facebook page.
If you would like to enter the competition you have until 12pm on June 18th. Only one entry per person! The competition will be judged by conservators at Birmingham Museums, including Alex Cantrill who baked the Staffordshire Hoard birthday cake below, the inspiration for this museum cake day competition! We will announce the winner via twitter and Facebook on June 19th. We will also tweet all your cake competition entry images using the #MusCake hashtag on the same day. See the competition rules.
And remember you can also make biscuits! We were very impressed by the picture of the Staffordshire Hoard ginger biscuits made by Helen Bernacki that appeared in the June 2013 edition of Current Archaeology.
Good luck everyone – we can’t wait to see your Hoard inspired cakes and biscuits!
Pieta Greaves
Staffordshire Hoard Conservation Manager
#MusCake day is a Culture Themes initiative, one of the monthly events they have on twitter to promote the work of museums. Culture Themes is a multi-national group of museum professionals who love museums. Find out more about Culture Themes at their website http://www.culturethemes.com and follow them on twitter @culturethemes.
Staffordshire Hoard on Twitter: https://twitter.com/staffshoard
Staffordshire Hoard on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/staffordshirehoard
Staffordshire Hoard on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/staffordshirehoard
Watch Staffordshire Hoard conservation videos: http://www.youtube.com/BirminghamMAG
Staffordshire Hoard website: http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
Volunteering in the Staffordshire Hoard Gallery
“Where’s the big stuff? I want to see the really big stuff”. It was a familiar request; visitors to gallery sixteen at Birmingham Museum are often a little thrown when they peer in to the glass cases for the first time and wonder what on earth they’re looking at. Small pieces of shiny metal, many of them studded with red gemstones – what are they? Who do they belong to? Where are they from? Why has such a fuss been made in the media about this find?
Photo: Two Staffordshire Hoard gallery volunteers at the 2012 Volunteer Party
So what do volunteers in the Hoard gallery do? Well, there’s a bit of housekeeping for starters. First thing in the morning we set the gallery up: we turn on the lights, set up the ipads and, last of all, fire up the short documentary which is a great introduction to the Hoard. Visitors often ask if we know the script of that film off by heart: we do! There is a small amount of paperwork, a gallery check to make sure all is working, clean and tidy for visitors and then…we wait.
There is never much of a wait before the first visitors arrive. The Staffordshire Hoard remains very popular, and totting up the numbers is another volunteer responsibility. We regularly log over 300 visitors, even on a rainy weekday. There is rarely a dull moment in the Hoard, and our visitors are always so interesting, as well as interested. For me this is the best part of volunteering: the opportunity to talk with such a diverse range of people. I started volunteering in the Hoard in January 2012, and since then I’ve learned as much from the public as I have from books and documentaries. I’ve been privileged to speak with jewellers who understand the intricate complexity of the filigree work; with metal workers who have explained how the swords would have been made and even an expert in marine life who enlightened me on sea horses off the south coast of England.
But you don’t have to be an expert at anything to appreciate the Hoard (I’m certainly not!) or to engage our full attention. There is still so much mystery surrounding the find and, as I often tell visitors, everyone’s interpretation is as good as anyone else’s when it comes to the Staffordshire Hoard. One of the really nice things about working in the gallery is hearing the ideas about how the gold came to be stashed there, and why. It seems unlikely that we’ll never know, but a very happy ten minutes can be passed debating it.
The day passes very quickly as a conglomeration of chatty, enthusiastic school trips, overseas tourists and mooching couples pass through the gallery. And there are quiet times too, during which we go around with a cloth and wipe the fingerprints off the cases. At five o’clock a call comes over the radio advising that it’s time to start closing down the interactive exhibits, and Terry Herbert utters his final ‘why me?’ of the day. The lights are turned down, the doors closed and it’s time to head home.
If you are planning a visit to the Staffordshire Hoard – and why wouldn’t you? It’s fab and free! – please take advantage of the volunteer interpreters in the gallery. We can’t promise to answer all of your questions, but we’ll have an interesting time together trying!
Donna Taylor
Staffordshire Hoard Volunteer
For more information about the Staffordshire Hoard please visit: staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Staffordshire Hoard Open Day, 17 November 2012
On Saturday, 17 November 2012 The Staffordshire Hoard conservation team will host a special Open Day In the Conservation Department at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
This is your chance to get behind the scenes and spend 1½ hours with hoard conservators looking at hoard objects under microscopes.
There will be a brief talk illustrating the find and contemporary and medieval metalworker Jamie Hall will demonstrate the ancient wire-making techniques used in the construction of the Hoard objects.
Hoard open day tickets are still available and you can choose to book on one of the three sessions starting at: 10:30am, 12:30pm and 2:30pm.
The price is £30 per person and you can book your tickets at BMAG’s online Box Office or ring 0121 303 1966.
Video of the Staffordshire Hoard Open Day that took place on December 3rd 2011.
You can read blogs by the conservators on their Hoard work and by Jamie Hall on Wire Making in the Hoard on the Staffordshire Hoard website.
Conservation Tours
The Open Day events are very popular and if you miss the chance to attend the open day, you can book a place on one of the guided tours of the Hoard Gallery and Conservation Studio, taking place on:
Wednesday 7 November and Wednesday 5 December.
Price: £20 per person
Buy tickets online or ring 0121 303 1966.
Funds raised from these events go directly toward conservation of the Staffordshire Hoard. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to discuss and observe objects up close and learn about ancient wire making techniques, while supporting the hoard conservation programme.
We hope to see you there!
The Hoard Conservation Team
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
3D Laser Scanning Tests on Objects from the Staffordshire Hoard
These tiny foils were 3D laser scanned by at Conservation Technologies at National Museums Liverpool.
The scanning makes it easier to see the patterns within the foils – the tiny warriors become more prominent and the edges of the foils appear clearer. This technology could be used to help us piece these small fragments together like a giant jigsaw.
Original objects
Screenshot of 3D data set created by laser scanning.
Screenshot of 3D data set – relief mapped to aide visualisation of detail.
Screenshot of 3D data set – relief mapped to aide visualisation of detail.
Keep up with all the Hoard news and research on the Staffordshire Hoard website.
The Mystery Staffordshire Hoard Object: More Pics!
Curator Dr David Symons recently wrote a blog on the Staffordshire Hoard website about this mystery object which is made up of 3 parts of the Hoard: K545, K1055 and K130.
Dr Symons wrote about what it has been suggested the object might be, and asked people for their suggestions. There has been a great interest in this – so here’s a few more pics that might help!
K545 Top piece
K1055 Middle piece
K130 Bottom piece
To find out more about the mystery object, read other people’s comments and add your own, head over to the Mystery Object blog post.
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 