Happy Jarroween everyone! I hope every Goblin and Ghoul reading is having an absolutely spooktacular time, from the bottom of my cold, dead, zombie heart.
As we move into the Post Excavation phase of JAM (for which there are still plenty of spaces to sign up to by following this link), we will start to uncover more of the stories behind the material we recovered this summer. Some of the stories, however, are more in the realms of the strange and macabre; stories such as……..
The Jarrow Wyrm! *Thunder and Lightning*
You might have seen this articulated set of vertebrae in an earlier JAMCam, but the monstrous size of the creature they came from, as well as the clean butchery straight down the middle cutting this spine in half is simply chilling. We haven’t had the opportunity to have the bones looked at by Zooarchaeologist yet, but our best guess is probably a Shire Horse or an incredibly large cow, but the Jarrow Wyrm is far more in keeping with the season.
We also had the good fortune of coming across a huge array of bottles, including some of the most beautiful poison bottles imaginable.
Picture: This bottle likely dates to the 1920s’ based on its design.
This lovely little thing likely came from a Chemist and may have contained a particularly nasty chemical or acid. Literacy rates were low for much of modern history, meaning that it was sometimes difficult to determine the contents of a bottle if it was unmarked; a bottle could contain table salt or rat poison, and there would be little way of telling the difference if you couldn’t read the label. As a means of preventing accidental ingestion of harmful substances, poison bottles were made in a range of colours, often blue or green, which made them stand out from food containers, and meant that light couldn’t reach the contents, preventing potential chemical changes. The bottles were also shaped differently, with bumps or ridges to indicate that the contents were poisonous even to those with visual impairments. They would often have the words “NOT TO BE TAKEN” embossed on the side. Ominous.
Lastly, the spookiest find of all…..
This September, to the horror of many, we uncovered several different bits of dolls’ in varying states of distress.
Picture: Not strictly a doll- this is the porcelain head of a pin cushion which would have had ceramic arms and legs, with a felt body.
You might be thinking that it’s unsurprising that we’ve found so many bits of toys in a play park; Newsflash- Fish Found in the Sea. However, generally speaking it’s quite rare to be able to identify the Archaeology of Childhood for a lot of history. Childhood is a relatively recent social construct in many ways; yes, there have always been children, but the line between childhood and adulthood, as well as attitudes to children’s roles and status within society, have been incredibly fluid and changeable throughout history. We also have to consider that up until recently, many historians didn’t think that the history of childhood was worth studying, and much of what might be evidence of childhood is attributed to other activities.
These dolls give us a rare insight into childhood, as well as family income, material consumption, commercial trade, maybe even population demographics, and we are very lucky to have found such a rich collection of once loved and cherished playthings.
They are a bit creepy though, I will admit.