CONTENTS Page Notices 2 Reviews 7 Books and Publications 13 Conferences and Courses 13 Lectures and Events 14 Affiliated Society Meetings 15 NOTICES Newsletter : Copy Dates The copy deadline for the following issue of the Newsletter is 28 March 2012 (for the May 2012 issue). Please send any items for inclusion to Meriel Jeater at Museum of London, London Wall, London EC2Y 5HN, or you can email me at [email protected] **************** LAMAS Lecture Programme 2012 Unless otherwise stated, meetings take place in the Clore Learning Centre at the Museum of London on Tuesday evenings at 6.30pm – refreshments from 6pm. Meetings are open to all; members may bring guests, and non- members are welcome. Please note : non-members are asked to donate £2 towards lecture expenses. 17 January 2012 Mapping Roman London: from Site Context to Town Plan , Julian Hill, Museum of London Archaeology 28 February 2012 AGM & Presidential Address: Reconstructing Nonsuch: Evidence, Elevations, and a Model , Prof Martin Biddle, Emeritus Fellow, Hertford College, Oxford (6.15pm, refreshments from 5.30pm) 13 March 2012 Jimmy Garlick, the Mummified Man of St James Garlickhythe , Ellis Charles Pike, Hon Verger of St James Garlickhythe & Vintry Ward Beadle 17 April 2012 The Thames Tunnel: Eighth Wonder of the World? , Robert Hulse, The Brunel Museum 24 April 2012 VISIT: Spitalfields Charnel House (6pm) 2 Visit to the medieval charnel house of St Mary Spital, Bishopsgate, led by Jane Sidell, Inspector of Ancient Monuments (London), English Heritage. This trip will gain access into the (usually inaccessible) remains of the charnel house, now protected in a room below the pavement of Bishops Square. Details on the history of the site and the building will be provided, and everyone will be able to view the remains up close. Sadly, there is no disabled access and there are steps involved. Advance booking required : spaces are limited to 25 people, so to book a free space on the tour, email: [email protected]. 15 May 2012 The Walbrook: its Archaeology and History, a Water Engineer’s View , Stephen Myers, Water Engineer & author of Walking on Water - London’s Hidden Rivers Revealed **************** LAMAS 156th Annual General Meeting & Presidential Address Tuesday 28 February 2012 Notice is hereby given of the LAMAS 156th Annual General Meeting and Presidential Address to be held on Tuesday 28 February at 6.15pm in the Clore Learning Centre at Museum of London, London Wall. Light refreshments will be available from 5.30pm. The AGM will be followed by the Presidential Address by Professor Martin Biddle, entitled Reconstructing Nonsuch: Evidence, Elevations, and a Model . Minutes of the 155th AGM, held on 15 February 2011, will be available. The 156th AGM Agenda is as follows: 1. Apologies for absence 2. Minutes of the 155th AGM, 2011 3. Annual Report and Accounts 4. Election of Officers and Members of Council 5. Appointment of Auditor(s) 6. Any other business Council would welcome nominations of anyone interested in becoming a member of Council. These should be addressed to the Chair at the address given on the back page of the Newsletter , or by email to the Secretary ([email protected]) to arrive no later than Wednesday 25 January 2012. **************** Local History Workshop: 28 March 2012 The last Local History Workshop on Getting the Best from the 1911 Census was fully subscribed and very well received. The topic proved to 3 be so popular that a waiting list was set up, in light of which the workshop is to be repeated on Wednesday 28 March 2012, at the Museum of London, between 1.30pm and 4.30pm. There are still eight places left, which will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Details of the workshop are on the LAMAS website and in the application form enclosed with this Newsletter . John Hinshelwood, Local History Committee **************** LAMAS Publicity Officer Needed LAMAS Council is looking for a volunteer from the membership to help publicise the Society’s activities. As well as using traditional ways of promoting events, such as posters and emails, we are keen to make more use of online social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. The publicity officer would need to manage the LAMAS Facebook account and keep it up-to-date with all the latest news, lecture information etc. If you would like to help promote the work of LAMAS, please contact the Secretary, Jackie Keily (020 7814 5734), [email protected]. **************** LAMAS Library Book Sale for Members The LAMAS library consists primarily of runs of archaeological journals (British and foreign) which have been acquired via an ongoing exchange programme and which are currently housed at Mortimer Wheeler House. There is also a limited collection of around 600 books, some of which are in the Museum of London library and some in bookcases in the Museum’s Boardroom corridor. The subject coverage is mainly archaeology and London history and topography. The LAMAS collection is available for consultation in the same way as all other Museum library material, i.e. the collections are reference only and access is on weekdays by prior appointment. The LAMAS library was previously housed at the Bishopsgate Institute but by 1976 discussions were afoot to move the library to the soon-to-be- opened Museum of London. A note in the Librarian’s files suggests that this was due to take place in January 1977, but there was no formal agreement between the Museum and LAMAS until 31 January 1985 when an agreement was signed by Nick Fuentes for LAMAS, and Max Hebditch for the Museum’s Board of Governors. The books placed on deposit were listed in two schedules and various terms were agreed, e.g. that either party could terminate the agreement with 12 months’ written notice on either side. 4 As space at London Wall is now at a premium and there is an ongoing project to reduce the number of long-term loans held by the Museum, the Librarian has asked Council to consider several options for the future loan of LAMAS books. Council has agreed to Option One: cutting down on the periodical exchange program, weeding the existing collections, and disposing of much of the book collection which duplicates or falls outside of the Museum of London collecting policy. It has been agreed that the LAMAS books chosen for disposal will be offered for sale to members at the Archaeology Conference on 24 March 2012 (members not attending the conference will also be able purchase books). Sally Brooks, LAMAS Librarian **************** Digitisation of Back Volumes of Transactions The first 38 volumes of LAMAS Transactions have been digitised and have been tested on a private part of the society’s website. The grant made by Council was unfortunately not sufficient to digitise all the volumes as the Transactions contained more pages than were roughly estimated. Council has now agreed the extra sum to complete the digitisation, and the remaining work will go ahead shortly. All the volumes up to 1985 will then be put on the website. Each volume will appear in Adobe PDF format as a single file that can be downloaded for free. We are considering the practicality and cost of providing an index on the website which allows downloading of individual papers, rather than an entire volume, but for the moment this is not being contemplated. Moderately fast computers will be able to download a volume quite quickly. More news on the progress of this work will follow in the next Newsletter and on the website. John Schofield, Publications Committee Chair **************** Closure of the Reconstruction of the Temple of Mithras The 1960s reconstruction of the Roman Temple of Mithras on Queen Victoria Street in the City of London is being dismantled from November 2011, in advance of redevelopment of the site. The material from the structure will be used to create a more accurate reconstruction, positioned as near as possible to the location of the original temple, within its own fully accessible space. The new reconstruction will be available for visits in summer 2016. The original temple was discovered by W. F. Grimes and excavated in 1954 by the Roman and Mediaeval London Excavation Council. The discovery of the marble head of the god Mithras on the last day of the planned excavation led to huge public interest and an extension to the 5 excavation. More sculptures were found, which now form the centrepiece of the Museum of London’s display about the temple. At the end of the excavation the temple was dismantled and put into storage. In 1962 it was reconstructed on a podium adjacent to Queen Victoria Street. The reconstruction has been on public display since then and has been visited by many thousands of people. Whilst it is recognised that the reconstruction has been an asset to the City of London and a link to the discovery made in 1954, it also has some well-known failings. It is 90m from its original site, aligned north-south whilst the original was east-west, is 9m above its original level, is architecturally inaccurate and has been put together with modern cement mortar with crazy paving concrete flooring. The redevelopment of the site provides the opportunity for significant improvements in public appreciation of the reconstruction. The new site owners Bloomberg LP will restore the temple to its original location on Walbrook, creating a much more informative and exciting interpretation, working with the City of London, English Heritage and Museum of London Archaeology. If you have any questions about the reconstruction of the Temple of Mithras please do not hesitate to contact me on 020 7410 2249 or [email protected].