Why we HAVEN'T put the bird skin collection in taxonomic order

Firstly, for those of the uninitiated here is a (hopefully) simple explanation of what taxonomy means:

Taxonomy is a scientific word which basically stands for the tree of life. Looking at the bottom of the trunk you have one living thing – the first organism that popped into existence around 3.85 billion years ago and there were no other species, just the one. It is from that first type of organism that everything else has evolved and by looking at the tree, i.e. studying taxonomy, you can see how things are related to one another. For instance, did you know that humans and chickens share 57% of the same DNA, and we share around 99% of the same DNA as chimpanzees? Birds are descended from the same line as dinosaurs and of the species that are alive today one of the first to evolve was the Ostrich, which appeared around 20 million years ago. Some of the birds that have appeared most recently are perching birds, such as the finches, around 10 million years ago. Below is a taxonomic tree, showing how from one common ancestor a group of different species evolved.





(Taxonomic tree showing the branch dealing with birds and their relationships to one another. You can see how the Ostrich branches off first, exhibiting that is the most primitive and flamingos, penguins and toucans are relatively recent.)

 Most Natural History Collections are sorted in this way, everything is in order and you can progress through the evolution of a group, from start to finish (although everything is still evolving!). For the bird skin collection we have decided NOT to do this. Call us crazy, but we're scientists and we like to experiment! We consulted the main users of the collection, which are the Visitor Assistants and the Education and Outreach staff. They said that often with groups of visitors they concentrate on different themes and that taxonomy was not useful to them; would we consider something else? Since the collection was being unpacked from storage and we could start from scratch we asked for ideas and they came up with the themes of: beak shape, foot shape, flight, hunters/insectivores, British birds, geography and colour. Many different subjects can be related to each of these divisions, such as camouflage, migration, methods of feeding, habitat, etc. As part of the project all of our bird skins will be databased with a location attached so we can find everything even if it isn't in order or together.

There is an argument that you should adapt your collection to accommodate the people who use it the most, and in many cases that will be researchers and students, so of course sorting taxonomically would be ideal, but that is not the situation at the Discovery Centre. Ultimately, if after some time it is decided that actually taxonomy would be more effective then we can rearrange the collection, but it will be interesting to see how this test will work out.

Excavation stories: A knuckle guard from Kirkstall Abbey Guest House

Research is currently underway on West Yorkshire Archaeology’s excavations of Kirkstall Abbey Guest House, conducted between 1979-1986. The publication will examine the various structures of the Guest House complex, and through the medium of the artefacts, look at the range of activities carried out within the buildings and the types of visitors and residents who used the facilities. As part of this work, the assemblage of artefacts recovered is being reviewed and catalogues up-dated.

ABOVE: The standing remains of Kirkstall Abbey Guest House complex.

Just one of the 11,425+ objects is mentioned here, to give an idea of the information that can be gained. Small Find no. 3244 is thought to be a finger-joint cover or knuckle guard from plate armour gauntlets. During the 13^th century armoured protection for hands was provided by mail mufflers (Edge and Paddock 1988, 81), but from c. 1330-40 hour-glass-shaped metal gauntlets were developed. These gauntlets comprised a plate protecting and shaped to the side and back of the hand, narrowing to the wrist and then opening out to form a short cuff (Griffiths 1990, 1084). The fingers of the wearer were covered with two narrow metal plates, placed either side of the knuckle and riveted to an internal cloth or leather glove. The knuckles or joints of the wearer’s fingers were protected by curved plates like no. 3244, which over-lapped the finger plates, allowing complete flexing of the hand. These knuckle or finger-joint covers were attached to the leather via the rivet holes on either side. 

ABOVE: Finger joint covers or knuckle guards.  Left: from Kirkstall Abbey Guest House (c) Archaeological Services WYAS.  Right: from Coppergate, York (c) York Archaeological Trust. 

The finger-joint cover or knuckle guard from Kirkstall is damaged and the rivets missing, but the lack of iron corrosion suggests that slender copper alloy rivets were originally used, indicating a date in the second half of the 14^th century (Ottaway and Rogers 2002, 2970). Similar finger-joint covers or knuckle guards have been found at excavations at Coppergate in York (Ottaway and Rogers 2002, 2969-70) and at Winchester (Griffiths 1990, 1084). The Kirkstall example is narrower than the examples mentioned and may possibly have protected the pinkie joint.

Hour-glass-shaped metal gauntlets can be seen on brasses (e.g. Sir John Harsick, Southacre (Norfolk), d.1384; William de Aldeburgh, at Aldborough (Yorks.) d. c. 1360) and are depicted on the St William window at York Minister (Griffiths 1990, 1084 and fig.139; Ottaway and Rogers 2002, fig. 1534).

ABOVE: Detail from panel 1b of St.William window, York Minster, showing metal gauntlets being worn.

Kirkstall Abbey Guest House was not for ordinary wayfarers, but a residence for visitors of rank and wealth to the Abbey, as the gauntlet finger-joint cover nicely illustrates.

  

Bibliography

Edge, D. and Paddock, J. M, 1988 Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight (London)

Griffiths, N. 1990 ‘Finger-Joint Cover from a plate armour gauntlet’ in Biddle, M. Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester (vol.2), 1084-5

Ottaway, P. and Rogers, N. 2002 Craft, Industry and Everyday Life: Finds from Medieval York The Archaeology of York: The Small Finds 17/15

Author: Holly Duncan, Project Manager (Artefacts) at Albion Archaeology

Wild Eider Ducks!

(Flock of Common Eider Ducks (Somateria mollissima) seen on a recent trip to Iceland).

We have a few specimens of the Common Eider Duck in the collection and they are an interesting bird.

They breed in Arctic and northern regions and the females line their nests with the soft down feathers from their chests as it is very warm and has excellent insulating properties. After the ducklings have fledged the down from the nests can be harvested and goes to make highly prized eiderdown duvets, pillows and coats - it is so highly prized that it is worth more than its weight in gold.

(Male Common Eider Duck (Somateria mollissima) in Leeds Museums & Galleries collection).

Common Eider Ducks eat crustaceans and molluscs and particularly favour mussels, which are eaten whole and then crushed in the gizzard. The first (bad quality) picture was taken right next to a rocky shore and soon after nearly the whole group dived at the same time whilst foraging under the water.  Females usually return to the same place that they were hatched and they sometimes lay eggs in the nests of related individuals, whilst after hatching ducklings may be looked after in a crèche. Their call has been likened to that of old women gossiping!

(Male Common Eider Duck (Somateria mollissima). Image taken by David Iliff at the London Wetland Centre in Barnes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Somateria_mollissima_(Common_Eider)_male,_London_Wetland_Centre_-_Diliff.jpg)

Cute Cat - A Chinese Inkstone

This unusual cat shaped ink stone was donated in 1993 by a Mrs Mae-Fun Chen, who was moving from Knaresborough to the seaside in Essex. Her father was an art collector, who had a shop called the 'Chinese Art Gallery' and when he died in 1967 she selected this ink stone, amongst a few other items, to keep. It is currently on show in the China Cabinet display at the far end of the Servant's Quarters at Lotherton Hall.  

On the back of the inkstone is an inscription which has now been translated by Estelle Wu     (吳瑞珍), as part of her internship with Leeds Museums and Galleries this year. (Where X is written this means the character was hard to decipher). The colour on this photo has been altered to maximise the legibility of the characters.

  

頷則燕而

When it nods its head with comfort

虎為頭晴則貓

The head is like a tiger and in sunny day is like a cat

而鸜鵠為之眸

And its eyes are like a mynah

彼飛而食肉比伏而

They move quickly and have meat as their meals

ＸＸ儒流五十卷三

Thirty thousand and fifty catalogues about Confucianism

萬軸廣變賴囚免鼠

It is wide and changeable, imprisons some mouse

偷賛不過堪備鑒卿

Helping someone behind the scene

之選百曾何邑召

XXXXXXXX

取封詹

XXXX

天放閒心

God asks us to have leisureful lives

蚱山銘

Zha-Shan (a mountain in Huian County, Fujian province, China) inscribed

Searching for this mountain in combination with the word inkstone on the web brought up the name Huang Kehui 黄克晦 (1524-1590), a poet, painter and calligrapher in the Ming Dynasty. This poem is very similar,  in the first and second lines, with one by the poet Xu Wei 徐渭 (1521-1593), who lived around the same time. So presumably Huang took some part of Xu’s work to make a new poem of his own.

Below is Xu’s work:

Name: 徐渭 Xu Wei

Topic: 端石螭硯銘 The inscription on an ink stone with a dragon

頷則燕而虎為頭

When dragon nods its head it looks like tiger

框則螭而鸜鵒為之眸

And the eyes of dragon are like mynah

彼飛而食肉此飛而飲於流墨卿耳何足以侯

It flies and moves fast, it has meat as its meal, it has ink as its drinks, can you hear its sound?

Do get in touch if you have seen another cat inkstone as cute as this one!

Poppies

Many people will have been wearing poppies lately and on Remembrance Sunday they are at the heart of our commemorations. At Leeds Museums & Galleries we are working hard on a programme of commemoration for 2014-18, but until then here is a quick look at some of the historical poppies in our collections

The poppy has a long cultural history.

Beginning with the botanical, we have several different poppies in our herbarium collections. This one was gathered from allotments at the back of Newlaithes Gardens in Horsforth in 1959. The petals are still so red!

 

Moving back in time, our oldest object that features a poppy is this lekythos (jug) from the late Bronze Age in Cyprus. The 'belly' of the jug is meant to look like the seed-head of the poppy - there are groves that mimic the seed-head. It is very small so may have been used to prepare sleeping draughts from raw poppies, with the shape echoing the ingredients.

Moving forward to Ancient Rome, this dupondius (coin) dates from 41 AD and shows the goddess Ceres sitting, holding two poppies in her out-strectched right hand. Ceres is the goddess of the harvest and the poppy is one of her emblems, because they grew commonly in amongst fields of grains, like barley. Even with industrialised agriculture today, you can still see poppies growing amongst wheat around harvest time.

In Victorian England, poppies become a popular motif for a wide variety of objects, including textiles and porcelain. Popularity at this point had much to do with the influx of new varieties of poppy that were developed by Victorian horticulutralists. Victorians also popularised the idea of a 'Language of Flowers' and that each one had its own meanings. 

• Poppies in general referred to: Eternal Sleep, Oblivion, Imagination
• Red Poppy: Pleasure
• White Poppy: Consolation
• Yellow Poppy: Wealth, Success

This tea service dates from 1880 and features red poppies across it - it's always possible some poppy-seed cake was served from it too!

After the First World War, many people noticed that battlefields in France were covered with poppies - they do grow well in disturbed ground. However it was the poem 'In Flanders Fields' that appeared to make the use of them in remembrance so widespread. This cross dates to just after the First World War. It is an unprovenanced item - so we don't know how it came to be in the collections - however I think that makes it all the more poignant.

If you have a story to share, or would like to get in touch about our First World War programme, please contact lucy.moore@leeds.gov.uk

Decent photography, making your collection look good

(Professional photographer Norman Taylor taking pictures of a mounted Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)).

We regularly hire Norman to come in and take pictures of our specimens. Sometimes these pictures are for an exhibition or display in the galleries, other times it is just to have a good visual record of our collection so that it is easier to identify things quickly when looking though our database. There are occasions when researchers want to see a picture of a specimen before they come to visit to see if it displays the characteristics they are looking for, or because they can get the information that they need just from the image, saving them a trip. If, for whatever reason, the specimen was lost, having a visual record of it means you still have valuable information on its appearance; this could be sent to the Police if it was stolen or at least give an idea of scale if it was destroyed in a fire. When an object goes in for conservation treatment to be cleaned or repaired then it is always useful to have before and after photos, then you have a record of what has changed/improved in appearance. If the specimen is sent out on loan you always take a picture to be sure that when it is returned it is in the same condition as when it left, as it is the responsibility of the person/organisation you are lending it to to look after it and keep it safe.