Museums have long since shed that dry old fashioned approach to telling the stories of what they exhibit.
The days of the tall wooden cabinet which displayed a badly lit set of objects accompanied only by a card with the briefest description have by and large gone.
They do still exist often in those small private museums whose funding make it impossible to go high tech.
Not that these are to be dismissed for they still have a magic and a power to both educate and take you on a journey into the past.
That said the museum of the Roman Baths at Bath is pretty much at the cutting edge of how we bring alive the past.*
The complex was begun in AD 60-70, with a temple and grew over the next 300 years, so the site has a lot to offer.
And it is the imaginative way that this is done.
It starts with the hand held audio guide which allows you to listen to a general commentary followed by specific information on the various exhibits and features. All you have to do is key in the number beside the exhibit and the story tumbles out.
Now I remain old fashioned and this is just enough information for me, but there is also the dramatized reconstruction of life in the Baths which comes in the shape of actors dressed in period costume and a series of commentaries spoken by “Roman characters, known to us from archaeological evidence at the site.”**
The sniffy side of me has always remained a little sceptical of these sorts of reconstructions, but in this case they work well.
And so bit by bit we made our way around the museum taking in the sheer size of the complex, gazing at what has survived from coins to lost jewellery, to hair combs and broaches, along with the large stone inscriptions.
This really offers up a slice of everyday Roman life and if I had a favourite, I guess it was those reminders of the darker side of our nature in the form of curses written on all manner of materials invoking some pretty nasty outcomes for perceived hurts and wrong doings.
As ever there is nothing new.
Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the website of The Roman Baths, Bath
*The Roman Baths, Bath, http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/default.aspx
**Meet the Romans, http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/whats_on/events/events_calendar/costumed_characters.aspx?link=sliderButton
They do still exist often in those small private museums whose funding make it impossible to go high tech.
Not that these are to be dismissed for they still have a magic and a power to both educate and take you on a journey into the past.
That said the museum of the Roman Baths at Bath is pretty much at the cutting edge of how we bring alive the past.*
And it is the imaginative way that this is done.
It starts with the hand held audio guide which allows you to listen to a general commentary followed by specific information on the various exhibits and features. All you have to do is key in the number beside the exhibit and the story tumbles out.
Now I remain old fashioned and this is just enough information for me, but there is also the dramatized reconstruction of life in the Baths which comes in the shape of actors dressed in period costume and a series of commentaries spoken by “Roman characters, known to us from archaeological evidence at the site.”**
The sniffy side of me has always remained a little sceptical of these sorts of reconstructions, but in this case they work well.
This really offers up a slice of everyday Roman life and if I had a favourite, I guess it was those reminders of the darker side of our nature in the form of curses written on all manner of materials invoking some pretty nasty outcomes for perceived hurts and wrong doings.
Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the website of The Roman Baths, Bath
*The Roman Baths, Bath, http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/default.aspx
**Meet the Romans, http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/whats_on/events/events_calendar/costumed_characters.aspx?link=sliderButton
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