• Durham Cathedral
  • small_finds
  • late- and post-medieval buttons
  • Elvet Bridge, Durham
  • The Durham River Wear Assemblage
  • Gary Bankhead Elvet Bridge
  • Museum of Archaeology
The Durham River Wear Assemblage
Elvet Bridge

the dive site

Elvet Bridge, Durham. A multi-period underwater archaeological site adjacent to a twelth-century bridge.
research

artefact research

Artefacts research is undertaken in the Archaeological Artefacts Forensic Analysis Centre in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University; an equipment centre facilitating the study of archaeological artefacts and materials.
Gary Bankhead

gary bankhead

Find out about the man behind the Durham River Wear Assemblage project...
 


 

The Durham River Wear Assemblage


The Durham River Wear Assemblage totals some 13,000 ordinary and extraordinary objects. These typically small metal objects, which transcend the late- and post-medieval periods, are challenging the way in which we understand Durham's past. The assemblage features many different artefact types and includes such objects as: Fixtures and Fittings — window cames, spikes, brackets, mounts, hinges and hooks, floor tiles; Security — keys, locks and escutcheon plates; Kitchen — knives, spoons and ceramics, pot mends; Medical — syringes, ear wax scoops and pins; Writing & Reading — bone stylus, seal matrix and printing blocks; Leisure — lead toys, buzz discs, lead dice & miniature vessels; Tools — needles, thimbles, spindle whorls, metal & leather working tools and ingots; Trade — lead cloth seals, bag seals, tokens, lead tokens, coin weights, pan weights, other weights, scales, coins and jetton; Religious Objects — pilgrim souvenirs, secular bells and crucifix; Animal — bone, shoe and harness equipment; and Dress Accessories — buckles, clasps, pins, beads, strap ends, buttons, chains, pendants, finger rings, lace chapes, decorative mounts etc.