Winchester museums acquire comprehensive collection of local archaeological artefacts
This article originally appeared on Culture24.
A remarkable personal collection of rural archaeological finds has been acquired by Winchester Museums
Mesolithic flint axe, a Roman coin, an Anglo-Saxon brooch, a medieval buckle pin and a Tudor buckle from the the McGovern collection. © Winchester MuseumComprising mainly everyday objects like flint tools, pottery fragments, coins, buckles and brooches and many other small metal items, the collection was put together over many years by local amateur archaeologists Jim and Michael McGovern, both of whom are now deceased.
With many of the objects having been used and discarded or simply lost by local people over the centuries, the collection represents a fascinating picture of the local district. Archaeologists hope it will help them tell the story of the lives of the people who lived in the rural communities around Winchester during the last 2,000 years.
For the City Council and Hampshire Cultural Trust, acquiring the McGovern collection is a way of keeping the artefacts together, so that they can be studied and made accessible to the people of Winchester District and beyond in years to come.
Robin Iles, Venues and Learning Manager for Winchester at Hampshire Cultural Trust said a team "working in partnership with colleagues from the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Hampshire", had already begun “the major task of identifying, recording and cataloguing the several thousand artefacts in the McGovern collection”.
“Once researchers and experts examine the collection in detail, we expect it to add significantly to our knowledge of the rural areas east of Winchester,” he added.
Winchester City Council received support through the Arts Council England/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund to acquire the collection of rural artefacts which will now complement the city’s collection of archaeological artefacts from urban sites in Winchester itself.
Once the items have been catalogued a selection will go on display in Guildhall Winchester in the autumn of 2015. Items recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme will appear online and can be viewed on the Scheme’s database at https://finds.org.uk
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