Day in the life: An Inventory Assistant

By Faith Nolan, Inventory Assistant, National Museum of Ireland

Copyright © 2024 Faith Nolan

Introduction

Over the past year inventory has been a hot topic for discussion among museum professionals. As many of us working in the sector know, backlogs of one form or another can be common. One way these issues are resolved is by carrying out regular targeted inventories. The Collections Trust has published a procedure for Inventory as part of their Spectrum standard. This gives us a baseline of information to start from, and allows museums to have a universal standard. As part of a small team here in the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology (NMI) my role is to carry out an inventory of the NMI’s collection as part of ongoing major projects carried out by the Registration Department.

Inventory and Identification

The excavation at Carnsore, Co. Wexford in 1975 consisted of three sites with most of the excavated material and samples coming from site 1: St. Vogues’ Church and Enclosure. This is a multiphase ecclesiastical site, with activity from the early medieval period with evidence of a wooden church predating the drystone Pre-Romanesque church, up until the 1940’s when walls were rebuilt (Ó Carragáin, 2010; O’Kelly, 1975). The assemblage contained a variety of object types, from iron nails and shale bracelets to coins and pivot stones. However, the most common object type recovered was medieval and post-medieval pottery. Site 2 was St. Vogues holy well, but there were no evidence remaining of the well. Site 3 was the site of a dolmen recorded at Carnsore Point on the 1840’s ordnance survey. However, it was removed, possibly by coastal erosion, between the early 19th Century and 1975, as no evidence was found.

Before I started inventorying the assemblage, I discussed the site and the material with the curator who had carried out a partial inventory on the assemblage. I also read the excavation report and checked the archive for relevant files and site records (e.g. find lists, sample lists etc.) which would help me identify the objects. Armed with this information, I began auditing the objects already inventoried. This was very useful as I encountered some unfamiliar pottery types. Using the identification from the report, the existing records, the ceramics reference collection, core texts such as Clare McCutcheon’s Medieval pottery from Wood Quay, Dublin : the 1974-6 waterfront excavations, comparison to objects in the Medieval Ireland exhibition here in NMI-Archaeology Kildare Street, and some online resources (see further reading), I was able to build my knowledge, and identification skills.

Next, I began the inventory of the remainder of the assemblage. This involved creating a basic inventory level record in our database, including: the unique object number (usually assigned in the field by the excavator), the simple name, full name, material, number of objects, a brief description, dimensions, and the permanent and current location for each object. Finally, I would write a new label, and individually bag each object (or bagged together in the case of pottery sherds which had been broken in antiquity and could be matched up to a form a single object) and place them in new conservation grade acid free boxes.

The unique object registration number is important as it allows us to link a specific object with its documentation and object history (see my previous article on resolving temporary numbers). As part of creating the full name for each object and writing the description, I would need to be able to identify the object and match it with the finds list and excavation report. For example, I would need to describe if a fragment of pottery had diagnostic features, if it was a base, body or rim sherd, if it was medieval or post-medieval, and if possible narrow it down to its specific ware type (e.g. Leinster Cooking ware, North Devon Gravel Tempered ware, etc.). By adding this information to the full name and description, curators, future researchers, and cataloguers would be able to identify them in the collection, and to refine the descriptions and carry out analyses of the excavation and the wider collection.

Conclusion

The work I carried out on the St. Vogues assemblage was incredibly rewarding. I learned how to correctly identify several more medieval and post-medieval ceramic types, resolved several cases of dissociation of objects from their number due to natural wear and tear since 1975, and stabilised the assemblage. The completed inventory will allow for greater location control, and possibly the best benefit – the St. Vogue’s Church and Enclosure assemblage is now available for research purposes!

Introduction

Inventory and Identification

Conclusion

Further Reading

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