Museums

Malton Roman Museum/North Yorkshire/UK

Excellent small collection staffed entirely by volunteers, with displays relating to the local area, especially the C1st-2nd fort, Derventio. Excellent practical activities are available by arrangement for Primary schools, & with Teachers Resource Pack and a free planning visit available. Pre-booking is essential for groups.

Hull and East Riding Museum/Hull/UK

A well displayed array of Roman finds based around the local mosaics from Rudston and Harpham villa.

The displays are arranged almost like shops around a forum, a nice touch. The museum is free, it

boasts a decent pottery and lamp collection, including several nice lamp oil pourers. Metalwork,

leatherwork and mosaic making are all represented. See also the iron age section, which includes

replica Parisi chariot and round houses, with a good collection of iron swords.

Dover Museum & the Painted House/Dover/Kent/UK

When I visited Dover museum in the summer 2005, it had a Roman event on, and had devoted the foyer and two entire floors to the subject. From my previous visit, however, the museum still boasts a

fine Roman collection. The Painted House is a few streets away, a privately owned house with painted

walls and small collection of artefacts. Less of a draw, but worth seeing if you are at the Dover

Museum.

British Museum/London/UK

A visit here is quite a daunting prospect. There is much to see and not enough time to see it all,

in addition the layout of the museum is complex. Since I needed to see the Egyptian, Near Eastern,

and Mycenaean Greek sections, I was only able to view the Roman Britain room. There is plenty here,

good examples of the everday objects, plus all of the great 'hoards' (eg. Hoxney Hoard). Since I am

interested in daily life, and not silver and gold, there was not alot here that surprised me. I had

a look at Late Antiquity, but not a detailed one. There are examples of Germanic finds from the

continent, including clay impressed ampulae, and a wonderful mosaic of a Visigothic nobleman on

horseback. Of course Sutton Hoo is magnificent. Time prevented a detailed look in this section. I

ran out of time, to be honest, and I had to skip Daily Life in Greece & Rome. The book shop is

excellent, however and cheered me up. Check out the BM's online catalogue of finds called COMPASS.

Canterbury Museum/Canterbury/Kent/UK

Under the streets of the modern town, the museum is based around several impressive mosaics with

computer reconstructions of the house that they sat in. The collection is of very good quality, but

with little to no Late Roman material. A famous dog-headed patera is in the collection. There are a

number of reconstructions, of which the cobbler and the kitchen are the best. There is an excellent

'hands-on' area for children (and adults!).

The Yorkshire Museum/York/North Yorkshire/UK

Home to some of the richest archaeological finds in Europe, this museum chronicles more than 1,000

years of Yorkshire's heritage from elegant Roman jewelry and mosaics to Viking treasures and Anglo-Saxon silver. The Roman collection is astounding, and incorporates examples of material culture from all aspects of daily life. It boasts a fine collection of tombstones. This is without doubt the premier Roman collection found in Yorkshire. Of course it sits within the beautiful museum gardens, which includes one of the Roman fortress's towers (the famous multi-angular tower). A museum not to be missed.

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