Welcome

Welcome to our Object A Day Project at the Rumble Museum. The Rumble Museum is based at Cheney School, and is the first Arts Accredited museum inside a UK school.

We know that most school students in the UK are now learning from home, and we have started this project so that everyone can engage with and explore our collection in a range of ways over the coming weeks.

Every day during the school closure, we will be posting a different Rumble Museum object, as well as including competitions, quizzes and project opportunities.

Check back each day to see what’s new!

Day 36: Engraved Seal

Today’s object is a plaster molding of an “intaglio” seal! Victorian English aristocrats commonly bought these items on their holidays in Italy. They often featured aspects of mythology, and the seal we have depicts the Trojan hero Aeneas carrying his father. According to Roman mythology, he carried his father from the burning ruins of Troy, and went on to found the settlement that eventually become the city of Rome.

You can see our plaster molding of a seal here.

Day 35: Uroscopy Jar

It’s not the most pleasant of objects, but today’s item is a replica medieval uroscopy jar. Using urine to diagnose disease can be traced all the way back to 400BC where Babylonian and Sumerian physicians used the practice.

You can see some of our replica jars here.

Day 34: Roman Oil Lamp

Another day of lockdown, and to lighten your day, we bring you our day 34 object: a Roman oil lamp! We have two Roman oil lamps in our collection – one was discovered as part of a shipwreck, and doesn’t have much decoration, whereas the other has an image of Diana.

You can see the oil lamps in our collection here.

Day 33: Pithos Jar

Our day 33 object is a pithos jar! These were huge storage jars which you could easily fit inside. Lots of them have been found when excavating Bronze Age sites on places like Crete. They were used for storing grains and liquids.

We have two replica pithoi in our collection – you can read more about them here.

Day 32: Trade Ad Card

Today’s object is a 1903 Trade Ad Card. These cards became became popular at the end of the 17th century in Paris, Lyon and London, and they were both advertisements and maps to merchant’s stores (since there were not street numbers at the time).

The card in our collection has a picture of an ancient Greek doctor performing a sacrifice on one side, and text in French advertising a meat extract on the other – you can see it here.

Day 31: Candlestick Telephone

Our day 31 object is our Candlestick Telephone. Perhaps you have your own mobile phone, which is a very different sort of phone to the phone in our collection!

Candlestick telephones gained popularity in the 1880s. Our candlestick telephone has only a single switch for dialing an operator. You can see it here.

Day 30: Victory Celebrations Programme

Our object of the day today is a programme for the Victory in Europe Celebrations which took place in London in June 1946 to celebrate the end of World War Two.

You can see the programme in our collection here.

Day 29: Roman Wax Tablet

School exercise books in Roman times were rather different! Children would be given folding wooden rectangles, which had wax inside them, and a sharp stick called a stylus. They would then carve their answers into the wax, and smooth it over to re-use.

You can read more about our replica Roman wax tablet collection here.

Day 28: Phaistos Disk

We’re in our sixth week of lockdown and today’s object is one of our most mysterious items! The Phaistos Disk was found on 3 July, 1908 during excavation of the Minoan palace of Phaistos, near the south coast of Crete. It contains over 240 spirally arranged human, animal and plant images that were printed with individual stamps. No one is certain about the meaning of these images and why the item was made.

You can read more about our replica disk here.

Day 27: Thecosmilia Fossil

Our fragments of Thecosmilia Fossil were found at Rock Edge in Headington. Rock Edge is a remnant of the limestone quarries formerly worked extensively throughout Headington. The rocks exposed in the cliff face are of Upper Jurassic age, around 140-150 million years old. It is the site of a former coral patch reef, where fossilised corals and mollusc shells can be seen.

You can see our fragments here.