Remembering the Temple of Mithras: using oral history methodology and data to enhance commercial excavation

Remembering London’s Temple of Mithras: using oral history methodology and data to enhance commercial excavation

Stephanie Ostrich

ST PAUL’SBANK OF ENGLAND

BZY10(the site)

QUEEN VI

CTORIA S

TREET

CANNON STREET

“it was very very crushed”

“They’re going to rebuild on top of it! …there was this rush to see it”

“It was 3, 4, sometimes 5 people deep…and I thought, I’ll be here ‘til midnight!”

“…you queued for everything [in those days] so why not see a Roman temple…”

Image courtesy of Marian Mason

Aims of the project• Aid in the reconstruction of the London Temple of Mithras

• Create a digitised educational and research collection of stories and images

• Capture the personal experiences of this important event in London’s history

• Document the influence this event had on British archaeology

• Provide training to volunteers and staff

Research questions• What details of the excavation and site can they recall?

• Why did they come visit this site? Why was did they think there such a furore?

• Do they think this visit sparked a long-term interest in archaeology in their life?

Image courtesy of Beryl GutteridgeImage courtesy of Beryl Gutteridge

Methodology

• Media call-to-action

• Preliminary data collection via phone/email/post

• Follow-up interviews carried out by external oral historian with subset

• Ephemera scanned at high-resolution (1200dpi) and returned

Pitfalls• Publicity/selection bias• Population not representative of London as a whole © Museum of London

Results

• Contacted by 110 people

• Formally interviewed 30 people

• 35 new photographs of the Temple of Mithras excavations

Image courtesy of Peter Gosnell

Results

Image courtesy of Sandra and Eric Morgan

Results

ResultsLong-term impact of public engagement in archaeology

Image courtesy of R O Hitchman

“you see it actually being dug up and you think: ‘what else am I walking on?’”

ResultsDirect impact

“…[the temple] was here in the bar!”

ResultsPeripheral impact

Social value

“It’s all about people, isn’t it?”