I love everything about history! I studied my BA (Hons) Archaeology and MSc Dating and Chronology at Queen’s University Belfast. I have a variety of experience in commercial and research excavations across Ireland as well as Italy and London. Last summer I got the opportunity to teach archaeology students from across the world about archaeological excavation theory and techniques at the Achill Archaeological Field School in Ireland. I first came across community archaeology when I worked with Etruria Nova in Italy. I got to see how important it is for local people to understand and gain an appreciation of their local history and heritage. 


After teaching at Achill Archaeological Field School, I realised that I wanted to continue with this work and so I applied for the Council for British Archaeology Community Archaeology Training Placements.

After the best part of two years in the planning and production it’s a bit overwhelming to think that we are now just 10 days away from opening ‘Roman Empire: Power & People”. All the crates have arrived from the British Museum and staff are beavering away installing objects in cases. The large carved stone pieces are quite breath-taking – even better than I imagined and certainly worth the effort required to move them into position. The finished exhibition has always been firmly in my mind’s eye and now it’s slowly starting to materialise.

Our designers have helped us to create a visual feast of light, texture and colour against which to display an amazing collection of objects. Many people have asked me what it is like to work on an exhibition and I’ve got to say that in all honesty it’s a bit like giving birth!  At the concept stage we imagine what the exhibition might look like, each team member then contributes something of themselves to achieve the final product, and as the weeks go by we all hold our breath for the moment we put the final touches in place. Will it look like it we imagined? Will it deliver our messages? Will our visitors love it as much as we do? We always hope so!!

My mother-in-law has often said that you must remember you never get to keep your children you only get to borrow them. Roman Empire: Power & People has allowed us to work creatively with objects loaned to us by the British Museum. We only get to ‘keep’ them for 16 weeks and then they will be off to other venues. The exhibition we have developed here will evolve as it tours the country over the next two years. The staff at each museum it visits will add something of themselves to the show as well as objects from their own collections. They will no doubt feel the same sense of anticipation as I do now and we will feel just a bit of parental pride.

Gail Boyle, Curator of Archaeology, Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives 

With apologies to all Latin scholars but Google tells me that this means ‘All systems go’, which is certainly feels like the case for our up and coming show ‘Roman Empire: Power & People’. From a personal perspective it’s not often that you get to work on a major touring exhibition and it’s a real privilege to be able to work with material from the British Museum. As the lead museum for the tour we have the responsibility for the exhibition design and production and also first slot in the touring programme. It’s great to think that all the hard work and effort we have been putting into this will result in tens of thousands of people across the country having access to dozens of amazing objects rarely seen outside London.

As you can imagine with a project of this size there’s quite a few of us involved in its production.  I personally enjoy the beginning of the exhibition process because that’s when we’re really able to get our creative juices flowing. In the cold light of the budget, however, some of the ideas we had were clearly wild imaginings but I am pleased to say that much of our original concept has made it to the drawing board and beyond.

I play several roles in the process but as a curator I am particularly responsible for developing and writing all the text. This was a bit of a challenge since 95% of what we are showing is from someone else’s collection, relates to the whole of the Roman Empire and is not themed around daily life! For me it’s been a great opportunity to step outside of my own collection comfort zone and get to grips with something new. Right now however I’m concentrating on some of the interactive elements we’re building in and at the moment that involves choosing which gods and goddesses to include for one of them….I wonder which one might smile the most kindly on me if they make the cut , or not if they don’t?

 Will I cause ‘totus ratio deficiendi’……..which Google tells me is an ‘all systems failure’ - I hope not!