Bagginses? What is a Bagginses, precious?

I'm back, I'm on a roll!! Second week in, and i'm keeping to my new years resolution:

ENTER Blogpost Number 2!!!

Its been nearly 6 weeks since I have last been back to the Eastbourne Ancestors Project and I've started to get withdrawal symptoms so, to help me carry on, I decided to do some research into the Anglo Saxon period and it all started with a BBC History Magazine and a trip to the cinema. 

The cinema??? Yes, to see The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey, it was a brilliant film (definitely worth the numb bum I got from sitting glued to the screen for three and a half hours) which followed Bilbo Baggins the newly titled 'Thief' going on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, with his company of 13 dwarves led by the prestigious warrior Thorin Oakenshield from the fearful dragon Smaug. This may seem as though there is little relation between a 2013 film and the lives of Anglo Saxons, but in fact, John Ronald Reuel Tolkein, the great writer of The Hobbit was Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at Oxford university in 1925 until his retirement in 1959 and his book The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, does in fact heavily feature western European medieval culture. 'Tolkein's references to Anglo Saxon culture wound folklore and fact into a plausible reality' one that now can be used by people like myself to help try and understand the types of lives the Anglo-Saxon's we are dealing with at the Eastbourne Ancestors may have been like and the types of landscape and communities they may have lived within. 

For those of you readers who are more interested in the film itself or actors involved, I was also very happy to find that Aiden Turner (Mitchel from Being Human, was playing Kili) So please please please, if you have the time check out the film, and definitely give the book a read as well, and remember, you can put all these activities down to researching Anglo Saxon England. (Perfect!!)

     
                 From blood sucking vampire Mitchell to sword wielding prosthetic Dwarf Kili. YAY!!

So until next time, I hope you all have a brilliant week, and carry on with you new years resolution!

I'll be back - Dun Dun Dun..........!!

 Maisie 

I would also like to say sorry to M. (from Fantasy Novel Project Blog and The Confusing and not-so Consistent Diary of an Ignorant Blogger Blog) who confirmed that I wasn't the only ones whose internet went into shock, when I finally posted a new blog last week. Haha, I hope you enjoy this weeks post, and your internet has finally recovered!!!

Who Really Owns Your Body?

Hello Bare Bones Blog Followers, I hope everyone had a very good New Year and have not missed me to much! This year’s resolution, I hope you’re all glad to hear, is that I tend on being a much more consistent blogger as over the last few months I have been a bit lax. (Sorry)

My Christmas Adventure really started on the 3rd December when Natasha Powers head Osteology and Research Co-ordinator of the Museum of London came to the Eastbourne Ancestors project, to look at the skeletal remains. This was exciting for everyone, as she is an important person in her field of work. As soon as she had seen us, it was as if, everything that I laid my hands on had something to do with Victorian London and more importantly and excitingly for me, the grisly tales, of the Victorian Resurrection Men. (Examples of Resurrection Men, although not from the London area, are the notorious Burke and Hare.) At the moment it may seem as though Natasha Powers and Victorian Resurrection Men have nothing in common, but in fact, as of the 19th October 2012, the Museum of London have an exhibition on called "Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men". And so my Adventure continued, because I just HAD to go. 

So on the 13th December, I headed off to the Museum, where I spent hours, just engrossed, by everything around me. The exhibition is clearly and cleverly laid out so you easily make you way through the history and development of the medical profession. You learnt that the medical profession once it started to become a popular career choice seriously lacked the corpses to allow its apprentices to practice on. However where there's a demand for a commodity there's always someone willing to meet it. This led to a huge increase in the trade in dead bodies and 'burking'. The exhibition tells the stories of Bishop, Williams and May, three infamous resurrection men who were caught and tried for the murder of an Italian Boy. You are transported through to the next room which shows you how through the use of these corpses the medical schools were able to get a much better understanding of the human body both inside and out, and therefore were a lot more able to treat their live patients. 

All skeletal remains shown in the exhibition where those found in 2006 when the Museum of London archaeologists excavated a burial ground at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel the skeletal remains found, showed clears signs of dissection such as drill holes, distinct cut and saw lines. There were also the remains of monkeys, and dogs, which suggest that animals were also dissected to see if there were any similarities between both human and animal bodies. The exhibition came to a close by showing where the medical profession is now, and how cultural attitudes towards donating your body after death still vary. 

I would highly recommend anyone to go and visit this exhibition even if it is just to get you wondering, who really owns your body?

Other exciting stuff:

To find out more about London's body snatchers there are two great articles in BBC History Magazine (Vol.13, no 13 - Christmas 2012) and Current Archaeology (January 2013 Edition.)

BBC History have also done a podcast on 'The Victorian trade in dead bodies' read by Elizabeth T Hurren, and can be found at www.historyextra.com/podcasts or on iTunes. 

To find out more about the exhibition and booking times, visit the Museum of London’s webpage by following the link -->  http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/London-Wall/Whats-on/Exhibitions-Displays/Doctors-Dissection-Resurrection-Men/

I hope you have all enjoyed this week’s blog, 

Until next time

Maisie