What better way to spend a free day in my native Peterborough than to travel through time and space, right? Right?
It's the middle of the week, my wife was at work and the children in school and dreading to do house chores, I decided to go to town. There I saw an exhibition of Peterborough's past featuring important objects in the city museum. Then I walked to the Cathedral to admire the giant artwork, Museum of the Moon before it closed last 14 October, after which it will be on display in Blackpool.
Treasures Exhibition
I started my day in Peterborough Museum arriving at around mid-day. I went to see Treasures, an exhibition featuring important objects that represent great treasures of Peterborough's past. These items are borrowed from such well-known museums as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, as well as other significant collections.
These treasures, renowned both nationally and internationally, are on display for the first time ever in Peterborough. First shown last 25 August 2018, the exhibition will be in Peterborough Museum until 6 January 2019.
The exhibition was held in one of the rooms to the right at the ground floor of the museum. As I entered, I was greeted by a sign that said taking photographs are not allowed. I was disappointed as I was planning to take some photographs. It's a good thing I got hold of a copy of the exhibition guide so I will use that as my 'photographs' for this blog post.
The first dimly-lit room I entered housed two sets of collections borrowed from the British Museum, carefully placed inside glass cases with lights - the Barnack Burial Grave Goods (2330-2130 BC) and the Water Newton Treasure (4th century AD).
The Barnack Burial Grave Goods consisted of a pottery 'Beaker, bone pendant, copper dagger and a stone wristguard with gold studs. These items were buried with the crouched body of a 45-year-old tall adult male. The items are typical of the richer graves of the early 'Beaker' period, that of powerful people.
The Water Newton Treasure are silver religious objects found at Water Newton, the Roman town of Durobrivae, Peterborough in 1975. They are the earliest-known group of Christian church silver from the whole of the Roman Empire, thus, its discovery is of international importance.
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| Scanned from exhibition guide |
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| Scanned from exhibition guide |
In another dimly-lit room are the other two sets of collections, also housed inside lighted glass cases - the Medieval manuscripts from Peterborough Abbey (12th - 14th century) borrowed from significant collections, and the Becket Casket (ca 1180) borrowed from the Victoria & Albert Museum.
The medieval manuscripts on display were precious books for monks to use at Peterborough Abbey, one of the wealthiest monasteries in England. The Peterborough Chronicle and The Black Book of Peterborough were written by monks in the scriptorium at the abbey However, The Lindsay Psalter and possibly the Peterborough Bestiary were commissioned by the abbey, and specialist illustrators made them to order at workshops elsewhere.
The Becket Casket was possibly ordered made by Abbot Benedict to house the Becket relics he brought with him from Canterbury. He built the Becket Chapel next to the gate at Peterborough Abbey, inviting pilgrims to drink a glass of water mixed with a drop of Becket's blood in return for money. Pilgrims believed that drinking the water would cure illnesses.
I did not stay long, just half an hour although there are volunteers around if you have questions. I also decided not to browse again the rest of the museum as I did not have a lot of time. I proceeded to the Cathedral to check on the Museum of the Moon, which is my main reason of going to town that day.
Museum of the Moon
The Museum of the Moon is a visually stunning touring artwork by UK artist Luke Jerram. It was hosted by Peterborough Cathedral from 5-14 October as part of its 900 years celebration as a cathedral.
The moon, measuring seven metres in diameter and featuring 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface, was suspended in the magnificent space of Peterborough Cathedral.
At an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 5km of the moon’s surface. Over its lifetime, the Museum of the Moon will be presented in a number of different ways both indoors and outdoors, so altering the experience and interpretation of the artwork. As it travels from place to place, it will gather new musical compositions and an ongoing collection of personal responses, stories and mythologies, as well as highlighting the latest moon science.
This brilliant work of art is best experienced in the night time with its lights on and accompanied by music but I did not have the luxury of time anymore. It was ending soon and this day was my only chance. But I still had the best time, staying more than an hour admiring the Moon from all angles and taking a lot of photos - not to mention selfies!
Time and space travel
I had a great day off! I had fun going back through time at the city museum musing at those important objects that represent great treasures of Peterborough's past. In just half an hour admiring those treasures I travelled through thousands of years of my city's historical past.
Not only did I had the chance at time travel I also travelled into space! The Museum of the Moon is probably the closest I could get to the real Moon but it is well worth seeing it in person. What is even more surreal is that the artwork was displayed near Tim Peake's spacecraft - still on display in the cathedral until November this year. Standing behind the spacecraft looking at the moon I imagined myself travelling to the moon from inside the spacecraft.
More information
Vivacity: Treasures - the exhibition
Vivacity: Museum of the Moon
Museum of the Moon: https://my-moon.org/
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