'Amazing' artefacts unboxed by public

Boxes of artefacts belonging to a museum, including many which have never been displayed before, are being unpacked by of the public.

A total of 6,658 boxes from the Museum of Gloucester's collection are being sorted at the city's Discovery Centre in Eastgate Shopping Centre.

Lizzie Johansson-Hartley, the museum's collection officer, said Anglo Saxon leather and a Roman tile with a print of a dog were among the "amazing" items which had so far been unpacked, relabelled and "preserved for the future".

Archaeologist Mark Horton said the year-long project made archaeology "accessible" to the public.

Ms Johansson-Hartley said some of the boxes had not been opened up "for 50 or 60 years".

"We're making sure everything is preserved for the future.

"We wanted to be in a public space particularly because we wanted to open up the heritage that we have hidden away in storage to the public," she said.

People can drop into the shopping centre to witness history being unboxed and offer a helping hand themselves.

Most of the archaeological collections at the Museum of Gloucester date back to the Roman and medieval periods.

"We do have some that predate that to the Dobunni tribe - the Iron Age - and pre-that as well," Ms Johansson-Hartley said.

Mr Horton said the project, which is ed by Cotswold Archaeology and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, was changing the public's perception of archaeology.

"Everyone thinks all these artefacts are precious because they're put in museums, in cabinets and no-one can touch them without proper gloves on.

"But this is the real world of archaeology... to make this accessible to the community who can work on this material without worrying it's going to break or anything is so fantastic," he added.

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