Phill Brant-Simmons takes us through the final stage of the journey of our Roman swords
It’s been a little while since the last update about the swords, when we shared about their conservation. A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to get the swords into their display case. Fundraising by the Friends of Corinium Museum, along with some grant money from various sources, helped us to acquire a bespoke case – the most expensive part of the whole process. We enlisted the help of Redman Designs, who created all the displays in our Prehistory gallery that opened in 2020. Redman experts came to the museum to trace the swords and their various fitments to help with the design and construction of the case.
More goes into the design of new case than you might think. Mounting is important because it dictates how the swords are displayed and supported. It would be very easy to simply put the swords at the bottom of a case with a label and call it a day, but it wouldn’t look very good, especially when a lot of the detail is on the side of the swords. There are also two sides to each sword, which means that a decision had to be made about which side was best for display. The lighting of the swords is also important, as the lights need to pick up details and not wash them out.
As the swords are made out of iron, which is quite hard to keep stable, a lot of thought and consideration was needed about how best to preserve them while they are on display. The designers needed to think about the seal around the door; how much silica gel could be placed in a hidden but accessible location to absorb moisture in the air; and the location and installation of environmental monitors.
Of course, we also had to think about what information was going to be displayed on the panel and label to tell people about the objects and their context. We thought about what story we wanted to tell and decided to split the panel into three sections: one covering the discovery of the swords; another on the site and its context; and lastly on the history of spatha swords. We put a second label inside the case detailing the specific objects (as best you can with an extremely limited word count).
Choosing where to put the case was another consideration. Given the age of the swords it made sense to put it next to the 2nd and 3rd century Roman Military case. Another bonus to this location was that there was a hollow wall next to it that made fitting a new case much easier. We did have to knock a hole in the wall to get the case in however! The next part was to sort out the lighting and mounting. We then put the objects in the case with the help of the designers and everything was ready to go!
The swords were unveiled to the public on the 2nd of August and if you visit the museum you can see them right now!
