All posts by Alex Croom

About Alex Croom

Alex Croom
Keeper of Archaeology

I look after the archaeology collections of four museums within Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums. As we look after two Roman Forts, much of the material is Roman in date, but the rest covers everything from ancient Egypt to industrial archaeology of the late nineteenth century! Needless to say, I am particularly interested in the Romans, and love trying to find out more about their every-day lives.

Bell-shaped studs

Arbeia Roman Fort & Museum   Archaeology
Posted by Alex Croom on July 18, 2012     Permalink     Leave a comment

We have been busy changing the old Daily Life gallery in the museum at Arbeia into the brand new Amazing Finds gallery, which meant we had to take all the artefacts out of the room during the building work. Some of the objects… Read more

Bronze Age Burial

Archaeology   Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
Posted by Alex Croom on July 28, 2011     Permalink     Comments (1)

A request came in from Newcastle University to look at the human remains from the Bronze Age that we have in our collections for a project on Bronze Age burials. This required having a detailed look at some of the… Read more

Death of Death and Burial

Arbeia Roman Fort & Museum   Design
Posted by Alex Croom on January 6, 2011     Permalink     Leave a comment

We have got the chance to re-display one of the galleries in the museum, so while the site is closed for winter we have cleared the old Death and Burial Gallery. First we took out all the small objects and… Read more

The Victorian Press and the Fort

Arbeia Roman Fort & Museum   Archaeology   South Shields Museum & Art Gallery
Posted by Alex Croom on September 17, 2010     Permalink     Leave a comment

I have just been helping to choose some objects from the fort for an exhibition celebrating 150 years of the Museum in South Shields, and had to check up a bit on the history of one of the objects, which… Read more

Excavations at Arbeia

Arbeia Roman Fort & Museum   Archaeology
Posted by Alex Croom on August 6, 2010     Permalink     Comments (1)

The excavations here at Arbeia are now in their third week.  The team (made up of volunteers from Earthwatch) are actually digging just outside the wall of the fort itself, hoping to pick up some of the civilian settlement that… Read more