The Camden Town Hoard is a collection of ferrous archaeological finds dredged up from a section of Regent’s Canal, roughly between Granary Square in Kings Cross and London Zoo (UK).

The canal was dredged by an unknown person in the spring/summer of 2021 during lockdown. The majority of the objects revealed during this time were removed from the canal towpaths by Camden Council but not before 20 or so of the most fascinating artefacts were rescued and accessioned into the ExPurgamento archive.

Since then the collection has been studied, thoroughly documented and provided with museum labels by a team of highly trained experts from a broad variety of backgrounds and interests. What is rather unusual for a grouping of archaeological objects found together in a specific location is that they seem to represent various historical periods and geographical locations both real and imagined.

This intriguing find attracted attention of several august institutions, most notably the Institute for the Study of Found Objects of a Perplexing Nature, the Dubious Context Society and the Notional Heritage Trust, thanks to whose generous support the study into the collection can continue, and further excavations are planned in the near future.

Images: Objects from The Camden Town Hoard Collection courtesy of Studio ExPurgamento. Photographs: Natalia Zagorska-Thomas.

Identifying and contextualising the various objects belonging to the Camden Town Hoard threw up several new problems related to taxonomical classification. Specifically, it has been noted that the term ‘artefact’ may not be an entirely sufficient or appropriate description of all archaeological material and it is therefore proposed that the term ‘artefiction’ might sometimes be used instead.

The Camden Town Hoard was exhibited at St John’s Church, Waterloo, as part of the London Group’s summer exhibition during Waterloo Festival in 2021. It is hoped that the growing collection will be able to tour the country in the forthcoming years as the crucial and rigorous work of putting it in the wider context of British cultural heritage continues.

Let’s assume that certain objects have outlived their usefulness. Through long contact with human beings, they have assimilated some of the symbolism placed upon them, then used it as a starting-point for their own pursuit of autonomous identity. Because they are not considered – by humans – valuable enough to be collected for themselves, they are engaged in a fight for survival. Taking such snippets of human experience as they have picked up from literature, visual art and music, they adapt them to create new meaning for themselves, one which will justify the value of their existence, not just to us, but to themselves as well.

Tadeusz Kantor said, ‘The object exists between eternity and the rubbish heap.’ It is in that space, suspended between destruction and immortality, that Zagórska-Thomas’s objects fight with her for control of their own destiny.

“I was sitting with the co-publisher of The Camden Town Hoard (Charles Boyle, CB Editions) at a bar not long ago discussing the book. We were overheard by a group of businessmen sitting at the next table who became interested. They asked about the project and about the book. One of them Googled the book description on his phone and having read it asked: OK, but is it all real? Well, we said, you decide.”

Natalia Zagorska-Thomas, Curator, Studio ExPurgamento.

This exhibition is open to the public Monday – Friday 9am-5pm. No booking needed. The library is on the first floor of B block.

For more information on Bower Ashton Library, visitor access and campus map, see the library website. You can also follow the library’s Twitter feed.

UWE Bristol, City Campus at Bower Ashton, Kennel Lodge Road, Bristol BS3 2JT.