Museum of London Docklands

Havering Hoard: A Bronze Age Mystery plots the story of the largest ever Bronze Age hoard to be discovered in London. Together with Skellon Studio we wanted to design an exhibition that defied the stereotype of these sort of shows, properly bringing the objects to life without resorting to visual cliché. The central idea was to have the visitor make an emotional connection with the ancient landscape via a powerful sunrise, something that was highly significant to the Bronze Age settlers.

The centrepiece is a 15 minute landscape film we conceived and directed of a dawn on Rainham marshes. Shot by Chocolate Films, this covers an entire wall of the gallery. An historic survival protected from modern development, the marshes are very similar to how the land would have looked during the Bronze Age. The Havering settlement was orientated along the East to West axis defined by the movement of the sun and across the gallery this axis is recreated with the positions of the hoards themselves and the positions of the sunset and sunrise.

Photography Seeing Things, ploughed field sunset by John Chase

The Times ⭑⭑⭑⭑
The Telegraph ⭑⭑⭑⭑
The Londonist ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Soundtrack by Mookid & Beau Miles Watson