Meet the team – Jenny Durrant

Meet The Team -Jenny Durrant, Assistant Curator of Antiquities

Posted by: Jenny Durrant, Assistant Curator of Antiquities

Antiquities at RAMM and Me

I’m the Assistant Curator of Antiquities, one of two dedicated curatorial staff with RAMM’s archaeology and history collection. My association with RAMM began 12 years ago when I was an archaeology student in Exeter and I undertook a work placement with the Antiquities team. That was my ‘foot in the door’ moment and I’ve worked in the local museum and commercial archaeology sector ever since. The majority of my time has been at RAMM working directly with the collections, but I also spent three years as a Finds and Archives Officer in the local commercial sector. So from both sides I’ve experienced the nature of modern archaeological assemblages, and the issues they cause.

My Research and RAMM

My main research interests lie in museum collections policy and practice, Roman tile and Roman burial practice, but my role at RAMM enables me to be a jack of all trades – familiar with the broad range of objects and time periods represented in our wonderful collection. I have always been a strong advocate of making museum collections more accessible so I am genuinely proud to be part of the team developing this innovative project. Museum stores across the country are full to bursting. Curators and academics claim these collections have significant research potential. In these times of limited resources we at RAMM have chosen to test this research potential and try to make it a reality. I see so much research potential in our archaeology collection and I hope that the Research Collection encourages conversations to begin and research projects to develop.