SuperYAClambanana!
Back in June the Mersey & Dee YAC group met for a special half-term day session looking at the archaeology of Liverpool’s waterfront. We discovered plans for the future through the Waterfront Transformation Project and got hands on with finds from waterfront excavations at Manchester Dock (below the footprint of the Museum of Liverpool) and Piermaster’s Green where the Mersey & Dee YAC got to dig in 2021 & 2022. Taking a walk around the historic waterfront to explore our landscape, the group met some of the city’s Superlambananas.
What is a superlambanana?
A superlambanana combines a lamb and a banana two things that would have been imported and exported through Liverpool’s docks. Find out more about them in this fun video
Back inside and inspired by the landscape and finds the group got creative each coming up with a design for a Superlambananas. The new design would represent local archaeology and some of the 100,000 objects in the Regional Archaeology Collection at the Museum of Liverpool. With some fantastic designs created, the team of Museum of Liverpool curators voted from which a theme of stratigraphy emerged. 1st place was awarded to Emily who won a plush superlambanana and some other superlambanana themed goodies. Emily met with the artist to share her ideas and learn more about the process.
I felt very happy to win the competition but knew that the superlambanana needed to be funded, when I knew it had been funded, I was very very happy. I was excited to meet a real artist, and it felt good talking about the design with him - Emily
After meeting, the artist added Emily’s name to the belly of the superlambanana in gold!
I loved seeing my name for the first time. It feels really really special. It feels so good because superlambananas are a massive thing in Liverpool and I am very proud to have designed one! - Emily
Rosie and Jamie’s colourful designs came a close second and third and all three designs inspired the final artwork.
Rosie shares her experience taking part in the day and her love of archaeology
I really enjoyed the session, and I hope there are more in the future it was an exciting day and it was good to hear about the plans for the future of the waterfront. The best part of the day was getting the opportunity to design our own superlambanana. The inspiration for my design was what I love about archaeology and the buzz I get from digging and finding pieces of history, so I tried to base my design around these things.
When I heard my design was part of the final design, I was so proud to tell my friends and family. Then when I saw the superlambanana outside the Museum of Liverpool I was so excited and very impressed with how the artist brought the design to life.
Young Archaeologist Jamie’s design was the third chosen by our curators. Jamie who took part as a YAC member is now a young leader with the Mersey and Dee branch.
The inspiration for my superlambanana design came from a YAC session on Pompeii where I loved hearing and seeing pictures from the excavations taking place. A session that included pottery from Merseyside also inspired my design.
When I first found out my design was one of the few picked to help the artist I was amazed and very excited to see the finished result. When I saw the finished superlambanana for the first time I thought it captured the archaeology of the area perfectly. I also thought it looked wonderful outside of the Museum of Liverpool.
Archaeology (2004) was designed by the Mersey and Dee Young Archaeologists Club to celebrate archaeology in the city. Featuring finds discovered in the layers beneath our feet it joins four other superlambananas welcoming visitors to the Museum of Liverpool.
