Summary
This lid was excavated at one of the digs conducted at the Commonwealth Block site between 1988 and 2003. It would have closed a pot or jar of bear grease hair oil.
Health and hygiene.
'Cleanliness is next to Godliness'. This is a difficult maxim to follow when 'there is not one bath in sixty', when sewerage gathers in cesspits and open drainage channels line the streets.But the residents of Little Lon did practice personal hygiene. Archaeologists have uncovered toothbrushes and toothpaste pots, scent bottles, soap dishes, combs and hairbrushes.
Clean teeth and neat hair did not guarantee good health however. Doctors were expensive, so ordinary people had to rely on medicines like Holloway's Ointment and Hall's Vegetable Pain Conqueror as well as Chinese herbal remedies. Children were dosed weekly with the laxative castor oil, to keep their bowels regular.
Physical Description
This is the ceramic lid of a bear grease hair oil jar. It is decorated with a polychrome transfer print which shows two bears, one seated and one walking on all fours, below the branches of two trees which are near the edge of a cliff.
Physical Description
Pot lid of bear grease hair oil jar. Two bears, one seated and one walking on all fours occur below branches of two trees near edge of cliff. Transfer print is polychrome.
More Information
-
Collection Names
-
Collecting Areas
-
Acquisition Information
Transfer from Heritage Victoria, Industry Superannuation Property Trust, 03 May 2005
-
Inscriptions
None
-
Context Number
18/26
-
Site
[CCS] Australia, Victoria, Commonwealth Block, Melbourne
-
Distinguishing Marks
Scene of bears with trees and cliff.
-
Activity
-
Specific Activity
-
Decoration
-
Colour
Polychrome
-
Placement
One-sided
-
Shape
Round
-
Classification
-
Category
-
Discipline
-
Type of item
-
EAMC Measurements
86 mm (Width), 18 mm (Height), 90 mm (Outside Diameter)
-
Exhibition Collection Management
90 mm (Width), 15 mm (Height)
Width = Diameter
-
Dimensions
1.6 cm (Height), 9.3 cm (Outside Diameter)
Measurement From Conservation.
-
Keywords