Historical Rituals

In the past, water has been seen as a way of connecting with other worlds.

In this part of the exhibition, our team is going to discuss why these objects ended up in rivers.

People might throw things into rivers for ritual reasons such as an offering or making a wish to the gods, emotional reasons like closure or grieving, or some might have been discarded as rubbish.

However, this 'rubbish' is precious to archaeologists for what it can tell us about the past.

Although people in the past chose to throw things into the river for different reasons, dropping things in rivers intentionally is not a good idea. Litter in rivers can harm wildlife living there, so it’s important to make sure our water is clean.