Mystery Relic Found During London Excavation Is Linked To Shakespeare

Mystery relic found during London excavation is linked to Shakespeare

16th-century pottery found with face resembling the Bard

Maev Kennedy
guardian.co.uk,
Monday 9 March 2009

The bearded Tudor face, framed by long hair and a ruff, certainly looks familiar. As the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust prepares today to unveil what it says is a portrait of the Bard painted during his lifetime, archaeologists may have beaten them to it.

A team working on the site where Shakespeare learned his trade has discovered a piece of 16th-century pottery that features a face resembling that of the great man.

It was found during excavation work in Shoreditch, east London, at the site of what used to be The Theatre, lost for more than 400 years and where Shakespeare performed as an actor, as well as staging his earliest plays.

Archaeologists unearthed the Tudor structure last summer while working at the site – which, by coincidence, is to be turned into a new theatre.

There is no proof that the face on the fragment of Beauvais pottery is that of the Bard's, but insiders are excited by the discovery.

"We knew we would be somewhere near Shakespeare's theatre when we got this site for our new building, and that was thrilling enough," said Penny Tuerk, a director of the Tower Theatre Company. She added jokingly that the face could have been from an ale mug sold in The Theatre's souvenir shop - and that it could make another appearance one day when the new Tower theatre opens in 2012.

The Theatre was originally built by James Burbage, father of Richard Burbage, Shakespeare's friend, fellow actor and business partner in 1576. It was located just outside the walls of London in an area consisting of taverns and slum houses. The Burbages fell out with their landlord, and in 1598 with Shakespeare's help, they dismantled the building and took it across the Thames to Bankside where it rose again as a far more famous theatre: The Globe.