For our March session the MAYANS were invited to the Avalon Archaeology Park near Shapwick.  The session was run for us by Dr Richard Brunning from the South West Heritage Trust.  We started out with an introductory talk by Richard and then a guided tour around the site.  Some of our members had been here before but for most of the MAYANS this was their first visit and it was amazing to see how much further work had been done on the site, mostly by volunteers.

Unfortunately most of the unfinished Iron Age roundhouse had blown down in the recent storms, although the porch was still standing.  Richard said they would be starting to build the roundhouse again soon and talked about how it would be constructed.  We then moved on to the Roman dining hall and Richard showed us how they had started to make the mosaic for the floor … and later in the morning the MAYANS would be able have a go at making tesserae themselves!

We all then got into the Viking longboat and Richard talked about its construction and how amazingly far the Vikings would sail in vessels such as this.  We ended up in the Saxon long hall with its welcoming fire as it was a very cold day!  After a quick snack we then split into two groups, one to make tesserae and the other to try their hand at coin striking.  Both activities were a great success and it’s wonderful to think that some of the MAYANS tesserae will end up in the finished mosaic!

A huge thank you to Richards for giving our MAYANS such a wonderful experience!