Author: Admin (Page 1 of 16)

In our first session of 2026 we learnt about Upper Palaeolithic Cave Art in Europe.  We started out with a PowerPoint presentation about where cave art was found, what kinds of things were painted, and discussed why people might have painted them.  We also looked at how the paints were made out of minerals and organic materials and how we could use this to date the art.  We finished with a quick look at prehistoric cave art from other parts of the world.

After a short break we then designed and painted some cave art of our own!  Each of our MAYANS were given a flat pebble to paint.  We had lots of pictures of cave art from all sorts of different site to inspire them.  The designs they came up with were fantastic, very varied and colourful.  The pebbles were dry by the end of the session so they could take them home with them.

We also had a virtual walk through tour around the cave at Lascaux in France which is one of the most famous cave art sites in the world.  Throughout the session the MAYANS took it in turns exploring this amazing site on the computer.

Finally our MAYANS also decorated a long freeze with cave art, a combined effort which produced an amazingly colourful result!  The most popular image was definitely the hand print which is a common motive in prehistoric cave art, and we ended up with some amazingly colourful hands as well!  A really messy but really fun session!

We had a special guest for our Christmas Party this year, storyteller Dan Broadbent.  Dan told us an amazing selection of local tales, legends and ghost stories.  Dan explained how important these stories were as they had been passed down through generations of local people and could reflect ancient beliefs and practices.  Dan also explained that telling ghost stories at Christmas was an old Victorian tradition.

We dimmed the lights and lit the room with about a hundred LED candles so it was very atmospheric – especially when Dan told us about the ghosts who were supposed to haunt Taunton Castle where we meet!

After Dan had finished, we had our Christmas party with loads of food, crackers and pass the parcel and a lucky dip.

It has been a really great year for MAYA and we have a lot of activities planned for 2026, which will be our tenth anniversary!  A huge thank you to Dan and to everyone who has supported us over the past year and helped to make MAYA such a success!

For our November session we were back in the Museum of Somerset after being out and about all summer.  Unfortunately we had to cancel our October session at Fyne Court due to Storm Amy but we hope to reschedule that session for next year.

This month we were visited by Ian and Jas from the National Trust.  Ian showed us a PowerPoint about the amazing archaeology on the Bread Down headland near Weston super Mare.  He also brought some activity sheets where we had to work out where the people who lived on Brean Down in the Iron Age fished and farmed and built their fort and village.

Jas had brought along two Virtual Reality headsets and while we were doing the activity sheets we took it in turns to have a go using them which was amazing!

After a short break we passed around a number of replica artefacts from different time periods and the MAYANS had to work out what they were, when they dated from and whether the people living on Brean Down would have used them.  The objects included a Neolithic hand axe, replica Bronze Age axes, an Iron Age torc bracelet, Roman pottery and a Saxon helmet.  Ian told us there was evidence that people lived on Brean Down in all these time periods apart from the Saxons.

The National Trust have very kindly offered to take us on a guided walk at Brean Down next Summer so we can see for ourselves the fascinating archaeology and history of the headland.  A big thank you to Ian and Jas for organising such a great session!