Author: Admin (Page 4 of 16)

In October we went back to the Avalon Archaeology Park near Shapwick.  MAYA has been there several times and we always look forward to our visits.  This time we were going to be making and decorating Glastonbury-ware Iron Age pots.  The session was run for us by Dr Richard Brunning from the South West Heritage Trust, with Jack Brunning helping out.

We started off with Richard giving us a tour around the site.  Although quite a few of our MAYANS had been there before, for some it was their first visit and the Archaeology Park is always a really fascinating place to look round.

After the tour we started work on our Iron Age coil pots.  We made the bases first and then coiled the clay around to make the sides, making sure they were nice and smooth.  After a break for lunch we finished off making and decorating our pots and the MAYANS produced an amazing variety of styles and decorations.

We were able to take our pots home with us where they would dry out and harden.  We all really enjoyed the day and would like to say a big thank you to Richard and Jack from MAYA for arranging this great opportunity for us!

Our second event in September was an invitation by Context One Heritage and Archaeology to take part in their excavation of a prehistoric site at Middlezoy.

Context One had already been excavating at the site for several weeks and had uncovered a Middle Bronze Age enclosure along with other archaeological features.  The MAYANS were put to work excavating the enclosure ditch to uncover more dating evidence.

At the same time as the excavation, some of the MAYA helpers carried out a small geophysical survey in the field adjoining the site to see if we could locate the rest of the enclosure ditch plus any signs of where the people who used the enclosure had been living.

Although finds were sparse as can be the case on prehistoric sites, we discovered several small struck flints, including a lovely little scraper, plus some charcoal and tiny pottery fragments.

While the geophysical survey results were being processed, the MAYANS carried out a small fieldwalk and recovered a variety of artefacts from a wide range of time periods.  After this we all gathered around the laptop to see what the geophysics had discovered.  The rest of the enclosure ditch showed up really clearly, along with a very obvious circular anomaly which could only be the round house we’d been hoping to discover!

A big thank you to Context One for inviting us along for this exciting day of discovery!

September was a busy month for MAYA as we were lucky enough to be invited along to two amazing archaeological events.

On 7^th September we attended an archaeological Craeft Fayre organised by Marc Cox from the Avalon Archaeology Park.  The field where the fayre was held was divided into three separate time zone, the Mesolithic, the Bronze and and the Anglo Saxons.  Our members visited each of these areas to witness demonstrations and then try out a variety of hands-on crafts.

We started out with the Mesolithic where we tried weaving with different types of plant fibres and preparing animal skins for tanning.  We also watched flint knapping and fire starting demonstrations.

After this we moved on to the Bronze Age to watch metalworkers casting a bronze axe head which was absolutely amazing!  We also tried making hurdles, used quern stones to grind flour, plus made beads out of shells.

We finished the day with the Anglo Saxons where we made coil pots and tried on chain mail armour with sword and shield.  There were also cookery and woodworking demonstrations.

All in all it was an absolutely amazing day!  A huge thank you to Marc and all the other volunteers for inviting MAYA along for the day.

In August the Kingsbury Time Travellers invited us to attend a day of archaeological workshops at Kingsbury Episcopi Church.  They had organised a lot of activities for the MAYANS to try, including Anglo Saxon calligraphy with authentic quills and ink; using a dino-lite microscope to examine archaeological artefacts and work out what they were and what they were made of; plus drawing an accurate and to scale floor plan of the church.  Our members were divided into three groups and each group was given the chance to try out all the different activities.

We were also visited by the local bell ringers who gave us a wonderful guided tour up the church tower and into the bell chamber. The MAYANS were able to try their hand at bell ringing which was a fantastic opportunity!  We were then allowed up onto the top of the tower where the views were spectacular.

A big thank you to Adrian and Helen and all the other volunteers who gave up their rime to organise and run such a varied and inspiration range of activities for us.

Our archaeology weekend continued on Sunday 2^nd June with a visit to the Quantock Hills to take part in an excavation near Cothelstone.  The dig was being run by the Quantock Hills Landscape Partnership (QHLP) and Dig Ventures who were investigating some features which had shown up as crop marks on aerial photographs and geophysical surveying.

There were two sessions during the day so some MAYANS attended in the morning and the others in the afternoon.  The QHLP had very kindly organised a minibus to take us to and from the site.

We were met by Anna and Ben from Dig Ventures who gave us a tour around the site and showed us some of the artefacts they had found.  We were then given the opportunity to do some digging of our own in two trenches which had been located over two of the geophysical survey anomalies.  The archaeologists were not sure what these features were so it was our job to help them find out!

Unfortunately, apart from some charcoal we didn’t uncover very much but this is quite often the case with prehistoric sites and the team from Dig Ventures said we had done really well.

It is always great to get the chance to take part in an actual excavation so a big thank you to Dig Venture and the QHLP for giving us this opportunity.