Author: Admin (Page 7 of 16)

For our July session we returned to the Somerset Brick and Tile Museum in Bridgwater.  We were last there five years ago so nearly all our members had not been there before.  The session was run for us by Marie from the South West Heritage Trust.

After an introductory talk, Marie took us on a short walk to look at different types of brickwork in some of the houses near the museum.  We also saw the remains of the Bridgwater glass kiln which must had looked amazing when it used to tower over the surrounding buildings.

When we got back to the museum we split up into three different groups for different activities.  One group made miniature bricks with Marie using old fashioned wooden brick moulds.  We carved our names or patterns onto our bricks so we’d know which was which.  These will be dried and fired by Marie and then returned to us at a later date.

The second group replicated the different types of brick bonds that we had seen in the buildings on our walk outside – using Lego!  Great fun!  The third group built structures out of large foam bricks and then shook the table they were on to see how they would withstand an earthquake.  We threaded broom handles down through the holes in the brick walls to reinforce them.

This was a fun session with a great variety of activities and by the end of it we knew a great deal more about the humble brick!  A big thank you to Marie for running this session for us.

For our May session we went on a coach trip to Caerleon Roman Fort in South Wales.  Upon arriving at the fort we started out by looking at the remains of the Roman barracks.  These were very well preserved and it was great to see the layout of the buildings so clearly and work out how many soldiers lived in each one.  It must have been quite crowded!  We also saw the remains of the communal toilet which caused the MAYANS much amusement!

After this we split into two groups, one to look around the general museum for the fort and the other to visit the Roman baths which has its own separate museum.  The remains of the baths were amazing and we could walk on platforms above the actual walls and see all the different types of buildings.  There were video projections of Roman people swimming in the large pool which was amazing!

The other museum had many of the artefacts discovered when the site was excavated, including pottery, glass, cremations vessels and beautiful intaglio stones which would have been set into rings.  We were all amazed at how tiny and detailed these were.

We ended the day in the huge Roman amphitheatre which was very impressive, before getting the coach back to Taunton.  A big thank you to MAYA volunteers Chris Webster and Dave Jones who organised the visit and guided us around this fascinating site!

For our March session the MAYANS returned to the Avalon Archaeology Park near Shapwick.  The session was run for us by Dr Richard Brunning from the South West Heritage Trust, and for this visit Richard had organised mosaic laying and Viking wood carving!  After an introductory talk we split into two groups, one to work in the Roman building and the other in the Saxon long hall.

The group in the Roman building were going to lay tesserae for part of the beautiful mosaic floor that Richard and the other volunteers at the Archaeology Park have been working on for over a year, and it was a real treat to be part of this special project.  The MAYANS were supervised by Richard’s friend Martin who had prepared two areas for us to work on.  It was great to think that in years to come the MAYANS could return to the building and show their friends and family what they had done.

The second group worked in the Saxon long hall where Richard showed them how to make the beautiful wood carvings that decorate the hall using chisels and wooden mallets.  This was tricky work as the designs were quite complicated but the MAYANS soon got the hang of it.  It really made you realise how much work has gone into the reconstruction of these buildings!

After a break the groups swapped over so everyone could have a go at both activities.  The Archaeology Park is such a wonderful place for our members to visit with its amazing reconstructed buildings and exciting activities.  A big thank you to Richard and Martin for inviting us back and for all their help and support for MAYA!

For our February session we returned to post-excavation work on the artefacts we discovered during test pitting at Longaller Mill.  We were fortunate enough to have David Dawson join us who is one of the country’s leading experts on pottery, especially Medieval and Post-Medieval pottery which is what we expected to find in the test pits.

David began the session with a PowerPoint presentation, getting the MAYANS to think about the fabric, form, finish and function of pottery.  After this we divided up into several group to continue the post excavation work.  This included finishing off the finds washing we had started in the November session, plus sorting, weighing and recording the finds which had already been washed and dried.  The MAYANS took the pottery sherds they found over to David for identification and recording.

We also had access to a Dino-lite magnification scanner which, when connected to a laptop, revealed amazingly detailed, magnified pictures of the pottery plus other finds such as flint and bone.

This was a great opportunity for the MAYANS to learn about the all the types of pottery sherds they had found, and appreciate how these can be used to help date when the old buildings had been occupied.  A big thank you to David for coming along and for all his help with this fascinating session!