Category: News (Page 4 of 6)

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!

For our first MAYA session of 2023 we carried out an archaeological excavation… indoors!  The session was run for us by Dr Julian Richards who has been kind enough to run a number of MAYA sessions for us over the years.  This time we were to uncover the remains of a medieval abbey!

Julian prepared the session by putting down layers of carpet tiles, concealing artefacts between each layer.  He then started off by talking to the MAYANS about the sorts of materials we could find when we carried out an excavation – what would rot over time and what would not rot.  He demonstrated this by a variety of objects made from wood, plastic, glass, cardboard etc, even a rotten old banana skin!

We then started to take up the individual carpet tiles to reveal what was underneath, looking at the finds and trying to work out the nature of the site.  Finally we uncovered the remains of a medieval abbey, including a grave stone which we lifted to discover the remains of a skeleton.  After a discussion about what we can learn from an examination of human bones, we realised that the skeleton was female and the abbey was probably a place for nuns not monks.

Julian then finished by showing us a short film about a community dig at Shaftesbury Abbey, which was the first abbey in the country founded for nuns in 888 by King Alfred, whose daughter was the first abbess.

This was a really exciting and interesting session and we would like to say a huge thank you to Julian and his wife Sue for running it for us!

MAYA’s Christmas Party this year was something really special and different!  It was held in the Saxon long hall at the Avalon Archaeology Park near Shapwick.  We were met by Richard and Natalie who run the site and to start off the day they had organised a picture trail hunt around the centre.  The MAYANS had photos of a variety of carvings and paintings in the different buildings which they had to track down and then mark their position using a gridded map.

After running off some energy we then all moved into the Saxon long hall for a Christmas party feast around the fire pit before our very special visitor arrived, Lizzie Bryant a professional storyteller.  As we settled down around the fire Lizzie preceded to tell the story of Beowulf.  Although this was familiar to some of the group, it was a completely new experience to hear it being told in such an amazing and appropriate setting, and Lizzie had us all spellbound!   

After Lizzie had recounted Beowulf’s victories over Grendel and Grendel’s mother, we stopped for a break where we toasted marshmallows and drank warm apple juice mead around the fire.  Lizzie then finished the afternoon by telling the tale of Beowulf’s final encounter with the dragon.  As the MAYANS left they were given Christmas presents, cards and crackers to take home.

This was a really amazing day!  A huge thank you to Lizzie and to Richard and Natalie for all their help and for inviting us to hold our party in such a wonderful location!

After a break for the summer holidays, MAYA was straight back into excavation again for our September session!  We dug four test pits at Longaller Mill to try and find out more information about the old mill cottages (demolished and completely rebuild it the late 1980’s) and old buildings next to the mill which no longer exist.  Two of the test pits were dug in the hope of retrieving artefacts to try and find out how long the old mill cottages were occupied.  Another was situated on a slight mound near the mill stream to try and find out what this was.  The fourth pit was located on the site of an old building opposite the mill shown on the 1910 OS map.

A variety of finds were uncovered, particularly in the test pit located next to one of the current mill cottages, including building rubble, pottery, glass, clinker and rusty nails.  Similar artefacts were discovered in a test pit at the bottom of the garden, suggesting a rubbish dump or midden.  The test pit on the mound was less productive, suggesting this was geological rather than archaeological.  Some of the more unusual finds included a Victorian glass stopper from an HP sauce bottle, a donkey shoe, and an unusual short chain of metal loops and a buckle, possibly from horse trappings.

The test pit opposite the mill uncovered a beautiful example of a worked chert core in the top soil, but not much else until around 0.3m down they uncovered an intense black layer of cinders, clinker and slag.  This could possibly have been the floor of some kind of metal working workshop, and the building on the 1910 map was perhaps a small smithy for repairing mill machinery.

All four test pits were meticulously recorded by the MAYANS using paperwork designed by Carenza Lewis from the “Time Team”.  The finds will be washed and sorted at one of our sessions later in the year, and a report will be written and submitted to the HER.  It was a day of great enthusiasm and discovery, and introduced the MAYANS to the importance of archaeological recording and post-excavation as well as the excitement of digging!

For our session in July MAYA were invited by Richard, Cheryl and Tara from Context One Heritage and Archaeology to take part in their excavation at Crowcombe Court to try and find the original manor house.  This was a great opportunity for our members as we don’t often get a chance to do some actual digging.

Unfortunately when we arrived it had started to rain and so Richard gave us an introductory talk inside the Church House about the history of the site and why we were there.  After a quick snack and a drink we decided to head outdoors despite the rain, which eventually did stop for a little while.

The MAYANS were given a tour of the site and then we split up into groups to do some digging.  Two small groups set off to start digging test pits to investigate some of the anomalies picked up by geophysical surveying.  The rest of the MAYANS were set to work in one of the main trenches, carefully excavating through a rubble layer which we suspected was on top of the remains of the foundations of the manor house.  After lunch the groups rotated so everyone could experience the different trenches.  Several metal detectorists were also helping out with the excavation and there was always great excitement when they found something in the spoil heaps or in the soil around the trenches.

This was a really great day for our members and we would like to thank Richard McConnell, Cheryl Green and Tara Fairclough for giving MAYA this exciting opportunity.

Our MAYA June session was something really special!  We went by coach to Stonehenge for a guided tour led by Dr Julian Richards, one of the country’s leading Stonehenge experts.  After an introductory talk, Julian led us on a walk across the surrounding landscape.  We walked along part of the Stonehenge cursus, and explored several of the Bronze Age barrows.  Julian had brought along replicas of a number of artefacts, including those which were found in the Amesbury Archer burial, which he demonstrated by one of our MAYANS re-enacting the burial on top of the round barrow!

We then set off for the monument itself.  Julian had brought along a copy of his book “The Amazing Pop-Up Stonehenge” which includes a model of the how the monument had looked with all the stones in place.  This was a very useful prop when he was explaining about the stones and the alignment of the monument.  At the end of the day several MAYANS bought the book and Julian signed it for them.

After we had walked around the monument we stopped for a picnic before heading back to the visitors centre.  The MAYANS shopped for souvenirs and then afterwards Julian took us around the reconstructed Neolithic houses.  By this time it had started to rain so after thanking Julian for a fantastic day we headed back to the coach.

This visit was made possible by the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society’s Gray Fund who very kindly paid for the coach to take us there.  We are extremely grateful to SANHS for giving our members this wonderful opportunity.

For our May session the MAYANS explored some of the fascinating archaeological sites on the Quantock Hills.  The session was run for us by Dan Broadbent and Jon Barrett from the Quantock Hills Landscape Partnership.  We met Dan and Jon at Dead Woman’s Ditch where Dan showed us some LiDAR images from a recent survey of the Hills.  The LiDAR survey had revealed some new archaeological features and the MAYANS were off to find them!

We set off down the road in the direction of Dowsborough hillfort, and then struck off into the undergrowth to try and find a circular anomaly that showed up on the LiDAR.  After some searching around we managed to find it!  A completely new and previously unidentified archaeological feature!  The MAYANS stood in a circle to outline the structure which we discovered was made out of stones.

We then set off to look at other anomalies on the LiDAR which Dan thought were charcoal pits.  Sure enough we discovered these too and scraped back the undergrowth to reveal dark charcoal patches in the soil.

After this we headed up to Dowsborough hillfort for lunch, and then Jon showed us how to grind up charcoal and add honey and water to make ink.  We then split into small groups to design our own hillforts using the ink we had made with sharpened sticks to draw with!

This was a fantastic session and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it!  A big thank you to Dan and Jon for organising such a great day!

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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!