Category: News (Page 4 of 5)

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!

MAYA’s first session of 2022 was a visit to the Iron Age hillfort and Norman motte and bailey at Castle Neroche.  We had a good turn-out of members who braved the early February cold weather!  After an introductory talk we started to explore the earthworks.  We had a printout of an earthwork survey of the site and talked about how archaeologists used this to record the 3-D banks and ditches on a 2-D piece of paper.

Castle Neroche has a hidden secret which we were able to introduce the MAYANS to… it is the site of a secret underground WWII radio station!  There is nothing left to see above ground now apart from wires sticking out of some of the trees which were the aerials for the radio station.  A geophysical survey had been carried out several years ago to locate the base and we were able to show the MAYANS the results.  We spent some time trying to spot all the wires in the trees before moving on to discover the Norman motte and bailey.

The motte has a very deep ditch around it which made it very impressive.  The view from the top was amazing and we talked about how difficult it would be to attack such a well defended location.  After a drink and a snack we made our way down through a series of small platforms and ridges to the far side of the motte where we discovered some amazing carving of dragons made out of fallen trees.

We then made our way back to the car park to thaw out in warm cars!  A big thank you to all the volunteers who came along to help and a special thank you to Mr Chris Webster from the South West Heritage Trust for all his help with the guided tour.

MAYA’s November session was run for us by Caroline who had taken part in YAC’s online training course about Archaeology and Photography.  This was our first session back in the Museum of Somerset after starting up again after lockdown.  It was great to be back at the Museum again and the staff made us feel very welcome.

Caroline began with a PowerPoint about the history of photography and what to think about when composing and taking a photograph.  The MAYANs had brought along some items to photograph, things that were particularly personal to them.  We started out by talking about these items and wondering what archaeologists hundreds of years from now would be make of them… would they be able to work out what they meant to us and what kind of people we were?  The items included teddies, toy soldiers, village magazines, tiny old glass bottles, bags and masks.  It was fun to imagine that all these things were found by future archaeologists and wonder what kind of picture they would build up about us as individuals and our community.

After a short break we then took photos of the things we’d brought, thinking about how to arrange them, whether or not to use a scale and what sort of background to use… ending up by everyone photographing each other and then all taking selfies!

This was a very different and fun session and a great one for our first time back indoors.  A big thank you to Caroline for organising it for us and to the Museum for welcoming us back!

MAYA is back! After 15 months we had our first session after lockdown on Saturday 3rd July! Our celebratory first session was a walk around Taunton Town Centre to discover the hidden history and archaeology of the town. After welcoming everybody back, we split up into three groups which would follow three different routes around the town. The groups rotated throughout the morning so everyone got chance to explore the town’s hidden history.

Starting at the Castle, we tried to spot what still remained of the Medieval town within the modern buildings and roads. We followed the route of where the walls would have been and discovered where the main entrance into the Medieval town was. We talked about how the town had developed and how things had changed so much over time, including burgage plots off the High Street which had eventually turned into slums, and where the town mill had been with its pond and ducking stool!

We also looked in more details at the area around the Castle, including where the keep and the moat would have been. We talked about how this had changed over time and how the River Tone next to the castle had been bustling docks in the nineteenth century with timber mills, wharfs and warehouses. We ended this part of our journey of discovery at St Mary’s Church where we had great fun spotting gargoyles, angels and other weird and wonderful carvings on the outside of the church.

The final discovery tour explored the area around the Market Square in the town centre where an archaeological excavation in 1974 had uncovered evidence of prehistoric and Medieval occupation. We were able to look at plans from the excavation to see what the archaeologists had recorded. We looked some of the more unusual buildings and talked about how electric trams had once run in the town.

For each different tour we had a photo sheet showing small details on buildings such as carvings and signs and it was fun seeing how many of these we could spot as we explored. But the most exciting part of the day was when Rob who had organised the session told us he had arranged for everyone to have a free ice cream from the stall in the Market Square! This was a special treat to celebrate MAYA starting up again after lockdown! A great big Thank You to Rob for all his hard work organising our first session back and to all our helpers and members for getting MAYA getting up and running again!

For our March session we went on a visit to Dawe’s Twine Works at West Coker, the only surviving rural twine works with its original machinery in England.  We started out with a talk about the history of the twine works and then split into two groups to look around the site.  We saw how spun flax was twisted into twine and then used twine to make our own pieces of rope.  It was fascinating to see the old equipment and machinery being used.

The staff at the twine works then started up the 1927 Shanks diesel engine which powers all the machinery at the works which is all still in perfect working order.  We went upstairs into the huge 100m rope walk and saw how the twine was made on an industrial scale.  We learnt how it was dipped into preservative made from boiled animal guts (!) and had a go at doing this on a much smaller scale but using wall paper paste instead!

One room had a lot of old ledgers and books, cabinets and desks donated by another similar local twine works when it shut down.  Underneath this room was a huge reservoir of water which was used by the original steam engine and also to wash the twine.  We could see down into this through a glass window in the floor.  There was a fake human skeleton down there too which caused a lot of amusement, as did the old outside toilet which had an old shop manikin sitting on it!

This was a really interesting visit to a fascinating site and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  The twine works volunteers made us feel extremely welcome and for a small donation offered us lunch, drinks and cakes.  A big thank you to Ross, Chris and all the other people who made this such and enjoyable visit.

Our February session was run for us by Sue Coates who is a member of the Spinning Guild and demonstrated how to use spinning equipment through the ages.  Sue started off by showing us Neolithic stick spinning and then went through all the different methods right up to the modern spinning wheel.  Sue then concentrated particularly on Viking spinning methods and she had brought along some beautiful lead spindle whorls dating to Viking times.  She also had an incredible range of genuine and replica spinning equipment and an array of different fleeces too.  She showed us how to card the wool and then spin it using a spindle and spindle whorl.

After the break, we had a go at actually spinning ourselves!  It wasn’t as easy as Sue made it look but some of the MAYANS managed to get the hang of it quite quickly.  We were able to take the spindles and fleece home so we could continue to practice.

A big thank you to Sue for such a different and interesting session.