Stumped by a Spoon Matthew Guiseppe Knight, 20 September 2017 Vibrant discussions are a usual part of the Saving Treasures project and the Amgueddfa Cymru archaeology department.But I’m not sure we’ve ever had one about a spoon before.In 2015, a Medieval silver spoon was brought into National Museum Wales; it was found while metal-detecting around Pembroke and can be dated to about the 15th century. The spoon has a rough engraved cross on the underside of the bowl and is in two pieces.The handle, or stem, has been bent and twisted round, while the bowl has been folded in half and then in half again.The question bugging us is: why? Why deform this spoon so greatly?The deliberate destruction and deformation of objects is not unknown in the Medieval period, though presently we can’t find any parallels for this object.Many silver coins were, however, damaged for various reasons.Folding a coin in half, for instance, had a ritualistic function; it was often performed as part of a vow to a saint to cure an affliction or ailment. The coin would then be taken and placed at a shrine. However, Portable Antiquities Scheme data shows that many appear to have been lost or buried in seemingly random locations.So, we wondered, could the spoon have served a similar function?Medieval silver spoons were often considered intimate possessions that were carried around much of the time. Dr. Mark Redknap at Amgueddfa Cymru has suggested the engraved cross may represent an ecclesiastical ownership mark. The deliberate destruction of a personal item may have held some significance to the owner, much as a prized possession would today.Another explanation is that this represents material intended for the crucible, to be remelted and recast into another object. The breaking and recycling of objects is well-known since the Bronze Age. Viking hacksilver involved silver objects chopped and broken either for recasting purposes or as a form of currency, exchanging fragments based on weight.Fragments of silver spoons are in fact known from hacksilver hoards from Gaulcross, Scotland, and Coleraine, Northern Ireland.Of course, the Pembroke spoon was buried nearly a 1000 years later than the hacksilver hoards so it cannot strictly be compared. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to think the spoon was broken, folded and twisted into small, compact pieces that would fit more comfortably within a crucible.We might not find many broken spoons because they were remelted into other objects. The weight of the spoon would comfortably produce other common Medieval objects, such as finger rings, mounts, and pendants.We will probably never know the reason behind the destruction of this spoon. But it’s always nice to speculate. Notes and AcknowledgementsThe spoon was recently declared Treasure following the Treasure Act 1996 and will be acquired by Milford Haven Museum through the Saving Treasures: Telling Stories project. The full record for the object can be found here: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/860650My sincere thanks must go to everyone who engaged with our call for ideas on what this object represents on Twitter. In particular, I’d like to thank Sue Brunning for directing my attention to the hacksilver hoards mentioned in-text.
Providing Images to Help People Living with Dementia Sally Donovan, 20 September 2017 A wonderful new book has been created by Picture to Share. This dementia-friendly book is the first of this type that has been produced bilingually in both Welsh and English. Pictures to Share teamed up with us, The National Library of Wales, Alzheimers Society and the Welsh Poet Laureate to produce Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, a beautifully illustrated book to help carers communicate with people living with dementia. Pictures to Share have produced many books on this theme but this is the first to focus upon the Welsh language, in order to help people living with dementia whose first language is Welsh.This was an opportunity to highlight the importance of the work we do to help people living with dementia as well as highlight our collections and showcase our commercial Picture Library. The images used in the book, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, portray many things which people in Wales can relate to, prompting discussion.Dementia is a subject which many of our staff are passionate about, with many of the staff undertaking training to become a Dementia Friend in order to help enhance the visitor experience of people living with dementia.After communicating with the editor Michelle Forster, we supplied the images and license to use them in order to comply with copyrights laws. We have to issue a license to anyone who wishes to use our images. Pictures to Share invited us to Cardiff Library for their book launch in November 2016 to see the completed book, which was attended by staff from our Image Licensing, Photography and Translation departments. We were all very impressed with the end product which is now available at our shop at National Museum Cardiff and our on-line shop.If you would like to use our images within a publication, please contact us at Image Licensing. You can also purchase images for your home from our on-line shop. Thank you to Cardiff Council for permission to use images from the book launch.
The Late Bronze Age hoard from Trevethin: A Tale of Axes and Spears Matthew Guiseppe Knight, 16 September 2017 The Trevethin Hoard, Torfaen The upper blade of the broken South Wales axe. Imagine the scene. You’re out walking in a field. You have your trusty metal-detector in hand, sweeping backwards and forwards across the ground as you walk. A steady rhythmic beep emits with each step. Suddenly the machine starts beeping more frequently. Something lies beneath the ground. You crouch down to dig, to see what you’ve found. As you dig you start to reveal an ancient axehead… This was the story for metal-detectorist, Gareth Wileman in November 2014. Over a couple of weeks Gareth uncovered a Late Bronze Age hoard comprising three bronze socketed axeheads and two bronze spearheads in close proximity in the Community of Trevethin, Torfaen. Recognising the significance of the find, Gareth promptly contacted Mark Lodwick, the Finds Co-ordinator for Portable Antiquities Scheme Cymru, who was able to investigate the hoard findspot. The hoard was buried around 3000 years ago (between 950-800 BC) during the Late Bronze Age. This period is a time when large amounts of metalwork, including weapons and tools, were hoarded and buried in various locations in the landscape. What’s in the hoard? While the objects in the hoard may be broadly classed as ‘axeheads’ and ‘spearheads’, each object represents a distinctive type, that we can use to inform our understanding of how different objects were traded in the Bronze Age. Of particular interest is the socket of a ‘South Wales’ socketed axe that was buried within the hoard. The cutting edge was deliberately removed in the Bronze Age. One of the other axes has also been deliberately damaged. These axes have three vertical ribs on both faces and are particularly common in… you guessed it, South Wales! Conversely, one of the spearheads is relatively rare. It is referred to as a ‘lunate opening spearhead’ due to two semi-circular holes in the middle of the blade. The tip of this spearhead has broken off and part of the socket has broken off, which may also have been deliberate. Why does the hoard matter? The Trevethin hoard was found in an area where Bronze Age activity was previously unknown. It adds to a growing volume of Late Bronze Age material found across Wales. Gathering or hoarding objects and burying them is a widespread tradition in the Late Bronze Age, but reasons behind this are uncertain. Combinations of weapons, such as spears, and tools, such as axes, are common in Late Bronze Age hoards. These categories should not be taken too seriously though; an axe can be a deadly weapon too, while some spearheads might have been ceremonial items. The combination of different objects may represent a single person’s collection of objects. Alternatively, it may reflect several people coming together to bury objects that were important to the local area. We will probably never know exactly what is represented in the Trevethin hoard. The rare ‘lunate opening’ spearhead. The only complete axe in the hoard One axe was found broken with lots of smaller fragments. Excavating the hoard was very muddy! To Break or Not To Break In the Trevethin hoard, the blades of two of the axes appear to have been deliberately removed. The spearheads display similar intentional damage. However, the third axe was left complete. Why was this? And where are the missing pieces? It’s possible that the pieces are still out there, waiting to be found. However, deliberately destroying objects in hoards was common. Certain parts of objects were selected for burial – in this case the socket end of the axes – while others were excluded (the cutting edge). In other hoards, we sometimes only find axe blades and no sockets. The part of the object that was included may have been important. Including complete objects also has significance. At Trevethin, the complete axe was sharpened and probably used before it was buried. It still would have been functional, so why abandon a useful, usable tool? It is possible the axe was used over many years and was significant to its owners, which made it suitable for burial. It’s important to think of these items as both functional and symbolic objects. Understanding the Bronze Age Archaeology is about understanding people in the past. The Trevethin hoard offers a valuable insight into the Bronze Age in this area of Wales, where previously no prehistoric material was known. It shows that Bronze Age communities were present and engaging with their objects in mysterious ways we might only speculate. Every find helps us understand the broader picture, and the Trevethin hoard is an important step towards this. Notes and Acknowledgements This hoard was responsibly reported through Portable Antiquities Scheme Cymru and is now proudly on display at Pontypool Museum where it can be enjoyed by all members of the public. It was acquired with funding from the Saving Treasures: Telling Stories Project. More details on how the hoard was investigated, as well as a conversation with the finder, Gareth Wileman, can be found here. Thanks to Adam Gwilt (Principal Curator: Prehistory at National Museum Wales) and Mark Lodwick (Finds Coordinator: PAS Cymru) for allowing me access to an unpublished report on the hoard.
Creating a card catalogue for the Oakdale Workmen's Institute Library Kristine Chapman, 15 September 2017 Throughout 2017 the Museum has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Oakdale Workmen’s Institute with a variety of projects, all aimed at bringing the building alive again. One of these projects has involved cataloguing the books housed in the Institute’s Library. When the building opened in 1917, the Circulating Library operated out of the Book Room (which is now the ladies lavatories), it wasn’t until 1932 that it was relocated into the current room, due to outgrowing its space. The Book Committee was responsible for choosing and purchasing the books, and they purchased a wide variety of different subjects. There is a note in the Committee Minutes that in 1918 a book of “questionable character” was to be burned, but not before the Committee had been allowed to read it, if they so desired! The rules for using the Library allowed for one book per member for 14 days, although in 1928 that was increased to two, so as to allow members to choose a book for their wives. And, in 1933 they decided to set up a children’s section in the Library. The Library was well used, the minutes record the poor state of repair of the book stock due to overuse, at one point 300 to 500 books were being loaned each month. However, the Library was closed and the books dispersed when a branch of the County Library opened in 1967. The Institute then closed entirely in 1987, before being relocated to St Fagans, where it was rebuilt and reopened to the public in 1995. At this time many other Workmen’s Institutes donated items from their buildings, and now the Library holds a mix of books from across many of those areas. A keen group of volunteers came together to in May 2017, to start working on writing out book record cards. These would then be housed alphabetically in wooden drawers, allowing visitors to browse through the contents of the library shelves, much as original users of the Institute’s Library would have done. As we copied out the details of each book, one by one, we had the opportunity to discuss the wide range of material available to the Institute’s members. The collection included technical manuals, classic works, poetry, sermons and bible stories, mysteries, thrillers and adventure stories, and political works. The mystery and adventure novels certainly seemed the most popular, judging by the amount of date stamps in the front. However, probably the really popular books didn’t survive, as the wear and tear on them would have been the greatest. We found many books in the library with the distinctive red covers of the Left Book Club, a publishing group founded by Victor Gollancz in 1936, with the aim to “help in the struggle for world peace and against fascism”. It offered members a monthly book choice, and the Book Committee at Oakdale joined in 1937. We also found a number of books which had been part of the Boots Booklovers Library, an initiative that many of us hadn’t heard of before. From 1899 till 1966 Boots ran a subscription based lending library out of their chemist branches, at one point more than 400 branches across the UK were participating in the scheme. Many of the books had a distinctive green badge, identifying them as part of the Boots Library, and were probably donated after the closure of the branches. A large collection of books that came originally from the Nantymoel Workmen’s Hall, donated by a father in 1952 in remembrance of his son. They were copies of the 100 Best Books collection from Sir John Lubbock's choice of books. This was a list originally compiled in 1886, after a speech given at the Working-Men’s College in London, on the best books for self-education. We admired how attractive some of the books looked, with stunning illustrations or cover designs. There were a number dating from the 1930s, published by Gwasg Aberystwyth which had very striking designs, including a copy of Y crefftwr yng Nghymru (The craftsman in Wales) by Iorwerth C. Peate, founder of St Fagans National Museum of History!
Bronze Age South Wales Axes Matthew Guiseppe Knight, 12 September 2017 The Bronze Age is full of different types of objects.The discovery of metal about 3500 years ago meant new objects could be made or redesigned.One such object is the axe. For thousands of years people across the world had been making axes out of stone. Bronze Age axeheads were then made out of metal in different shapes and sizes.By the Late Bronze Age (1100-800 BC), axes were made with sockets, which allowed for the insertion of a wooden haft/handle. Often they had loops to secure the haft with binding, such as leather strips.In South Wales, a specific form of axe seems to have been very popular and has been named the ‘South Wales axe’.These axes have thick, flat socket mouths and a loop on one side. They are often heavy and poorly made. There are three raised ‘ribs’ on both faces of the axe. These are sometimes parallel and sometimes converging.Hundreds of these axes have been found buried in Wales, either on their own or in large hoards of objects. Sometimes they are complete and sometimes they are broken; the reasons for this are uncertain.An example has recently been found in the Trevithen Hoard, Torfaen, and is currently on display at Pontypool Museum.South Wales axes have also been found across England, and as far away as northern France.This implies these products were traded and exchanged over long distances.The function of these axes is unclear. These axes may have been left in a rough condition because they were used in agricultural activities, such as cutting roots and breaking plough soil.Whatever the reason they appear to have formed an important part of the Late Bronze Age in South Wales. As more are discovered, archaeologists will continue to gain insights into these objects.
