Adelle Bricking, Archaeology Volunteer, 14 August 2019
Shwmae! My name is Adelle, and I’m a PhD student at Cardiff University studying Iron Age mortuary practice in southwest Britain. I’m going to tell you about my amazing experience and some things I learned volunteering as part of the excavation team of the now-famous Iron Age chariot burial in Pembrokeshire. I’ll start from the beginning…
Left to right: Chariot burial volunteers Tiffany Treadway, Felicity Sage (Dyfed Archaeological Trust), Owen Lazzari, Adelle Bricking (me!), and Michael Legge enjoying the beautiful scenery and each other’s’ company after a long day of work.
The Story
I received an email in the spring of 2018 inviting me to help with an excavation of what was thought to be an Iron Age hoard discovered in a farmer’s field somewhere in Pembrokeshire. I had dreamt of the day I’d get to excavate anything Iron Age, as my passion for Welsh prehistory inspired me to move from my home in rural Kentucky (USA) to study at Cardiff. I had no idea that this opportunity would lead to the most rewarding, enriching, and educational experiences of my life.
The dig site was in a beautiful field near the entrance to a spectacular Iron Age promontory fort that was previously unknown. The thought that there is still so much left to discover about the prehistory of Wales left me buzzing with inspiration and wonder. I had never been to this farm in Pembrokeshire but it somehow felt warm and familiar, like an old friend; it felt like coming home after a very long journey.
The initial excavation was…hot, to put it mildly! The clay we were digging baked in the sun as temperatures climbed to 32 degrees. The archaeology didn’t quite make sense as we searched for the rest of the “hoard”. And then, Mark Lewis, the curator at the National Roman Legion Museum at Caerleon (and whom I am pretty sure is actually a Time Lord from Gallifrey), uncovered the top of a massive iron tyre. This was no hoard—it was a chariot burial. The first one found outside of Yorkshire and Edinburgh; here in Wales. The whole team stopped and gathered around the tyre. We stood there in silence in a mutual understanding that everything we thought we knew about the Iron Age in Wales was about to change. Some of us grabbed onto each other in fear of falling off the face of the earth as our worlds turned upside down!
A chariot burial was beyond our timescale, and we needed the help of skilled conservators to ensure the survival of the 2,000 year-old metalwork. It was a long year until we were able to go back to uncover the chariot. With a bigger team, more time, more rainfall and more volunteers, we successfully uncovered the first chariot burial in Wales this spring. I sometimes go down to the Archaeology Conservation Laboratory at National Museum Cardiff to say hello to the chariot pieces and wish them luck as they embark on their new journey towards restoration! Louise Mumford, our archaeological conservator, is like a wizard bringing ancient and long-forgotten objects back to their former glory.
What I Learned
I learned more about archaeology during that excavation than I ever could have imagined. The combined knowledge of these archaeologists that I have long admired was mind-boggling, and I tried my best to soak in every delicious morsel of free expertise. I had read some of their books; these men and women had been teaching me since before I left Kentucky. As we discussed practice during work and theory over dinner, I felt myself becoming much more confident as an archaeologist.
Some of the dig team from Dyfed Archaeological Trust and Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales and I carefully excavating the chariot under the shelter during the second excavation season.
Aside from growing as a researcher, I gained a much greater understanding for the public’s perception of archaeology. The archaeology of Wales is not a niche interest for academics—as heritage, it belongs to everyone, and people are very often as enthusiastic about it as I am. For example, one of my favourite aspects of the excavation was spending time with the farmer who owns the land and his family. It was heart-warming to see their interest in not just the things we were digging up, but how we were doing it. To have our field of work understood and appreciated for the (sometimes painfully slow) process that it is, was rewarding.
After the chariot was excavated and all the parts safely lifted. A circular ring ditch with an entrance surrounded the chariot burial.
This satisfying combination of archaeological practice and public engagement has inspired me to continue volunteering at the museum for the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wales (PAS Cymru). Without PAS, this excavation wouldn’t have happened, and this significant part Wales’ story would have remained untold. PAS is giving an invaluable gift to the people of Wales by documenting their material heritage and making it easily accessible to everyone. I am honoured to be a part of it, and I feel better equipped to use my own research to give back to the public.
Get involved!
I encourage everyone to volunteer for archaeological excavations. It’s one thing to see beautiful ancient objects behind glass cases, or 2D images in a book, but to be there as the earth gives way and the object is reborn from it, is nothing short of magical. It’s dirty, often laborious, but the friendships made, the knowledge gained, and the magical sense of discovery is worth every drop of sweat as we rediscover lost memories from our ancient past.
Me (right) recording Mark Lewis (left) as he prepares to help lift the tyres during the second excavation season. If digging isn’t your thing, there’s lots of other jobs to do at an excavation, including photography and recording video footage.
I hope to see some new faces at future excavations. Iechyd da!
The project was supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Rediscover Roman treasure found in Caerleon in 1926!
Use the App to explore the Amphitheatre & Barracks at Caerleon. Follow clues and meet historical characters to help you discover the Museum’s treasures - where they were once found. If you find them all you will unlock a virtual National Roman Legion Museum. This App is a partnership project between Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales and Cadw. It links museum treasures to the places where they were once found at the historic sites maintained by Cadw in Caerleon.
How to play:
Use your device & the treasure map to find the six hidden clues in the Amphitheatre and barracks.
You must walk to each of the six picture clues in the grid.
When you are near the treasure a coin will appear on your device. Each coin reveals a treasure & activity.
Find them all to unlock a virtual National Roman Legion Museum!
FAQ
The app requires Android 4.3 or iOS 9.1 or later. Please note the app is not compatible with some budget smartphones.
You will need a data connection during the experience.
If you are having a problem downloading the app make sure you have a good internet connection and that you have enough storage space on your phone.
It’s been a while since we introduced the art trolley as part of the Explore Volunteer fleet, but now it’s time to introduce you all to the evolution trolley.
The first thing you’ll notice is that this is a much smaller trolley. As such it has a smaller – but no less interesting – number of exhibits for visitors to interact with. We position this trolley in the Evolution of Wales gallery, close to the ever-popular dinosaurs, providing visitors with an opportunity to touch real and replica fossils from the prehistoric world.
So what do we have on the evolution trolley altogether? Aside from dinosaur teeth, we have a range of fossils from different prehistoric eras. In the video below, we explain each of the exhibits and how they illustrate the evolutionary timeline of earth.
Music credit: "Expeditionary" by Kevin MacLeod. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 International License.
Catch up with previous Explore Volunteer posts on our Blog page.
What do you do if you have minerals in your collection that have a tendency to react chemically? For our research student Kathryn Royce this means: growing minerals from a super saturated solution, then sticking the crystals in a climate chamber for a few weeks and forcing them to dehydrate.
Yes, you read right, some minerals can dehydrate. There is a good number of mineral species which are poly-hydrated, meaning, minerals that contain water molecules as part of their crystal structure. Many of these mineral species can, under certain conditions, lose some of these water molecules. This process actually turns the mineral into a different mineral – just one with a lower hydration status.
For example, the mineral melanterite (FeSO4 · 7H2O), which has 7 water molecules, may lose some water molecules if kept at a relative humidity below 57%. The resultant products include either the mineral siderotil (same chemical formula but only 5 water molecules) or rozenite (4 water molecules). In the context of wanting to preserve melanterite in a museum collection, the dehydration products siderotil and rozenite, whilst minerals in their own right, would be classed as deterioration products and, hence, their appearance be undesirable.
To understand this process, and define how we would characterise the concept of ‘damage’ to mineral specimens, Kathryn is now analysing the deterioration products using a combination of different analytical techniques, including X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and computerised tomography scanning. The results will help us develop a methodology for long-term monitoring of geological collections in museums and improve the care of such collections in museums.
Germany invaded Belgium on 4 August 1914, leading Britain to declare war. In that first weekend, one hundred men an hour signed up to join the armed forces. By the end of the First World War over five million men had joined up.
The rush to do one’s duty and fight at the front left a shortage of skilled workers in factories across Britain. Women who mainly did menial or domestic jobs at this time, were now recruited to work in industry.
Even though there was a shortage of men to work in the factories, women were accused of taking jobs away from the ones who couldn’t fight. Women were also a cheaper workforce as they were paid less for doing the same job.
Shell Shortage
The nature of warfare changed dramatically during the First World War. Artillery had previously been a back up to soldiers but now became the main destructive force.
In 1915 a crucial shortage of shells and munitions occurred. Parliament was forced to adopt a National Munitions Policy with David Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions. It controlled wages, hours and employment conditions in munitions factories. It also forced the factories to employ more women to help with the shortage.
Munitions factories became the largest single employer of women with over 900,000 being employed in the industry. Even though they did the same job as the men they were paid half the wage.
By June 1917 the factories that the women worked in produced over fifty million shells a year. At the end of the war the British Army had fired around 170 million shells during the conflict.
Dangerous Work
With the declaration of war many firms realised that there was an opportunity to increase sales. Local Munitions Committees were organised by engineering and metal producing firms. National Shell Factories (NSF) were set up all over the country.
National Shell Factories took over existing buildings. Grangetown which had been used for spinning hemp and yarn, Festiniog Railway in Portmadoc and the Baldwins factory in Landore, Swansea were just a few of these. All of them produced varying weights of shell and shell heads.
It was dangerous work and the risk of explosion was always present. There are many recorded cases of death and serious injury.
Pembrey and the Canary Girls
Nobels Explosives owned the site of a former dynamite factory at Pembrey, near Burry Port. With government approval in 1914, they opened one of the first purpose built TNT (trinitrotoluene) factories. The site was taken over by the Ministry of Munitions and became the National Explosives Factory (NEF) Pembrey by 1917 and closed at the end of the war.
The work in this factory was heavy and dangerous and TNT was a highly poisonous substance. It contained picric acid which had the effect of turning the skin of the women who worked with it bright yellow - giving rise to the nickname canary girls.
The women were given milk to drink to combat the effects of these dangerous compounds. It could lead to liver failure, anaemia and damage to the immune system. Around four hundred women died from overexposure to TNT during the First World War.
Munitionette Football
During the war, women became heavily involved in sports like football and cricket. Football teams were formed at munitions factories across Britain. The government actively encouraged the women to play sports as they believed it was good for their health and kept them fit to work in the factories.
The North East of England was a hotspot of women’s football. Blythe Spartans Ladies FC were undefeated with their centre forward Bella Raey scoring 133 goals in one season. In 1918 thirty teams competed in the Munitionettes Cup.
When the men returned from the front, the munition factories closed and the ladies teams disbanded. In 1921 the FA banned women from playing on any of their grounds even though they were just as popular on the pitch as the men teams. Men were returning to football and they believed there was no place for women n the game.
It wasn’t until 1971 that the FA relented and allowed women to play at their grounds.
Llanelli Ladies FC, 1921.
Equality
In 1915, the Women's War Workers Committee drew up a list of demands including the right to training, trade union membership and equal pay for equal work.
Women who filled roles previously held by men were paid much less and were justifiably angry. Men were also concerned that women would continue in these jobs after the war and a lower pay rate would become normal.
The first strike for equal pay in the UK happened in 1918 by women workers on London buses and trams. The Strike was successful and forced the government to look into whether the pay gap between sexes should be applied to all sections of industry.
The War Cabinet set up a committee in 1917 to look into equality at work. The report was not published until 1919. It found no difference between the sexes with production or quality of work. But the view that women were less able than men still remained.
Explosion in Pembrey
As soon as the war ended, the munitions factory at Pembrey, Carmarthenshire was used to dismantle shells rather than to make them. On 18 November 1918, Mary Fitzmaurice (36), Jane Jenkins (21) and Edith Ellen Copham (19) were killed in an explosion. Two other women were injured.
On the night of the fatal accident the women were dealing with a different type of shell than they had been used to. The explosion killed Jane immediately. Mary and Edith died in hospital that night.
The women were all from Swansea and Edith and Mary were buried in Danygraig cemetery on the east side of the town. A huge funeral procession was led from High Street by a brass band and followed by 500 munition girls from the factory, wearing their uniforms. The South Wales Weekly Post said that the women ‘had died as surely in the service of their country as any on the battlefield’ and noted that the crowds of onlookers saluted as the funeral passed.
Over a million shells were dismantle at Pembrey without any further accidents.
Left to right: Chariot burial volunteers Tiffany Treadway, Felicity Sage (Dyfed Archaeological Trust), Owen Lazzari, Adelle Bricking (me!), and Michael Legge enjoying the beautiful scenery and each other’s’ company after a long day of work.
Some of the dig team from Dyfed Archaeological Trust and Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales and I carefully excavating the chariot under the shelter during the second excavation season.
After the chariot was excavated and all the parts safely lifted. A circular ring ditch with an entrance surrounded the chariot burial.
Me (right) recording Mark Lewis (left) as he prepares to help lift the tyres during the second excavation season. If digging isn’t your thing, there’s lots of other jobs to do at an excavation, including photography and recording video footage.
Crystals of melanterite and chalcanthite, grown in the lab then dehydrated in a climate chamber by our research student Kathryn, are ready for analysis of deterioration products.
Our research student Kathryn analyses minerals and their deterioration products using the museum's X-ray diffractometer (XRD).
