Over the past two weeks we have been running family activities linked to the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition here at National Museum Cardiff.

Over 400 of you took part and it has been a fantastic fortnight of photographic fun! I've been busy uploading as many photos as possible to the NMC Photo Club Flickr page and I have to say they look great! When you visit the Flickr page the photos are organised into sets on the right hand side of the page so if you took part all you need to do is click on the date of your visit to the Museum and look for your name!

The photos will be going up on the screen in the Clore Discovery Centre in the Museum on Saturday the 8th of September so if you came to the workshops pop in to see your pictures on display at the National Museum!

I'd like to say a big thank you to Cat, Lauren and Catherine for all their excellent work in running the workshops and I'd like to thank everyone who came along to take part as well. Thanks!

RETURN TO LLANBEDRGOCH (WEEK ONE)

The unexpected discovery in 2001 of an intramural burial within the early medieval enclosed settlement at Llanbedrgoch raised a new series of questions about the site, its occupants, their activities and their relationships with other regions. 

We returned to the site a week ago, and the last eight days have focused on setting out the new areas of excavation, removing ploughsoil, monitoring weather forecasts and adjusting the daily tasks to make the best of  at times trying conditions. The team of students includes volunteers from Bangor and Cardiff, and one from Toronto (Canada). Yesterday we were joined by some local, experienced, volunteers from Gwynedd and Anglesey. They have all been outstanding, and the early medieval archaeology of the site is already being transformed. Excavation is an ongoing process, and if you follow us over the next three weeks, the team will provide you with personal insights into the excavation.

Even though the research design has clearly stated objectives, the work often reveals evidence of a completely different nature. Our return this year was in fact the result of such an unexpected discovery and its implications. The burial from inside the enclosure (Burial 6) was not revealed in plan through specific searching for inhumations, or the recognition of subtle changes in soil colour or character, but by the decision to cut a narrow trench through the early medieval ‘black earth’ midden material in the south-western area of the site in order to reveal the midden sequence and facilitate section drawing and sampling. 

In spite of the profound silence of the individual in this grave and those discovered in 1998-99, they continue since their discovery to help us answer in increasing detail a range of fundamental historical questions: 

How did the people of Llanbedrgoch and north-west Wales, who had contact with Anglo-Saxons, Irish and Scandinavians, respond to such peoples? 

How does the archaeological evidence for the politics and economy of early medieval Wales compare to that provided by other sources? 

Were the daily lives of people at Llanbedrgoch during the sixth and seventh centuries different from those in the ninth and tenth centuries? 

What types of diet and health did they enjoy? 

How did Christianity affect their lives and burial practices? 

We have already begun to answer some of these questions – one of  the first artefacts to be found last week in the ploughsoil was a lead necklace pendant in the form of a cross – slightly larger than one found in an earlier season of excavation at the site. 

This site continues to amaze, surprise and inspire – follow us if you can. 

Mark Redknap

After a gap of more than a decade, a team of archaeologists has returned to excavate at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey. You can read more about previous seasons at this Viking-Age settlement here http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/archaeology/vikings/

Mark Redknap and his team made an exciting discovery towards the end of the 2001 season - evidence that there might be an early medieval cemetery on the site. Are they right? Finds are appearing already, but what can they tell us? Watch this space to find out more!

Mark is joined this season by

Evan Chapman (Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales)

David Griffiths (University of Oxford)

Tudur Davies (University of Sheffield)

Brian Milton, an experienced archaeologist from Cornwall who has spent many seasons at Llanbedrgoch

Archie Gillespie, one of the two metal detectors who originally found the site and who is a dab hand with the archaeological trowel too.

Students from Cardiff, Bangor and Toronto Universities, and other volunteers.

Hopefully you'll get to hear more about them as the dig progresses over the next 3 weeks.

Ten young people gave up four days of their summer holidays to help make our whale and turtle displays more family-friendly.

They signed up to the challenge through Cardiff’s Summer Learning Festival, which invites 12-15 year olds to learn new skills in their spare time. They learned how to evaluate and exhibition, pick a good story, write interesting text and select objects to make a family friendly display.

Diolch i / Many thanks to:

Jasmine Coombes, Emily Frankish, Aled Gomer, Thomas Griffiths,  Samantha Hardy, Stephen Lloyd, Simon Naylor, Maxwell Piper, Anna Rees, Mollie Shand.

Twice in one week? Just a quick post before I succumb to blog fever:

On tuesday, I visited the BBC in Llandaf to talk a bit about my work, and St Fagans in general, for the Radio 2 Arts Show. This week, Penny Smith is standing in for Claudia Winkleman, so it's a good job I decided to forego the nude-coloured-lipstick tribute I had planned. The interview was conducted across the BBC aether - me in front of a box of very compelling lights and buttons, them in a padded room in London - and so I did end up feeling overdressed all the same.

Anyway, we had great fun, even though the question of the Welsh language's perceived lack of vowels did come up, which can sometimes lead to a leap in my blood pressure. I consider it a public service to have tackled that myth with grace and aplomb. Tune in to see if you agree!

Radio 2 Arts Show - 22:00 Friday 27 July