First of all, Happy Saint David’s Day to everyone! March has arrived, but is spring on its way? This morning, I went for a short stroll through the museum grounds to search for signs of spring. Here’s what I found…

It seems like Skull-Cups are all the rage this month.

The media loves a history-story with a bit of 'ick' to it, and the recently-discovered human remains from Cheddar Gorge struck a chord last week. Reports of our 'cannibalistic' ancestors appeared on the Beeb, the Guardian and even über-cool hangout Boing Boing. The skulls found in Gough's Cave were almost 15,000 years old, and were, according to experts, probably used as ceremonial goblets.

Fast forward around 14,000 years, to 1057CE (or 1057AD, depending on how you take your history). That's when an amazing piece of skull-cup history starts, and right here in Wales.

Far from the media's imagined early-mannibal, drinking blood from his familiar's head; this cup is a piece of Welsh history with refined, aristocratic associations. In fact, the skull was even set in silver by Garrard's of London, and supposedly once sat on the saintly shoulders of one of Wales' most popular men: St Teilo.
The skull, that is, not the cup.

The Mathew family, who lived in South Wales, took on the guardianship of Teilo's Skull just before the Battle of Hastings. By now, it is held in Llandaf Cathedral, and it can be viewed by appointment. I popped down last week to take a few photos of it for this Saturday's Holy Relics! talk.

It is currently sealed behind glass, to prevent the corrosion of the silver parts, and so I hope you'll forgive me for the reflections in my photos! I do like the fact that the curious custodian's shadow turns up in a few of them, like a ghost in a suit!

St Teilo's Skull-Cup, Llandaf Cathedral

The skull itself was handed down from generation to generation, carrying with it a tradition which goes back to the early Church and its practices. The body, or even part of the body, of a Saint was seen as a high-status object. Many churches have built their reputations thanks to the presence of bones in their altars, reportedly belonging to important Christians.

The veneration of relics still takes place, as does the exchange of these very sensitive objects. Ebay even has an advisory page on how to buy and sell your relics without commiting the Catholic sin of Simony, which is selling the human remains of a saint. A glance at Interpol's Stolen Art Register (possibly one of the most interesting corners of the web, found here) shows that icons and relics, from many different religions, are still powerful objects which fascinate buyers - scrupulous or otherwise.

Today, I'm writing up my talk for Saturday - it's the point at which I get really excited, but before the information quite settles into a coherent sequence.
Maybe it's time for a cup of tea...

Art Cart starts tomorrow and the theme is love....

We will be looking at lovespoons, stay busks and tie on pockets and the kinds of symbols and patterns that are found on them. I have lots of A4 sheets for decorating and colouring, but i have also made four really large lovespoons that I need some fantastic art work for. Below is a picture of the sad white lovespoons - please help!!

On Thursday and Friday last week, work began on revamping the existing nature area of Oriel 1 here in St Fagans. This is a very exciting part of the Explore Nature project at the museum, which sees us drawing attention to the wealth of wildlife that can be found on site. 

The first step was to decorate the area. We chose woodland themed colours and large colourful panels which show some of the animals that live within the museum. All of these panels are now in place, as you can see from these pictures. Hopefully this has made the area very inviting and a fun way to learn about our wildlife. 

We also see the new ‘nature den’ as being an activity area where a range of nature and wildlife based activities can take place. For this we have installed a new shelving area which will be used for displaying specimens, keeping games and activities as well as being a bookshelf for a range of nature and wildlife books. We also now have an area for displaying your artwork, so come along and do some drawing! 

This week will see the installation of the technological aspects, which we are very excited about. Along the wall with the wildlife montage (between the blackbird and the bat) we will be putting up our new flat screen television. This television will be linked up to our new live bird feeder camera so you will be able to watch the various birds feeding. There will also be access to other footage taken from our wildcams, from batcam and our underwater pond camera. 

As well as the footage from our cameras, we have also had some St Fagans wildlife documentaries made. These will also be available to watch on the screen, from the comfort of the sofa if you so wish. The first of the films shows a typical day in the life of the wildlife here, while the second concentrates on the Lesser Horseshoe bats that roost in the Tannery here. 

We are very happy with how the nature den is looking and we hope to have everything installed and up and running ready from half term, which is next week! Why not come along to St Fagans during the half term holiday and have a look and let us know what you think? 

If you can’t make it during half term, be sure to attend the big launch of the Explore Nature project, which is taking place on Saturday April the 2^nd! For more information click here.

This week is National Nest Box Week and next week is Half Term so we've decided to combine the two and have bird-themed activities at T? Gwyrdd this weekend and all next week as well. We'll be making bird feeders and nest boxes and there'll be a free info pack all about how to attract birds to your garden and look after them.

With the weather looking increasingly Spring-like at the moment it is time to get those nest boxes up before the breeding season gets going. Spring and summer is a very busy time for the birds as they have to feed all those chicks as well as themselves, so any help that comes from us is most welcome I'm sure!