A month is a long time... Owain Rhys, 11 July 2007 Now this entry is going to be concise. I had just finished an extended version of the last month, in English and Welsh, pressed publish, and everything disappeared. So, I'm sulking. In brief, this is how last month went: June 18 - Meeting with National Library of Wales. Discussed collecting websites, TV programmes and records, amongst other things (ephemera, how to record Youtube etc) Very interesting, and a big thanks to all at the Library for the welcome. June 19 and 20 - Digital Storytelling workshop with the BBC. A technique which is very useful to record contemporary life. Visit website at www.bbc.co.uk/wales/capturewales/ June 21 - Digital Storytelling Conference missed due to illness June 23 - Family wedding June 24 to July 1 - Holiday in Caernarfon July 6 and 7 - Oral History conference in London. Again, a technique which is very useful to record contemporary life. July 12 (tomorrow) - Meeting with Johnstown History Group to discuss curating for the Community Dresser. If anybody is interested in learning more about these things, then please contact me. In the original Blog, I managed to mention, Glyn Wise off Big Brother, setting up a virtual museum in Second Life, a Welsh name for Facebook and numerous other fascinating things. But there we go, such is the ficklelessness of the ether.
Tuesday 10th July Chris Owen, 10 July 2007 Contributed by CAROLINE Today we were blessed with yet more sunshine- perhaps summer is here afterall!Here’s an update from the trenches…Trench 1: The largest trenchThe Eastern half of trench one has been behaving itself quite well and a series of features have been revealed and their function is often evident. The majority of the features are postholes, some are shallow, while others are quite deep and have in some instances post packing intact. Some of these postholes and pits have had prehistoric pottery within them and are therefore prehistoric in date. However, not all contained dating evidence (pottery or coins etc) and so their date is unknown. It is difficult at present to determine what postholes are likely to be contemporary to each other, but hopefully when we have drawn a full plan of the trench we will see if the postholes form a pattern- rectangular, circular or otherwise. However, there are so many postholes that the pattern is so far highly confused as they seem to be from a series of structures dating from very different periods. As one person has commented, its like trying to do a puzzle without a picture. There is also quite a large curvilinear gulley which seems to have both been cut by a ditch on the one side, while the other appears to have cut an earlier ditch. While in the Western half of the trench the features are slightly more complicated. Again we seem to have two, maybe three gullies, one of which is very shallow. Two of these gullies may be at right angles to each other and one of which is cut by a later post hole. There is also a large rubble-filled ditch and another potential rubble-filled ditch about 2m away.Trench 2: the L shaped trenchThis trench is quite confusing. An extremely deep feature appears to be a natural geological hollow filled in with dumps of occupation debris from the settlement. A slot was dug down through the feature to the natural base and there appears to be a very substantial glacial fill at the base of this hollow. In one area this pit/natural hollow appears to have been cut by a later shallow pit, which was filled with a high concentration of ash and iron objects. There are also a series of postholes, but these do not seem to make up any discernable structures.Trench 3This trench was intended for exposing and excavating a sample of the enclosure ditch which appears to have been cut during the middle-late Iron Age. The ditch is approximately 1.3m deep and encloses a sizeable area – creating such a feature would have taken a lot of effort, manpower and time. The ditch appears to have then become naturally filled in with soil, washed or blown in from elsewhere. Then in the 2nd or 3rd century AD, it was recut, this time much shallower than before and therefore less substantial and not so impressive but again this may have formed a defensive function or possibly demonstrating the resources of the inhabitants. Alongside there was a large area of rubble which was initially believed to be the remnants of a bank( banks quite often accompany ditches), but has since proved to be otherwise. This rubble is instead derived from a series of rubble-filled features, a number of which have now been exposed. There are also 2 pit like features which are similar in character to each other. The southern most of these ditches has clearly been cut by the ditch, we can therefore say that the pit is earlier than the ditch.
Monday 9th July Chris Owen, 9 July 2007 Contributed by CAROLINE and pupils from LLANTWIT MAJOR COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL Today good fortune was with us again with amazing sunshine. We had a visit from 14 year 7 school children and their teacher from Llantwit Major Comprehensive, the site visit took place between 9 until 1pm. The fieldtrip was not compulsory, instead the children volunteered to visit Llanmaes, I asked Kirsty whether her reasons for visiting Llanmaes was to skip lessons but instead Kirsty seemed genuinely interested in visiting the site and is very interested in history. Kirsty has visited the site before and so it is very encouraging that she wished to visit again, perhaps we have a budding archaeologis? Another student- Yegor seemed to be enjoying his first visit to the site.The students were taught how to use a dumpy level, and using angles and height measurements helped us position canes to plot out the outline of the enclosure surrounding the site. This helps us and the school children to visually see its shape and grand scale. Again these students were from geography class and following their visit are expected to write up a small report about their visit, about what they enjoyed and learnt. Photographs and video footage accompany the students visit today. The children were expected to use the dumpy level to lay out correct angles and to determine the height of the staff and using tape measures.One student Becky has had previous experience with archaeology having once been a member of a Young Archaeologists Club in Shetland, she was a member of the club for 2 years and made many new friends. Found pottery and recreated the pot where possible. Becky learnt about prehistory, and the work of an archaeologist. Two years a member. Made new friends at the club. Becky has very much enjoyed learning about archaeology at Llanmaes and at the club in Shetland which was held during school time. When at the club Becky considered becoming an archaeologist, but its been two years now since she left the archaeology club (because she moved house) and Becky has changed her career choice to being hopefully a beautician with her own business.3 groups of year seven geography students have now visited us at Llanmaes, 2 in one day previously and today just one group, this is however the last. Next week follow up activities are planned at their school. These activities include art, poetry, music and creative writing. An afternoon of creative writing is planned following their visit to the site. The children are expected to write about what life may have been like for the inhabitants during the prehistoric and roman era. The Welsh poet of the year is coming in to help the children create poetry and a musician (a drummer) is visiting to carry out music workshops. These visits to the site are intended as a way of archaeology forging links with the community and giving the children an insight as to what it is like to be an archaeology student. The site visit has been very much cross curricular in nature, particularly for history and geography. This was intended mainly as a geography fieldtrip as the children are learning to appreciate why the inhabitants would have chosen to occupy this site. They will also look at aerial photographs to understand how archaeologists often find sites through cropmarks as well as see the settlement in its wider landscape setting in terms of nearby features such as brroks and drainage of the soil, relief, temperature and climate.
Sunday 8th July Chris Owen, 8 July 2007 Contributed by CAROLINEToday’s open day was a great success, there were many visitors to the site, of all ages. It was good to see familiar faces of those who had visited in previous year(s). The visitors brought good fortune to the site- marvellous sunshine; something which has been greatly missed this year at Llanmaes!We would like to thank those who cam to the site firstly for bringing us good weather and secondly for allowing us to share our excitement and interest of the past with a keen audience. We hope to see you again next year!
When Welsh ships sailed the seas 6 July 2007 Painting of the Breconian The Breconian The Breconian was built in 1906; she was registered in Aberystwyth and was sailed by Welshmen across the oceans of the world for thirty years. Her portrait, one of the industrial paintings of ships in Amgueddfa Cymru's collection, reveals a fascinating insight into days gone by. Ship Paintings The industrial collections house some 250 ship paintings. Few of these could be described as fine art, but they do provide an invaluable archive of Welsh maritime history. Most of these paintings are the work of Mediterranean 'pierhead painters' who, for a small sum, would produce simple colourful pictures of a vessel for the owner, captain or crew members. Originally, they were painted in pairs, one painting of the vessel on a calm sea and the other in a storm. What these paintings lack in artistic quality is made up for by their technical accuracy. These paintings became objects of pride and sentiment, as much to the ship's owner as to the captain's wife. A ship with a new design The painting of the Breconian is an unsigned storm-scene portrait. The steamship was built for John Mathias & Sons of Aberystwyth. She was unusual in that she had been built with a new, narrower deck, the turret-deck, superimposed upon the vessel's hull, extending from stem to stern. This new design made the vessel more profitable to operate. The design was so successful that 429 turret-deckers were built between 1892 and1911. The company that owned the Breconian began back in 1869 when John Mathias, an ambitious Aberystwyth greengrocer, decided to venture into shipowning, buying the schooner Miss Evans. In 1883 he moved from sail to steam, forming the Glanrheidol Steamship Company Limited. By the time that the Breconian joined the Mathias fleet, the business had been grandly renamed the Cambrian Steam Navigation Company Limited, with the seven ships of the line being named, rather unusually, after public schools. This led to seamen at Cardiff giving the company the nickname of 'the College line'. The Breconian, named after Christ College, Brecon, was the only vessel named after a Welsh school; the others being Etonian, Harrovian, Rugbeian and so on. Coal out, grain home Like most tramp steamers of the period, the Breconian would have sailed chiefly in the so-called 'coal out, grain home' trades, taking coal from south Wales across the world and returning with a cargo of cereals. She was manned mainly by Welshmen; in 1911, her master was Captain David Jones of Aberystwyth and 20 of her 28 strong crew came from Welsh coastal towns and villages. In 1917, The Breconian was sold to the Tyneside Line Limited of Newcastle and in 1926 she was sold on to a Genoese shipowner, Giovanni Bozzo, who renamed her Lorenzo Bozzo after his son. Six years later she was broken up. Today, only the painting remains to remind us of just one aspect of the flourishing Welsh maritime enterprise and the capable Welsh seamen who sailed the world's oceans.
