A very un-Civil War

Posted on June 15, 2005 by admin

In order to learn more about the Civil War, this month’s session included a visit from members of the Sealed Knot. The re-enactors came along in costume and talked about what role their characters would have played during the Civil War. This ranged from an ordinary soldier to an ensign (an officer) and a peasant woman. Each explained how they had used both archaeological and historical information to make their costumes as accurate as possible.

They brought along a selection of replicas of the weapons that would have been used and explained how a matchlock rifle worked. YAC members learnt that when either army marched into a town the first thing they would do would be to steal all the cord from bed frames to make the fuses (match) for their guns and take the lead from the church roof to make more musket balls!

Then came the gruesome bit! They saw pictures of skulls found by archaeologists with all sorts of injuries from swords and musket balls. Amazingly archaeologists can tell that some of the people who had the injuries survived!

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Surveying Old Sarum

Posted on May 15, 2005 by admin

This month YAC members all met up at Old Sarum. The theme for this session was surveying – what can archaeologists learn about a site without doing any digging??

Members had a go at two different surveying activities: standing building recording and landscape archaeology.

Standing building recording

Members were taken into the Great Tower of the Norman Castle. Their task was to use a planning frame to draw a 1m by 1m square of the wall.

But their paper wasn’t 1m by 1m – this meant that they had to draw it to scale! They drew their elevations – the archaeological word for a drawing of a wall – at 1 to 10 (1:10). This meant that every 1cm on their graph paper represented 10cms of wall.

After they had drawn and labelled their elevations they had a go at using a dumpy level to work out the height of the top of their elevations.



Landscape archaeology

Members were taken on a tour around the Outer Bailey, part of the original Iron Age ditch, and had to visually survey – look at – the landscape. They had to look at the landscape today and try to work out;

  • What it might have looked like in the past?
  • What bits have changed?
  • What bits haven’t changed?
  • Why did the Iron Age peoples build their hillfort here?
  • Why was Old Sarum re-used by the Romans and Normans?
  • Members answered all of these questions and many more.
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The Variable Vikings

Posted on April 15, 2005 by admin

This month at YAC, members were given a chance to see what Viking life was like. Donna – a Viking re-enactor – brought along a range of objects to give a real hands-on element to this month’s session.

Members had a go at daily tasks such as spinning – vital for every good Viking to learn as warm clothes would have been essential!

But no Viking would be complete without his or her fighting kit – chainmail, sword, shield and helmet. Members had great fun trying all of these on.

The chainmail seemed heavy to wear but was even heavier when you picked it up!!

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Underwater Archaeology

Posted on March 15, 2005 by admin

This month at YAC members learnt about underwater archaeology. Brian and Frank, both divers from Wessex Archaeology, came along to tell them what underwater archaeologists do and show them the equipment that they use. For their first task members were given real nautical charts and had to find and mark with a red dot, all the shipwrecks that were marked on them.

After that they had a go at wearing the heavy weight-belts that the divers have to use and tried on their diving masks. Then with all their new knowledge of underwater archaeology, groups of members took it in turn to ‘dive’ on a shipwreck that had been set up. They used surveying techniques to plan the objects they found on the ‘wreck’ and even plan the outline of the boat. Each team of ‘divers’ only had 10 minutes of oxygen before having to swap over with the next group.

Whilst some were ‘diving’ other members played a game where they had to pretend that they were Roman merchants who had to collect and trade their cargo without being robbed by pirates or shipwrecked. If shipwrecked they had to work out the grid co-ordinates of the wreck site and work out what, if any, of their cargo would be left for archaeologists of the future to find!

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Iron Age activities and Roman replicas

Posted on February 15, 2005 by admin

This month’s YAC session looked at daily life in the Iron Age and the Roman invasion. Members were set the task of identifying a series of jobs that Iron Age people would have done.

Then they had to work out what archaeological evidence would be left and how they, as archaeologists, could use this to prove what people were doing in the past.

Having solved this puzzle members were then set the challenge of using their detective skills to interpret an archaeological site. Each team of archaeologists was given a site plan, some environmental data and access to real pottery and animal bones. From this they had to work out as much as possible about the people who lived on the site in the past.

Then half way through the session they were ‘invaded’ by Optio Lucius, a Roman soldier. He came along to tell them not only about the Romans, but to explaine how all the different bits of his outfit had been reproduced using REAL archaeological evidence from the local area!

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Iron Age activities and Roman replicas

Posted on February 15, 2005 by admin

This month’s YAC session looked at daily life in the Iron Age and the Roman invasion. Members were set the task of identifying a series of jobs that Iron Age people would have done.

Then they had to work out what archaeological evidence would be left and how they, as archaeologists, could use this to prove what people were doing in the past.

Having solved this puzzle members were then set the challenge of using their detective skills to interpret an archaeological site. Each team of archaeologists was given a site plan, some environmental data and access to real pottery and animal bones. From this they had to work out as much as possible about the people who lived on the site in the past.

Then half way through the session they were ‘invaded’ by Optio Lucius, a Roman soldier. He came along to tell them not only about the Romans, but to explaine how all the different bits of his outfit had been reproduced using REAL archaeological evidence from the local area!

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Practically Prehistory

Posted on January 10, 2005 by admin

This month’s session of YAC was devoted to prehistoric flint working. Members were lucky to have a real expert on hand, Phil Harding, best known for his work with Wessex Archaeology and on Channel 4’s Time Team. His task, should he choose to accept it, was to re-create a Neolithic arrow. Before this however Phil kindly offered to hand out the prizes for the picture and anagram puzzles from the Christmas party. Winners got chocolates and a signed photo of Phil.

The Arrow

He began by first selecting a large flint nodule, which he explained came from the local chalk downs around Salisbury. This local source of flint he explained was probably one of the main reasons why we have so much prehistoric activity, in this part of Wiltshire. (Think Stonehenge and the Amesbury Archer)

Next he showed everyone all the different tools that a flint knapper would use. These included stone and antler ‘hammers’ and a selection of small tools made from carved antler and bone. Then the knapping began.

First he used a stone hammer to split a selection of flakes off the flint nodule. He then selected the most suitable of these to produce the arrowhead itself and used the others to strip the bark off a piece of hazel that would become the arrow’s shaft.

Whilst Phil was busy knapping away, members asked him questions about what he was doing and what prehistoric life might have been like: what did they hunt, how did they make bows, what other types of arrowheads have been found etc.

Members then, thanks to Caroline Beasley of Salisbury Museum, got to have a hands-on look at all sorts of other flint and prehistoric tools and objects.

Members got the chance to test their newly gained knowledge. Groups then were given bags of flints and had to work out if any of the bits of flint had been worked. If so, what might they have been used for? Finally members were given their new YAC folders for 2005, along with series of sheets all about flint working to go in them.

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Party Time

Posted on December 20, 2004 by admin

This month our YAC meeting was yet another fun filled Christmas party! There were a whole load of great games from the Viking boat race, the mummy game and a building competition to everybody’s favourite, Black Death pass the parcel.

Twenty one members came along to join in the games and munch their way through all the festive fare. Picture puzzles and anagrams were also dotted about the hall for members to find and solve; the WINNERS will be announced in January.

The best of the models in the building competition were Matt Bell’s Barrow which won him third place, Elizabeth Wilson’s Coffin Tomb, second, and Emily Snell’s Roundhouse, complete with animal pen and farmer, which won top prize. Another prize, a book on Roman archaeology, went to Emma Turk for her archaeology log-book which she kept all year.

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Crazy Costumes!!

Posted on November 15, 2004 by admin

This month at SWYAC, costumes were definitely in fashion!

Members not only looked at what people wore in the past but had to work out what parts of them and their clothes might remain for an archaeologist to find.

As well as this they also decided what bits of their “costume” – what they came to YAC dressed in – might be left for archaeologists of the future to find. What would be left of what YOU are wearing today? Our members rightly worked out that perhaps the zips from jackets, buttons from trousers, plastic on trainers and even their glasses may well survive.

They also decided that it isn’t just what is buried but WHERE it is buried, as different soils and climates affect how artefacts are preserved. Good examples of this are the so called ‘bog bodies’, such as Tollund Man, the completely preserved body of a man found in a fen (another word for a bog or marsh) in Denmark and thought to be about 2000 years old! He survived because bogs are such wet places that the bacteria that would normally cause him to decay can not survive.

To find out more about him why not check out this web page (you will need the free Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader to view this. Visit the BBC Webwise website to find out how this works):

www.schoolhistory.co.uk/year7links/history/The_Tollund_Man_Mystery.pdf

But it is not just very wet places, very dry places also preserve things well, such as pieces of papyrus (a type of paper made from reeds and grass) with Egyptian hieroglyphs written on them. In the dry deserts of Egypt the papyrus literally dries out becoming very fragile, but with proper care and attention they can be preserved and translated to tell us more about Egyptian life thousands of years ago.

To find out more why not check out this web page:

www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/

Members spent the last part of the session making archaeological and historical costumes of their own, here’s what they came up with:

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