Casgliadau ac Ymchwil

Festival of British Archaeology 2009

On Tuesday, Andrew Murphy, blacksmith at St Fagans continued the challenge to make a replica of an early medieval bell, begun by Tim Young earlier in the week. While Tim, had worked on brazing the body of the bell, Andrew worked on the handle. This is a loop which passes into the bell so it can be held from the top, while the bell’s clapper hangs from a hook inside.

Andrew had several attempts at replicating the shape of the original bell’s handle over the course of the day, with each attempt getting closer to the form we were after, and the event was enjoyed by the public throughout the day.

Heidiodd ymwelwyr i’r Pentref Celtaidd dros y diwrnodau diwethaf i ymuno â ni wrth ddathlu G?yl Archeoleg Prydain. Yr uchafbwynt i mi heb os oedd dangos yr animeiddiad, Dadeni, gan Sean Harris, ar lawr y t? crwn. Am awyrgylch iasoer wrth i bawb rythu trwy’r tywyllwch at y delweddau symudol ar lawr. Gweld y pair, y twrch trwyth a’r milwyr yn dawnsio o gwmpas y llawr pridd. Roedd yr awyrgylch yn hudol ac yn gwneud i mi feddwl am ein hen gyndeidiau yn ymgasglu gyda’i gilydd o gwmpas y tân i hel straeon.

Trwy gydol y diwrnodau diwethaf bu Tim Young a’i griw yma hefyd yn ceisio ail-greu’r grefft goll o wneud clychau llaw y Cristnogion cynnar. Arbrawf difyr a’r tan naill ai’n rhy gynnes neu ddim yn ddigon cynnes. Mae tipyn gennym i’w ddysgu o hyd am grefft y gorffennol.

Mae’r gweithgareddau’n parhau tan yr 2ail o Awst. Dewch draw y penwythnos hwn, y 25ain a 26ain o Orffennaf, i weld y gleiniau gwydr hardd neu i ymuno yn fy ngweithdai peintio. Dewch a bach o liw i’r Oes Haearn!

Festival of British Archaeology 2009

Today’s events at National Museum Cardiff were Shadow Puppetry and Pottery Sorting.

I won’t write too much about the Shadow Puppet workshops because I covered these in a previous post – suffice it to say that they continued to be hugely popular with children, a fact demonstrated by the quantity of cut up paper and bits and bobs left behind when the crowds finally cleared.

The Pottery Sorting was a new thing though. Here, visitors were helping museum staff with the real business of archaeology. Back in 2002, an excavation was carried out at Llandaff Cathedral School in Cardiff and a very large quantity of 13th and 14th-century pottery was found. This was all brought back to the museum and staff have slowly been sorting it out. But there are only so many hours in a day and this is an awful lot of pottery so, as part of last year’s National Archaeology Week, we asked the public to help us make sense of it all. The event was so popular – and we still had so much pottery left over – that we ran it again this year.

So, with the help of about a hundred children and adults, Sian and Louise from the museum’s archaeology department spent today sorting the broken pottery into different types: glazed and unglazed, rims, bases and decorated pieces.

It proved to be a surprisingly addictive activity, with one girl staying to help out for over an hour, and a visiting Californian potter finding herself drawn into the challenge of grouping the sherds, and trying to track down elusive joins between pieces. Sadly, no joining pieces were found but, as Sian said: “there’s always tomorrow”.

And tomorrow the team will be joined by Mark Redknap, the museum’s medievalist who will be helping to make sense of it all.

Festival of British Archaeology 2009

Last Saturday, Sean Harris ran a Shadow Puppet workshop at National Museum Cardiff converting the main hall into an animation studio.

I wasn't able to go to the first day myself - which is why this posting is so late - but colleagues who were helping at the event took some photographs.

For those who missed it, but would like to join in the free family fun, the workshops continue ever day until 24 July.

Click here for details.

Festival of British Archaeology 2009

Tim Young’s attempts to replicate an Early Medieval church bell continued beside the Celtic Village today with the help of a team of volunteers who answered any questions that visitors to the museum had about the project.

It’s an industrial-sized operation, with gigantic bellows hanging from a wooden frame, and fire roaring from the furnace. Its aim was to coat a wrought iron bell with bronze in a process known as brazing. This involves encasing the bell, wrapped with strips of bronze, inside a clay mould and placing it in the fire. As the temperature rises the bronze melts and spreads over the surface of the bell giving it a fine, orange / yellow sheen.

Yesterday the problem was that the fire was too hot and the iron burnt out, today the problem was the exact opposite. Tim had two bells ready to go in their clay casings. Wary from yesterday’s experience he took one out a little early and the bronze hadn’t melted. Then it was a race against time to raise the temperature of the fire, while stocks of charcoal began to run low.

Thanks to vigorous bellow’s work, and some extra charcoal from Andrew Murphy, the museum’s blacksmith, the temperature was raised and the bronze melted on the final bell. Success! Partly. A crack in the side of the clay casing meant that part of the iron burnt away again, and some of the bronze escaped. Even so, Tim and his team have proved their approach works.

Better still, alongside the bell casting, they also tried to braze three Early Medieval iron strap slides which Andrew made based on an example from Llangorse, near Brecon. As you can see from the photographs, they had one great success, one partial success, and a near miss. With a little filing, the best of these should make a great display piece to set beside the original in the museum’s archaeology gallery.