Amongst his methods of recording excavations, Pitt-Rivers used photography. True or false?
9. Complete the names of these sites which he excavated: W–K–B–Y; R–H–L–; W–D–C–T-;
W– B–R–; W–D–T–
10. Anagrams of words/places associated with Pitt-Rivers. What are they? WOES TODAY; SOUR HERM;
FAN HARM; AL GREEN
Mary assures me that all the answers are in the museum’s Wessex Gallery, so if you are stuck for answers…and it is raining… and you would like a fascinating afternoon in the museum…
This month, usual host Katy England was busy organising our latest temporary exhibition, ‘Fashioning Our World,’ so Owain Hughes took over Conversation Club, leading with a brief but fascinating talk about the Amesbury Archer.
We were able handle artefacts from the era and discuss questions prepared by Katy. Although most of us had seen the Archer in his case in the Wessex Gallery, a more in-depth discussion of his importance as a bringer of new technologies to a Stone Age world was revealing and relatable to the impact of new technologies today.
We went in to the Wessex Gallery and found ourselves looking at the Archer and the objects with new respect and wonder.
Under Fives Friday
Hopefully the last session to be held in the hall at Harnham…. although a very satisfactory venue, everyone is looking forward to be being back in the museum.
This event was a music session hosted by Liv and was as popular as ever with both children and parents.
Hopefully, our regulars and newer participants will all eventually become museum Members – at least one regular renewed at this session. We run through the benefits at each meeting.
The May meeting will be run by regular Volunteers Mary and Sally, introducing the new Natural History Gallery…back in the museum!
Last week saw the first of this year’s summer Discovery Days. These are drop-in events for children during the school holidays, held this year in the marquee on the museum back lawn. The topic for this session was Saxon jewellery.
Liza Morgan, education officer for SeaCity Museum, Southampton, and a regular contributor, took charge of the day, assisted by Volunteers Sally and Mary.
Liza provided lots of pictures, information and design ideas to help children make a ‘Saxon’ pendant. First the children drew their designs on to a cardboard disc. These were then covered with glue, then gold paper. Glue from a glue gun provides a 3D effect. Then jewels were stuck on.
The visiting children were then invited to reach into a bag and pull out a card with a Saxon rune on it, and were given a Saxon name which started with that letter. Another bag of cards provided a last name based on an occupation. (I was Alflaed Shieldbearer!). This information was then written on the back of the pendants which were worn round necks.
We had a steady take-up throughout the day and everyone was encouraged to view the Saxon jewellery in the Wessex Gallery.
Families ranged from local to ones from as far away as Belgium and the USA.
A prize for enthusiasm should go to one father who said he never had the chance as a child to do things like this, and had a go! His pendant was excellent, as were those of his two boys.
Several adults wandered over and wanted to choose a Saxon name. One couple, by chance, each drew the same last name – Peacebringer – looked at each other disbelievingly and simultaneously said “Really?!”
Real Saxon disc jewellery
Thank you Mary – and Sally – for volunteering, and telling us about your Volunteering activities.
The Amesbury Archer: 20 Years On – Film screening followed by Q&A
Sat 23 July 1:30pm Lecture Hall On 3 May 2002 Wessex Archaeology excavated the grave of a man dating to around 2,300BC. Discovered three miles from Stonehenge, his grave contained the richest array of items ever found from this period.
The Amesbury Archer: 20 Years On will uncover fascinating new evidence with interviews from the original excavators and important discussions of what new DNA technologies have been able to tell us in the intervening years.
Tickets are free but places are limited so pre-booking advised To book your place visit Eventbrite here
Dr Phil Harding
Beyond the Stones – Film screening followed by Q&A
Sun 24 July 1:30pm Lecture Hall A new feature-length documentary celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Sites, Beyond the Stones focuses on our connection to the World Heritage Site landscape through people, communities and journeys – both now and in the past.
It explores what we can learn from more recent excavations within the Stonehenge landscape at sites like Bulford and Larkhill, with special contributions from the Wessex Archaeology experts who excavated the sites. This immersive, evocative and accessible film will be showcased as part of the Festival of Archaeology.
Tickets are free but places are limited so pre-booking advised. To book your place visit Eventbrite here
You might be wondering if the current British Museum exhibition on Stonehenge is worth the bother. After all, you do not have to travel to see items from Salisbury Museum and the stones are just up the road. So I had mixed views on the value of my trip up to London.
I was wrong, it really is worth the effort.
Of course, it is special to see the loans from Salisbury Museum, and to take some pride in seeing Salisbury Museum clearly credited on the labels. ‘Not to mention the opportunity to engage random strangers in conversation and encourage them to make a visit to Salisbury to see more.
But the overall content of the exhibition is much more than Stonehenge. It brings together artifacts from across Britain, Ireland and Europe and links them by common theme. The famous British finds from the familiar sites of the Langdale Valley, Grimes Graves and Seahenge are represented. But there are also important and not so familiar things to discover such as the stone plaques from Portugal, bronze bird bowls from Denmark and amazing gold hats from Germany and France.
Give yourself plenty of time, there is lots to see. There is some level of chronology in the layout but there is no need to join the crowd and wearily shuffle the given route. Heading for the end and going backwards or taking it by theme worked for me. Also, there is a lot of information in the labelling, so, to avoid being huddled up with the “label-log-jam”, download them onto your phone beforehand from the British Museum website.
The exhibition runs until 17th July 2022.
Photos: G Leach
Thank you Gillian!We will try spotting The Salisbury Museum’s items which some Volunteers know so well.
Please note: Members have recently received an email with a discount code for 25% off on The World of Stonehenge exhibition tickets at The British Museum. Welcome letters to new Members will also include the promo code, so feel free to mention to prospective Members that Membership currently includes discounted tickets to The World of Stonehenge.
Samuel Pepys, the Diarist, came to Salisbury on June 10th 1668 and stayed at the George Inn. During the visit he went to Stonehenge and described his journey thus:
“So the three women behind Mr Hewer and Murford and our guide and I single to Stonehenge, over the plain, and some great hills to fright us. Come hither and find them as prodigious as any tales I ever heard of them and worth going this journey to see. God knows what their use was; they are hard to tell but yet may be told.
Gave the shepherd woman for leading our horses, 4d.”
After a visit to Wilton in the 1720s, Daniel Defoe, like so many before him, and so many since, made a trip to “…the wonderful Stone-Henge…”. He said,
“I shall suppose it, as the majority of all writers do, to be a monument to the dead, and the rather, because men’s bones have been frequently dug up in the ground near them.”
After scoffing a little at the “common opinion” that no-one could count the stones, he declared there were 72 in all. “How they came thither, or from whence, no stones of that kind being now to be found in any part of England near it, is still the mystery, for they are of such immense bulk that no engines, or carriages which we have in use in this age that could stir them….Upon the whole we must take them as our ancestors have done; namely … a building so ancient, that no history has handed down to us the original, as we find it then uncertain, we must leave it so. ‘Tis indeed a reverend piece of antiquity,..”
Thanks to Volunteer Alan Crooks who has let us know that the BBC Radio Four broadcast of Start the Week last Monday was about the opening of the Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum and that the programme podcast can be found here.
Neil Wilkin, Rebecca Nesbit and Thomas Halliday discuss Stonehenge, ancient landscapes and the ethics of preservation with Adam Rutherford.
The Art Newspaper has this account which is well worth a read:
Photo: English Heritage
The exhibition runs at the British Museum in London until July and includes items loaned by The Salisbury Museum and by our friends in the Wessex Museums Partnership.