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<< Our Photo Pages >> National Museum Cardiff - Museum in Wales in South Glamorgan

Submitted by coldrum on Tuesday, 09 July 2013  Page Views: 47553

MuseumsSite Name: National Museum Cardiff Alternative Name: National Museum of Wales, National Museum Wales, Amgueddfa Cymru
Country: Wales
NOTE: This site is 0.409 km away from the location you searched for.

County: South Glamorgan Type: Museum
Nearest Town: Cardiff
Map Ref: ST18357696  Landranger Map Number: 171
Latitude: 51.485674N  Longitude: 3.177304W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
5 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
5 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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PAB visited on 23rd Jun 2012 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5

coldrum visited on 1st Jan 2010 - their rating: Cond: 5 Access: 5

Andy B: would like to visit Neil looks at the bronze artifacts here, in episode one of BBC History of Celtic Britain

AngieLake myf have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4.5 Access: 5

British Museum
British Museum submitted by h_fenton : The Mold Cape (Bronze Age), in the British Museum. The Mold Gold Cape found by workmen quarrying for stone in a burial mound in Mold, Flintshire, North Wales in 1833. In the centre of the mound there was a stone lined cist containing an inhumation burial and the cape was found on the shoulders of the skeleton, pieces of sheet bronze were also recovered which may have formed a backing to the g... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Museum in Cardiff dedicated to preserving, presenting and promoting the culture of Wales in a world-wide context. Includes Archaeology & Numismatics Gallery featuring the first use of caves 250,000 years ago onwards

Address: Cathays Park, CF10 3NP
Phone: 029 2039 7951
Opening Hours: 10.00am - 5.00pm Tuesday - Sunday. Open Bank Holiday Mondays.
Admission: Free
Visit their web site.

Note: See the Mold Gold Cape at Cardiff Museum until 4th Aug, then it's off to Wrexham Museum
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National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff submitted by Blingo_von_Trumpenstein : Exceptional flint macehead from Denbighshire. The final grinding to get the geometric incised pattern must have taken a very long time. My guestimate would be 150 hours. This is very similar to one found in Orkney. These things always feel ceremonial. (5 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff submitted by hoya105 : Site in South Glamorgan Wales incredibly old re-used piece of timber (Vote or comment on this photo)

National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff submitted by hoya105 : Site in South Glamorgan Wales ancient stones in galleries (black building in grounds!) (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff submitted by hoya105 : Site in South Glamorgan Wales Amazing open air museum with galleries showing some ancient stones and artefacts (Vote or comment on this photo)

National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff submitted by AngieLake : A page from the guide book I picked up here in 2004. (Vote or comment on this photo)

National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff submitted by Blingo_von_Trumpenstein : The whole display of maceheads and discs.A lot of polishing in these items. I don't feel that these are weapons - they seem ceremonial or ritualistic.

National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff submitted by Blingo_von_Trumpenstein : Axes and their stone source clearly shown (red dot on map). Glass makes photos tricky.

National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff submitted by Blingo_von_Trumpenstein : Superb museum. Well planned and substantial. Lighting is a little low in places. Some great axes. Amazing gold jewellery and bronze cauldrons. Exceptionally good fossil displays (a museum on it's own!). This is the butt of a point butted jadeite axe found in Wales. The stone is from Monte Viso in the Italian Alps. It is so similar to a French axe I have that I thought was serpentine that I am no...

National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff submitted by AngieLake : 'The Queen of the Night', the rare and important Mesopotamian relief on loan from the British Museum, coming close to the end of its countrywide tour. It has only one week left at Cardiff's National Museum and Gallery of Wales before going to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery from 1st December to 19th April 2005. (See today's comment on Cardiff's National Museum and Gallery of Wales section for ... (3 comments)

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 5.3km WSW 247° Caerau (Cardiff)* Hillfort (ST13377498)
 5.8km SW 230° Cwrt-yr-ala Hillfort (ST139733)
 5.8km WNW 301° Radyr Woods Burnt Mound* Artificial Mound (ST13438003)
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 6.4km W 271° St Fagan's Well Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST11917712)
 6.6km NNW 331° Wennalt Camp Ancient Village or Settlement (ST15208275)
 6.6km W 271° Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans* Museum (ST117772)
 7.4km NNE 16° Graig Llwyn Iron Age Fort* Hillfort (ST205840)
 7.6km WSW 243° Quarrymen Stone* Modern Stone Circle etc (ST115736)
 7.7km NW 310° Lesser Garth Cave* Cave or Rock Shelter (ST125820)
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 8.4km W 278° Sant-Y-Nyll Round Barrow(s) (ST10077829)
 8.5km WNW 298° Llwynda-ddu Hillfort (ST10878100)
 8.7km NE 41° Druidstone (Michaelstone)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (ST24138342)
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"National Museum Cardiff" | Login/Create an Account | 20 News and Comments
  
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A Stone Age masterpiece - A Mace-head from North Wales by Andy B on Thursday, 25 January 2018
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It is easy to think of the Stone Age as a period in which life was nasty, brutish and short. The Maesmor mace-head from North Wales is proof that it was not always so.

Mace-heads like this one were made around 2500BC, and were typically used for combat, elaborate mace heads were also created as ceremonial objects and symbols of power within Stone Age tribes.

Many mace-heads have been found in Wales. For the most part they have been discovered by chance, having been disturbed from the spot at which they were lost or discarded. However, occasionally they are found with burials, including one example from Wiltshire, which was found with a body that had been adorned with gold and bone ornaments.

A symbol of power and wealth

This has led to the suggestion that mace-heads were symbols of power and were held by people with status. It is easy to imagine that this would have been true of the Maesmor mace-head since, if its owner had only wanted something to use as a club he could have saved himself a lot of trouble by drilling a hole in a pebble and mounting that on the wooden handle.

Instead, a large piece of white flint - a rare stone in Denbighshire where the mace-head was found - was cut roughly into shape. Then a hole was drilled through the tough stone, probably using a bow drill with lots of sand and water. This hole was where the handle would have originally have fitted.

More at
https://museum.wales/articles/2007-05-14/A-Stone-Age-masterpiece---A-Mace-head-from-North-Wales/
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The Llandaf Beaker Man - An Early Bronze Age grave at Llandaf by Andy B on Thursday, 25 January 2018
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In 1992, renovations at a house in the Llandaf area of Cardiff uncovered an unusual stone slab buried by river sands and silts. Beneath the slab was a long bone and clay pot.

The pot turned out to be a beaker - a decorated clay vessel, fashionable in western Europe some 4,000 years ago, during what is known as 'the Beaker Period'. The beaker may originally have contained mead, beer or some other special brew. The stone slab marked the position of a grave.

With the cooperation and encouragement of the owners, the Department of Archaeology and Numismatics conducted an excavation in the driveway to their house, to re-expose the grave and fully excavate its contents. The enclosing cist, constructed of slabs of the local Radyr Stone, was unusual in that it was the form of a lean-to, its capstone resting at an angle of 30° contrasting with more conventional box-like, beaker cists.

Little of the skeleton remained. The expectation had been to find a crouched skeleton typical of the Beaker period, but only fragments of the cranium (the top of the skull) and limb bones survived. Additional grave-goods were unearthed, a bronze awl (a pointed tool for making holes, as in wood or leather) and a flint flake - objects that would have been buried alongside the person to be used in the 'next world'. Awls are usually associated with female burials.

Analysis of the sediment filling the grave may explain the unusual form of the cist and why only part of the skeleton was preserved. The presence of graded water-lain sediments within the grave suggests disturbance and erosion of the burial by flood water. Today the river Taff flows close by and property where the grave was discovered is built on the former floodplain of the river.

Photo here:
https://museum.wales/articles/2007-04-12/The-Llandaf-Beaker-Man---An-Early-Bronze-Age-grave-at-Llandaf/
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See the Mold Gold Cape at Cardiff Musem, 2nd Jul to 4th Aug 2013 by Andy B on Tuesday, 09 July 2013
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Normally a highlight exhibit at the British Museum, the Mold Cape is on display at the National Museum Cardiff, before opening at Wrexham Museum on 7th August 2013.

The Mold Cape is a unique ceremonial cape of gold, made during the Early Bronze Age, around 3,700 years ago.

The cape is regarded as one of the finest pieces of Bronze Age craftsmanship and gold-working technique in Europe. Skillfully fashioned from a single sheet of thin gold, it is unique in design, the embossed shapes copying strings of beads.

The cape also tells us of the wealth, influence and identity of the Early Bronze Age farming and metalworking communities who lived in north-east Wales.

The cape was discovered in Mold, Flintshire in 1833 by workmen while levelling a field and quarrying for stone. They uncovered a stone-lined grave with the remains of a skeleton and the crushed gold cape. This was probably at the centre of a circular mounded burial monument, known as a barrow.

Also in the grave were hundreds of amber beads, fragments of a second gold cape, a bronze knife and the fragile remains of woven textile. The discovery was brought to the attention of the wider antiquarian community largely through the efforts of the local vicar.

The British Museum, recognising its importance and significance – and at a time before a National Museum existed in Wales – devoted efforts in acquiring the cape, and a number of the accompanying fragments, for its collections.

The Mold Cape has for long been given prominence in the British Museum prehistory displays. After careful study and painstaking work piecing together all the embossed fragments, its original form as a cape was revealed and reconstructed.

Recent research has suggested that the wearer of the cape, amber bead necklace and bronze knife may have been a woman. In addition, fragments of a second gold cape were found in the grave, suggesting a longer regional tradition of cape making here.

More at
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=6735
with thanks to PAB for the link
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Re: National Museum Card by Anonymous on Saturday, 11 May 2013
You state in your article "There is also the Capel Garmon firedog, a flamboyant piece of Iron Age blacksmithing, and a rare survival from the Reformation – a 13th century painted figure of Christ discovered in the rood loft of a Monmouthshire church"

Is this the one ?

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-16252711

http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/145130

I'm wondering if it was actually discovered on my families land after it was excavated because the other stories about where this was found seems sketchy.

For more information on Great House Farm please visit: http://trusted-office.blogspot.co.uk/2012_08_29_archive.html
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    Re: National Museum Card by Andy B on Sunday, 12 May 2013
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    The one in the museum sounds like the first one as the second firedog was returned to its owner. The first one must have been in the ownership of the family as it was used to pay a tax bill. What a sad story about the loss of your family's farm. It will remind me to always send important documents by Recorded Delivery!
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Re: National Museum Cardiff by PAB on Tuesday, 26 June 2012
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The National Museum in Cardiff has a whole section dedicated to its 'Origins' exhibition, "Boasting the earliest human remains in Britain and stunning Bronze Age goldwork , Origins helps us to explore conflict, power, wealth, family and the future – themes that have preoccupied mankind through the ages. "

The Origins section was opened in 2007, so if you haven't been to Cardiff since then it is definitely time for a return visit! The boast about the earliest remains refers to the Red Lady of Paviland, and the Bronze Age goldwork is exquisite, and only discovered in 2004.

There are numerous examples of things very large (early crosses and inscribed stones), and very small.

The Museum (like the other National Museum sites in Wales) is free. There is a dedicated section on their website for the Origins exhibition http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/origins/ . This includes links to Podcasts introducing the range of item on view.
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Conquering the North - the first humans in Britain, Cardiff Museum, 7th December by Andy B on Friday, 02 December 2011
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Origins Lunchtime Talk: Conquering the North - the first humans in Britain
7 Dec, 1.05pm (Nb. Open Tuesday–Sunday and bank holiday Mondays)
National Museum Cardiff

Over the last million years northern Europe has undergone huge changes in environment. At times ice-sheets have reached London, while it has also enjoyed a Mediterranean climate.

Until recently it was thought that early humans only reached northern latitudes 500,000 years ago, but new excavations at Happisburgh by the British Museum show humans surviving in boreal forest over 800,000 years ago.

The rich evidence from the site such as bones, plant remains and even beetles show they were occupying the banks of the ancient river Thames with herds of horse, elephant and rhinos grazing the valley floor, surrounded by coniferous forest.

This talk with Dr Nick Ashton investigates how early humans survived the cold winters and whether they had clothing, shelter or fire.

Dr Nick Ashton has worked at the British Museum for over 25 years where he has specialised in the early Palaeolithic of Europe. He has directed excavations at the Suffolk sites of High Lodge, Barnham, Elveden and Hoxne and is currently excavating at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast.

His main research interests are the earliest occupation of Europe, the innovation of technology through environmental change and the development of Britain as an island. He has published extensively on these topics and is currently Deputy Director of the Leverhulme-funded Ancient Human Occupation of Britain Project (AHOB).
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=5382
(with thanks to Coldrum for the link)
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National Museum Cardiff Street View by Andy B on Tuesday, 18 January 2011
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The use of seafoods in earlier prehistoric Wales,Cardiff Museum 2nd February by Andy B on Sunday, 16 January 2011
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Lunchtime Talk - Cockles, sewin and laver: the use of seafoods in earlier prehistoric Wales
2 Feb 1:05pm (30 minutes)
Dr Rick Schulting

Finding evidence for the use of marine foods in earlier prehistory can be challenging.

This is especially so for the Mesolithic period in Wales, since much of the coastline has been lost as a result of rising sea levels.

The research of Dr Rick Schulting involves analysis of human bone using scientific techniques that give a good indication of whether seafoods were eaten by an individual.

The task then becomes finding human remains from this period, and there has been some success in the last decade or so.

An intriguing pattern emerges. Coastal hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic consumed large amounts of seafoods, where as the farmers of the Neolithic largely ignored this resource, even when it was on their doorstep.

Dr Schulting received his doctorate from the University of Reading in 1998 and has since had stints in Cardiff and Belfast, before moving to his current position in the University of Oxford in 2007.

Much of his research over this period has involved trying to improve our understanding of the transition to farming in northwest Europe.

Dr Rick Schulting is Lecturer in Scientific and Prehistoric Archaeology at University of Oxford

See Fish and Ships in the Origins gallery, National Museum Cardiff.
All / Free / Places limited book on arrival at the Information Desk

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=4708
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    Re: The use of seafoods in earlier prehistoric Wales,Cardiff Museum 2nd February by sem on Wednesday, 02 February 2011
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    Coldrum, many thanks for reminding me of this. I attended today and Dr Schulting had a full house. Very interesting indeed - especially the bits about recent finds on The Gower.
    The only bad point is the seating left me with a numb backside.
    Thanks again.
    Sem
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Archaeology Department to Move to St Fagans by coldrum on Saturday, 13 November 2010
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I've recently been told that the Archaeology department is to move to the museum at St Fagans. I don't know if the present items on display will be moved as well. Hopefully I will find out more information and will post it here.
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Events October/November/December 2010 by coldrum on Wednesday, 29 September 2010
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Lunchtime Talk - History Under Siege: Towards a Welsh historic battlefields register?

6 Oct 2010

There are approximately 165 known battlefield sites in Wales.

In this talk, Jonathan Berry of CADW will discuss the nature of conflict in Wales, how it differs from elsewhere in the UK and the difficulties involved in accurately defining the location and extent of battlefields on the ground.

He will also be discussing the historic documentation work that has been completed and the pilot fieldwork that both Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales will do at St Fagans and Pilleth.

The Battle of Pilleth, also known as Bryn Glas, took place near Presteigne in Powys in 1402 between the forces of Owain Glyn Dŵr and Edmund Mortimer.

Despite outnumbering the Welsh forces, the English suffered a heavy defeat and Mortimer was captured in a famous Welsh victory. Mortimer then turned against Henry IV and married Glyn Dŵr's daughter.

The Battle of St Fagans in 1648 was a pitched battle in the Second English Civil War. A detachment from the New Model Army defeated an army of former Parliamentarian soldiers who had rebelled over non-payment of wages and were now fighting against Parliament. The conflict resulted in a Parliamentarian victory.

Jonathan Berry is the Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monuments for South East Wales, where he has responsibility for scheduling and field monument casework.

He leads on 20th-century military matters for the whole of Wales and is part of the team involved with piloting project work in advance of the battlefields register public consultation later this year.

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=4364


Natural History Behind the scenes tours
27 Oct 11.30am & 2.30pm

Ever wanted to know what goes on behind the scenes of the museum? Well now you can!

See the collections held in store, book a special behind the scenes tour and meet our experts.

Tours suitable for age 8+ / tour areas not accessible for those with limited mobility
Families / Free / Places limited, book on arrival at the Information Desk


http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=4506


Lunchtime Talk: Reconstructing Iron Age Roundhouses
3 Nov 1:05pm (30 minutes)

Join us for an informative and personal account of the experiences of building Roundhouses.

Dafydd William will cover the practical requirements and methods of reconstructing Iron-Age Roundhouses, such as timber-work, roofing, and daubing.

He will also discuss the archaeological evidence for the original buildings, and the construction of his own contemporary Roundhouse. This lecture will help and inspire people to build their own!

Dafydd Wiliam graduated from Reading University's Archaeology Department with a passion for Roundhouses.

Since then he has built two of his own, and works closely with St Fagans: National History Museum, designing and building their Iron-Age structures.


http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=4551



Lunchtime Talk: Islands in a common sea - British isles in prehistory
17 Nov 1:05pm

After the last ice age in Britain, the plants, animals and people present on our group of islands changed.

Many of the six thousand and more British Isles were re-colonised from the continent. But for the more distant islands, this was not possible before sea levels rose, and these islands were only later occupied.



Read the rest of this post...
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Talk: Mesolithic archaeology of the Severn Levels, 21st October, NMW,Cardiff by bat400 on Sunday, 18 October 2009
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Submitted by coldrum ---Lunchtime Talk: Footprints through time – Mesolithic archaeology of the Severn Levels.
By Professor Martin Bell, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading.

Recent archaeological discoveries in the inter-tidal area of the Severn Estuary will be described in this talk at National Museum Cardiff. They include footprints of hunter-gatherers, who walked on the salt marshes 8000 years ago, and evidence from the excavation of their seasonal camps.

In the Bronze Age and Iron Age, there were settlements comprising rectangular wooden buildings, preserved by water-logging, and used by seasonal cattle herders. A range of other wood structures include track ways and post and hurdle alignments, thought to be fish traps.

The estuary preserves evidence of a lost prehistoric way of life, in which the plentiful resources of the Severn Estuary were exploited at times of greatest seasonal abundance, geared to the natural rhythms and cycles of the estuary.

All / Free / Places limited / Book on arrival at the Info desk.

Source: http://www.museumwales.ac.uk.
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Treasure hunter's Iron Age find by Andy B on Wednesday, 01 April 2009
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An amateur treasure hunter unearthed two Iron Age bronze bowls and a wine strainer just months after taking up metal detecting, an inquest has heard.

The rare artefacts, of "great importance for the UK," were found in Newport, south Wales, in December 2007.

It is believed the objects dating from around AD 25 were a religious offering.

The Gwent Coroner declared them treasure trove. Security guard Craig Mills, who found the bowls, said he did not "have a clue" how old they were".

The 35-year-old came across the items in the Langstone area of the city, only nine months after he took up metal detecting.

Mr Mills said: "I didn't realise how significant it was.

This discovery is of great importance for Wales and the UK.
Adam Gwilt, National Museum of Wales

"I was detecting for nine months before that and I have found nothing like it."

It is believed the objects were used for eating or drinking and were deliberately buried intact as a religious offering.

They are believed to have been made around 25-60 AD and were buried at the time of the Roman army's campaign against the Iron Age Silures tribe of south Wales, between 47 and 75 AD.

The two near-complete bowls have rounded bases, carefully formed rims and decorated fittings with rings for hanging them up and the strainer has a rounded bowl-shaped body with a wide, flat rim and a similar suspension ring.

The decoration on all the vessels is of the late Celtic or La Tene style of the late Iron Age.

Adam Gwilt, curator of the Iron Age Collections at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, said: "This discovery is of great importance for Wales and the UK.

"Similar bowls have been found in western and southern Britain, but few find-spots have been carefully and recently investigated by archaeologists.

"It seems these valued and whole containers were carefully buried at the edge of an ancient bog or lake, as part of a ritual offering.

"We are looking forward to researching and investigating further during 2009, in order to reveal the full story of how these impressive decorated pieces were made, used and buried."

The items were declared treasure by Gwent coroner David Bowen under the Treasure Act of 1996.

It is hoped they will be displayed at the Cardiff museum in 2010.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7953558.stm
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'This is my mark ... this is man', Guardian article on Rock Art in Britain by Andy B on Tuesday, 18 December 2007
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We could be a forensics team investigating a murder. Gloved hands carefully raise a human shin bone, then part of a pelvis, out of plastic trays. What sends a shiver through my spine, quite apart from the spooky walk along a dark corridor to this subterranean office at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, is the startling fact that all these fragments of a human skeleton have been painted red. It is a red just like dried blood, as if someone wanted to paint the colour of living flesh on these dry remains. If they were the remains of a modern murder victim, we'd clearly be looking for a spectacularly strange serial killer who de-fleshed his victims, then gorily coloured the bones. In fact, this young man died some 30,000 years ago.

I shudder with recognition. Recently, I stood in a cave deep inside a French hillside contemplating a human hand depicted in that exact same red - though better preserved, brighter and bloodier, deep underground. It is red ochre, a naturally occurring iron oxide and a favourite pigment of the earliest painters. These reddened bones in Cardiff are precious clues in an archaeological detective story that has only just begun.

What I am about to reveal should astonish you as it has astonished me: somewhere beneath our feet, under the fields and woodlands of Britain, a painted cave as great as the ice age art treasures of Chauvet and Lascaux may be waiting to be discovered.

This claim will be made by a museum this week, for the first time, when a new archaeology gallery opens at the National Museum of Wales. It will display this precious skeleton, Britain's oldest known human remains, misleadingly called The Red Lady of Paviland. Alongside it will be images of painted horses and lions from Chauvet, the world's oldest known painted caves, whose art has also been dated to around 30,000 years ago. (By comparison, Stonehenge is a mere 5,000 years old.) The display will ask: "Is there cave art in Wales?" Until recently, no one believed there was anything of the sort, not only in Wales but anywhere in Britain. That is, at least, until a discovery in a Midlands cave in 2003.

More in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2222695,00.html
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Re: Origins: in search of Early Wales, 7th December 2007, National Museum of Wales by Anonymous on Monday, 17 December 2007
Wales from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages will be explored in a new gallery at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, which opened on December 8 2007.

Origins: in search of early Wales, is a redeveloped display of the museum’s archaeology collection, showcasing recent discoveries and shedding new light on old treasures.

“The objects chosen for display are just a small selection of many magnificent objects discovered in Wales,” comments Dr Mark Redknap of the Department of Archaeology and Numismatics.

“Since the opening of the old galleries in the 1970s, there have been three decades of new discoveries and research, as well as advances in the way in which museums engage with their audiences.”

The most talked about exhibit is surely the Red Lady of Paviland, on loan from Oxford University Museum of Natural History for a year. The ‘Lady’ is actually the skeleton of a man and represents the oldest human remains found in Wales, dating back 29,000 years. The bones are coloured red with ochre, hence the name.

Other highlights on show include spectacular Bronze Age jewellery such as the Capel Isaf bracelets and the Burton hoard neck pendant; a Roman cup with its bronze handle formed into the shape of a leopard (from Abergavenny); and the stunning Viking sword guard found in the Small Reefs off the coast of Pembrokeshire, dating to the 12th century.

There is also the Capel Garmon firedog, a flamboyant piece of Iron Age blacksmithing, and a rare survival from the Reformation – a 13th century painted figure of Christ discovered in the rood loft of a Monmouthshire church.
Moving one of the ancient stones that once formed part of the Bryn Celli Ddu passage grave into place in the gallery was no mean feat. Bryn Celli Ddu, on Anglesey, is one of the best preserved Neolithic burial chambers of its kind, and a replica stone sits in place of the one now housed at the National Museum.

The stone is carved with zig-zags and spirals – very early Welsh art – and is shown alongside a section on early Christian monuments, which looks into rituals and burial practices.

The focus of the gallery is on people and change, and the contemporary relevance of artefacts. New specially commissioned artworks complete the display.

“The collections and their revised interpretations – rich and illuminating – help us to understand ourselves, and Wales, today,” says Dr Redknap.
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART52428.html
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Origins: in search of Early Wales, 7th December 2007, National Museum of Wales by Andy B on Thursday, 22 November 2007
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Opens 7 December 2007, National Museum Cardiff
What was life like for people living in Wales from the start of the Stone Age to the end of the Middle Ages? What was different, what changed, and why?

The newly redeveloped ‘Origins' galleries at National Museum Cardiff will offer new views on life in early Wales, and a deeper understanding of our human origins.

They will showcase recent discoveries and cast fresh light on old treasures. Highlights will include the earliest human remains from Wales, spectacular Bronze Age gold jewellery, the Roman leopard cup from Abergavenny and the stunning Viking sword guard from the Smalls Reef off the coast of Pembrokeshire. This exhibition will bring to life stories of the men and women who helped create the Wales we inhabit today.
http://www.nmgw.ac.uk/en/846/
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New RCAHMW / National Museum of Wales / CADW web site by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 January 2007
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A New website giving access to historic material spanning 250,000 years of Welsh history will be launched tomorrow.

The Historic Wales web portal will provide access to the records of The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, the National Museum Wales and Cadw.

The project's first phase, incorporating data from the National Monuments Record of Wales and the National Museum's archaeology collections, will be unveiled at a special event tomorrow.

Andy B
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Re: National Museum Card by AngieLake on Sunday, 21 November 2004
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I also visited this museum yesterday - 20th November 2004 - and was impressed by the section on high crosses.
There were about 36 replicas, and one or two originals. I was surprised at the variety in shape: overwhelmed by the height of the Carew Cross from Pembrokeshire, and the Maen Achwyfan (Stone of Cwyfan's Field) from Whitford, Flintshire, and the squat width of the 'wheel' on the huge Margam, Neath, Port Talbot cross. Two others showed how these were once decorated with colours, one of them being the large pillar and base of the Llandough, near Penarth, cross with its coloured horse and rider on the base block. A notice tells us that ancient crosses were usually limewashed and covered with pigment. Another more faint pattern was discernable on the flatter oblong of Nash Manor cross. I'd noted the name of the Llantwitt Major Church cross too.
The whole archaeology section was fascinating and to quote the leaflet: "Uncover the history of Wales from our prehistoric ancestors to stories of invasion and conquest. Every day objects from domestic life sit alongside highly decorative jewellery and artefacts to tell the tales of our forefathers, and explore their links with the present day."
I had gone to see the original 'pattern' stone from Bryn Celli Ddu, and was also rewarded by a better understanding of the tomb itself by studying the 3-D model of the site which showed the stages of building from a circle to a huge tomb mound that filled it, and then to the way it looks today, where the mound only stretches from one arc, to the centre of the original circle. It shows the position of the pit with the pattern stone buried in it, along with another stone, and also the ox burial site near the entrance. Very illuminating!
Displays in cabinets showed artefacts gleaned from other sites, including a favourite of mine - Tinkinswood. A drawing showed how this severn-cotswold tomb would have looked originally, and put the pit behind the capstone into perspective. Similarly, with a drawing of the layout of Dyffryn Ardudwy - I was kept busy, sketching all these on my museum guide!
Amongst the treasures (most often hidden when the Romans invaded) were the Tal y Llyn Hoard, (remains of a beautiful shield was one artefact) found buried under a large boulder on Cadair Idris, Merrionnydd; the Llyn Fawr Hoard; the Seven Sisters, W.Glamorgan; The Llyn Cerrig Bach Crescent, and the Cerrigydrudion 'crown', one of the most important pieces of early Celtic art in Britain. But what I'd hoped to see - the Mold Cape, an amazing golden ceremonial work of art - was not on display.
Amongst the jewellery was the Oxwich brooch, looking like a small round bracelet, set with alternate rubies, and cameos cut from chalcedony. Many pieces were made from gold mined in Wales.
One enlightening moment for me, that set me wondering about a site I've recently posted on Meg Portal, was a display above the cabinets, showing habitation in early round huts, and the post setting of an Iron Age hut (at least I think it was Iron Age!! - didn't make notes!) The positions of the black dots denoting its posts were in the same pattern as the original wooden posts of the 'Wooden Circle' at Bleasdale in Lancashire (albeit, those 'doorway' posts straddled the ditch surrounding the circle). How many times must I have seen such a diagram before, but not queried that?! I guess the notice board at Bleasdale is so convincing that it was a circle, not a round house, and it must have been investigated as such.
In the art section I noticed a picture with a ruined stone circle in it, so made these notes:
It is titled 'The Bard', and painted in 1774 by Thomas Jones (1742 - 1803). It shows a 'druid' type figure in a Welsh landscape, and was based on legendary tales of Edward I's massacre of the Welsh Bards and the curse of the last survivor, who hurled himself off a cliff top to his death. The circle of stones was inspired by Stonehenge, which Jones visited in 1769.
Finally, one of the most impo

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Re: National Museum Card by TheCaptain on Tuesday, 13 July 2004
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Went to Cardiff museum over the weekend to see the Buried Treasure exhibition - fantastic. Well worth some of anybodies time. Ends September.

But while there looked in to the archaeology bit of the regular museum, which was very good also, and includes pictures of Gwernvale, Ty Isaf and other monuments before their destruction.

Too much stuff to take in at once, so will have to go back sometime.

Admission was free by the way.
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