This coin, found recently near St Donats by Ron Sanders, is thought to be a penny of William I of Scotland, ‘the Lion’ (1165-1214 AD), belonging to Phase B of the Short Cross issue which covers the last years of William’s reign and the posthumous period when Scotland was ruled by William’s son, Alexander III (1214-1249 AD).

William ‘the Lion’ was so called not for his valour, but for replacing the dragon on the arms of Scotland by the lion rampant.

Scottish hammered silver does occur occasionally in South Wales; this is the earliest such example. The reverse is inscribed HVE WALTER, indicating that this coin was minted at Edinburgh or Perth by moneyers Hue (Edinburgh) and Walter (Perth) working jointly.

This Anglo-Saxon brooch from Port Eynon was found with the aid of a metal detector by Ron Sanders, a member of the Swansea Metal Detecting Club, in the bay at Port Eynon, Gower. It is a example, complete with pin, of a penannular brooch with flattened terminals, belonging to Fowler’s Type G which is datable to the 7th-8th century AD.

It can be parallelled with other small native penannular brooches from south west Wales;examples have been found at Tenby and from Linley Burrows, Gower. A brooch of this type was excavated by GGAT at Hen Gastell, a native castle now obliterated by the M4 bridge over the River Neath, in the 1980s, and recently another very small example was recovered from Swansea foreshore by Gary May, another member of the Swansea Metal Detecting Club.

Penannular brooch, Port Eynon, Gower

Two more Church guides have been added to the ‘Open Doors’ page on the GGAT website in preparation for this months event.

Why not visit the website and download a guide for your area.

Although some of our ancient parish churches are always open, this is not possible for all. Over the last few years, the Church in Wales has been encouraging parishes to take part in the Open Doors events co-ordinated every September by the Civic Trust for Wales . It has its own Open Doors Day on 19th September, and has set up the Churches Tourism Network Wales website where parishes can provide details of when their churches are open to the public.

The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust, with the support of Cadw, has been working with the dioceses in our area – Llandaff, Monmouth, and Swansea & Brecon – to promote the churches that will be opened to the public in September.

The Trust has produced a series of leaflets to help you plan your church crawl, however, if you’re wondering how you are going to visit all of the churches in three dioceses in one day don’t worry, as not all the churches will be opened on 19th – some are open instead (or additionally) on other weekends, giving you more time to explore this rich heritage.

Visit http://www.ggat.org.uk/news/news.html to download a pdf version of the Churches to visit in northern Gwent leaflet.

The Trust’s contributions to the Festival of British Archaeology 2009 started with a bang on Saturday 18th July. The Festival is a rebranding of the National Archaeology Week organised by the CBA, which extends this year over two weeks, hence the change in name. However, the only change to our highly popular collaboration with Swansea Museum was that it was bigger and better. We were incredibly lucky with the weather – it didn’t rain once – so the events in the museum garden were able to proceed with a swing. These events were planned with children in mind, but the grown-ups seemed to enjoy them just as much! In the east garden, on the corner with Burrows Place, members of the medieval re-enactment group Meibion y Ddraig were joined by Charles Ferris of the Friends of the Newport Ship who did a roaring business with his medieval mint.

The children’s mystery excavation took place in the Trust’s new tent, which had been set up in the more difficult to find west garden. Sculptor Susanna Ciccotti (head of the Trust’s Illustration Department in the 1990s) had brought her facial reconstruction of a Neanderthal man and explained to visitors how it was produced, before the children tried their hand at modelling their own Neanderthal heads. A new twist on an old favourite was the prehistoric pottery making, which was done as a living history event with the Trust’s Paul Huckfield dressed up as a Bronze Age potter guiding the children through making their own Bronze Age style pots and explaining why all his tools and other paraphernalia were made from wood, stone and basketry. We are grateful to Alan of Systembox, Port Talbot, who supplied the clay for this activity free of charge. Edith Evans’s Roman cookery demonstration included workshops for children to recreate a Roman recipe. We also brought back the do-it-yourself wattle and daub that had been so popular two years ago.

Inside, the Trust provided the usual opportunities to consult the HER and have their finds identified, along with an exhibition which featured the Oystermouth Castle community excavation. Andy Sherman, one of the dig’s directors, was on hand to talk about it and answer questions. The Friends of Oystermouth Castle also had their own stall. Other stalls and exhibitions were provided by were Aberavon Historical Friends, the Friends of the Newport Ship, Gower AONB, Swansea Bay 1940s Museum, Swansea Metal Detecting Club (also featuring detectorist Ron Saunders’ fine collection of flints), Swansea University Extramural Department, West Glamorgan Archive Service and West Glamorgan Family History Group. Talks were given by Gerald Gabb of the museum and Neil Maylan of the Trust. Refreshments were provided by members of the Royal Institution of South Wales. And wandering around was a 1940s Local Defence Volunteer with his bag of tools, checking for gas leaks after air raids.

The official visitor figure for the museum for the day was 1370, a very impressive total. We would like to say a big thank-you to all those who gave up their time to take part. This includes Penny Webb who greeted visitors to the event in medieval costume and made sure they new where everything was, and Nathan, Sam and Steffan who had been on work experience with the Trust the previous week and couldn’t keep away!

The Annual GGAT Archaeological Extravaganza takes place this Saturday 18th July from 10.30am-4pm at Swansea Musuem, Victoria Road, Swansea, and kicks off GGATs part in the ‘Festival of British Archaeology‘ a 16-day Festival, organised by The Council for British Archaeology.

The aim of this annual event is to encourage everyone, especially young people and their families to visit sites of archaeological/historical interest or museums, heritage and resource centres, to see archaeology in action and to take part in activities on-site. This is a chance for the people of Swansea and its surroundings to find out about their heritage and archaeology of the region.

There will be something for all on the day:

• Roman cookery
• Mystery excavation
• Prehistoric pottery
• Medieval archers
• Meet a coal miner
• Recreate a face from the past

And lots more! So come along and dig in!!

Also, have you ever found an old coin, a piece of worked stone, a metal object or a piece of pottery, and ever wondered what it was? Maybe you found it in your garden, on a beach or while out walking.

Why not bring them along as we will be running an archaeological finds identification roadshow, as all archaeological finds – though initially they might seem unimportant – have the potential to advance archaeological knowledge.

For more information contact: Roger Gale at Swansea Museum or Caroline Thomas at curatorial@ggat.org.uk

A post-medieval pipe bowl and shank, originally excavated during coal removal in the Ffos y fran opencast, Merthyr Tydfill and transported with the coal to the mixing and grading depot where it was spotted by a sharp-eyed worker.

If you go down to the community excavation today you’re sure of a big surprise- strange bar codes are popping up all around the site!

These two-dimensional bar codes are being pioneered by the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust, who are using this new mobile phone technology as part of their outreach initiative at the Oystermouth Castle community excavation. The codes provide the public with location-specific web-hosted audio guides and links so that visitors can view current finds and hear current audio news, and it is hoped in the future, video footage of the excavation.

The bar codes, known as QR codes – QR stands for “Quick Response” – are common in Japan, where they are currently the most popular type of two-dimensional codes. Most current Japanese mobile phones can read this code with their camera. QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that users might need information about.

How does it work?

Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone’s browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL.

For more information on QR codes visit Wikipedia

If your phone does not possess a QR reader there are numerous free readers to download on the web.

In March 2009 the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust’s Projects Division recorded a short section of hurdle trackway, which had eroded out of the marine clay on the Swansea foreshore.  The site was initially located by Brian Price, a member of the Swansea Metal Detecting Club, who reported his discovery to the Trust’s Portable Antiquities Recording Officer.

The hurdle panel, which formed the trackway, was woven from narrow branches of oak and alder, identified by Astrid Caseldine and Catherine Griffiths of the University of Wales, Lampeter.  A simple oak peg had been driven through the hurdle panel into the underlying ground surface to hold the trackway securely in place.  The entire structure was covered in a thin layer of brushwood to provide a level walking-surface.  A single sample from the trackway was sent to the Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Laboratory in Florida for AMS dating; and was dated to the early Bronze Age (Cal BC 2140 to 1930 (Cal BP 4090 to 3880) with a 2 Sigma Calibration (Beta: 257022)).

During the early Bronze Age the climate was drier and warmer than today and the sea level was significantly lower.  The trackway was therefore probably built through a wet, marshy environment.  Because it has been eroded by the tide it is impossible to tell whether the entire trackway was composed of hurdles, or whether occasional hurdles were laid to cross particularly wet patches of ground.

Plan of exposed section of Early Bronze Age hurdle

The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust, in association with the Friends of Oystermouth Castle, Swansea City Council and Swansea University, will be carrying out a dig in the grounds of Oystermouth Castle between 29th June and 17th July this year (including Saturdays and Sundays), and there will be the opportunity for you to join in.

We will be excavating outside the west tower, looking for the outer wall and the ditch, and on the Knoll, to see what’s there (a geophysical survey commissioned by the Friends suggests that there are walls).

We are looking for volunteers to come and work on the project. You could learn how to excavate, how to record what we discover, or how to deal with the objects that we find. Just download and fill in the application forms and we will fit you into the programme. Volunteers will need to be 18+ to work on the site, but under-18s are welcome to join in the finds work.

If that sounds too strenuous, you are welcome to come and see what we find. Guided tours will be arranged throughout the dig so you can keep abreast of the discoveries.

Booking is essential if you want to volunteer (send in your forms to reach us by 15th June). If you just want to see what’s happening you can turn up at any time for the next tour.

Visit the Oystermouth Castle Excavation page on the GGAT website to download an application form.