Tag: archaeology
The Cambrian Archaeological Association in the 19th century
The first society in Wales devoted to the study of archaeology, the Cambrian Archaeological Association, was founded in 1847, largely through the efforts of two Welsh clergymen, Rev. Harry Longueville Jones (1806-1870) and Rev. John Williams, ‘Ab Ithel’ (1811-1862). Longueville Jones, London-born and not a Welsh speaker, had led a varied life: he was educated […]
Eagle
In summer 1972 I made two happy discoveries within the Roman fortress that had occupied the centre of Exeter. One of them was human. That encounter changed my life for good. The other was inanimate. Its impact on me wasn’t as great, but it did earn a small place in the history of research on […]
In praise of Kathleen Jamie
The half of me that’s Scots lies buried, and usually dormant. It comes to life when visiting Scotland. But since my parents died, there’s less obvious reason to go, and we’ve not been there for a few years. Sometimes I daydream about moving to live in a newly independent Scotland, released from bonehead, vicious British […]
The Monmouthshire and Caerleon Antiquarian Association
1 Origins and foundations The first local archaeological society in Wales, the Caerleon Antiquarian Association, was founded on 28th October 1847. It owed its existence largely to the efforts of one man, John Edward Lee (1). Born in Hull in 1808, Lee worked from the age of sixteen in his uncles’ shipping office, but […]
Gerhard Bersu and ‘hostile environments’
As I was wandering round the Manx Museum in Douglas last week – it’s a first-class museum with imaginative displays and zero dumbing-down – a name sprang out of one of the panels in the section on Manx prehistory that took me straight back to my student archaeology days. The name was that of Gerhard […]
The Powysland Club: its origin and early development
1 Foundation The first county archaeological society in Wales was the Caerleon Antiquarian Association, founded in 1847 and renamed the Monmouthshire and Caerleon Antiquarian Association in 1857. It was twenty years before a second local archaeological society in Wales was founded, in 1867. The gap is puzzling, especially when one considers that this period […]
Nicholas Roerich: archaeology and ‘The Rite of Spring’
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales’s concert on Friday in the Brangwyn Hall had a well-matched programme: Stravinsky’s The rite of spring, preceded by Prokofiev’s Scythian suite and Ravel’s piano concerto in G major. All are brilliant works, written within twenty years of one another, and all feature the strongest of rhythms and cross-rhythms. Prokofiev […]
An archaeological nightmare
In my experience – and I confess I haven’t lifted a trowel in anger for over forty years – archaeological digs bring nothing but lasting pleasure. For some, though, it’s obviously a different story. Quite recently a friend alerted me to the writings of Sarah Moss. Her speciality, in fiction and in books of travel, […]
Ar y Mynydd Du
Golygfa ddu yw hi, o bob cyfeiriad, does dim dwywaith. O’r A48, er engraifft, wrth ichi yrru o Gaerfyrddin tua Cross Hands, mae’n anodd osgoi edrych draw, am eiliad o leiaf, i’r wal dywyll, fygythiol o fryniau sy’n ymestyn ar y gorwel yn y dwyrain – ymyl gorllewinol y Mynydd Du. ‘Du’ mewn ffordd arall […]