restored from 19/12/2019Bone and antler has been used from the start of prehistory up to the modern day for making tools & ornamentation.
People in prehistory had a close relationship with the animals these resources came from - what does that tell us about the past?
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restored from 17/12/2019Berrycroft Hub has been a filming location for several archaeology projects & you may see some of us in various museum educational videos around the UK & Ireland. Now James Dilley has brought some of the Hubs tutors together to form AncientMedia.
This is a group of professionals who specialise in providing media companies with craft & living history demos, consultation, props & costume. The team is presently made up of Dr. James Dilley, Graham Taylor, Sally Pointer and Gareth Riseborough & Sally-Ann Spence. Check them out over at AncientMediaUK to see what brilliant projects they all are currently involved in... restored from 17/12/2019We host many research & study projects at Berrycroft Hub. One of these is the West Oxfordshire Farmland Bird Project who are collecting data & working with us on the farm here. We’ve been surveying species, supplementary feeding, nest monitoring, installing nest boxes, maintaining seed/cover crops & field margins for farmland birds. (Nearly 70% of farmland bird species are ground nesting). The project has been focussing on four particular key farmland species, Tree Sparrow, Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer & Skylark. A big part of the surveying is ringing the birds to enable us to collect individual data. Come & join us on Sunday 22nd December at Berrycroft Hub as we carry out a public bird ringing demonstration to show what we do as part of these surveys & to enable us to show you some of the birds up close. During this event we will be catching birds under license in the Berrycroft farmyard & Hub garden with special mist nets that cause no harm to the bird. Then we will be tagging each bird with an individually numbered metal ring whilst taking biometric measurements that enable us to assess the birds’ health. We then release them back out into the wild. This will also be an amazing opportunity to discover more about the birds in your own gardens. restored from 17/12/2019It’s been an office & admin day today. Harry the jackdaw has made himself very useful by collecting all the A4 paper punch rings up whilst we do the filing.
If like us you’re a bit of a bird fan - keep an eye out for our next post about this Sunday (22nd December) here at Berrycroft Hub... restored from 16/12/2019Wow - we had an awesome workshop with our experimental archaeologist & historical crafts people Sally Pointer and Gareth Riseborough on Sunday!
They were tutoring the prehistoric beads & pendants workshop working with lumps of Baltic Amber, ingots of tin, nodules of jet-like shale, baskets of shells, boxes of teeth & bone. We had a really fun group that rolled up their sleeves & got to work to produce some really beautiful necklaces. To inspire them & increase their knowledge both Sally & Gareth presented a contextual talk on what we know about beads & pendants in prehistory from archaeological evidence. Gold featured of course - a burial at Varna, with some of the world's oldest gold jewellery, dating back to 4,600 - 4,200 BC included what is thought to have been a gold penis sheath. (A case of if you’ve got it, flaunt it we’re guessing!) restored from 15/12/2019It’s cold outside but warm & welcoming inside with gallons of hot tea & coffee ready to start the day!
We have experimental archaeologists & crafts people Sally Pointer and Gareth Riseborough here this morning setting up for their prehistoric bead & pendants workshop in our indoor classroom. restored from 13/12/2019We had an amazingly festive evening at Berrycroft Hub last night with historian Sally Pointer presenting our Christmas lecture on the origins of the smells we associated with midwinter.
We learnt about the customs & traditions that have been adapted over time to what we embrace today. Then whilst getting chance to smell samples, we began to appreciate the locations and lengths people went to to gather these herbs, spices & resins throughout history. Sally was a fantastically engaging speaker & the hour flew by! This was followed by the chance to make a pomander or a scented sachet whilst enjoying another mulled wine & continuing discussions. Everyone left clutching their ‘festive smelly’ feeling very Christmassy indeed! restored from 13/12/2019The mulled wine is warm, the fairy lights are sparkling & the mince pies are ready - we’re all set up for Berrycroft Hub’s very own Christmas lecture this evening.
This year we have archaeologist & historian Sally Pointer talking about seasonal scents & the smells we associate with midwinter. restored from 13/12/2019Busy morning of soap & washball making with the excellent Sally Pointer today. Everyone delighted with what they’ve made & Berrycroft Hub’s classroom now smells amazing too!
We’re now wondering, after all that hard work, how many will actually go as Christmas presents & how many will really be snuffled away for well deserved personal pampering... |
AuthorPosts by Sally-Ann Spence, see: HUB FOUNDER ArchivesCategories |