This has been quite an exciting week in some respects. A few weeks ago I received an invitation to the launch of ‘Equus: the Horse at War’, at the National Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon. This, I’m pleased to say, is not that rare an occurrence. A fringe benefit of still being in academia is that invites to this sort of thing do indeed drop through the door from time to time. What made this exciting, and somewhat unusual, was this was the very first thing I’ve been invited to as a ‘Dr’. Now I’ve bits and pieces in the mail with the title prefixing my name, and that has been cool, but to receive an official invitation with the title and name together was quite special.
Anyway, that is somewhat irrelevant. What I wanted to do was draw attention to the new exhibition currently on display in the National Roman Legion Museum, which brings the First World War into a Roman context. Now, I have no shame in saying that I am in the camp which is a little fed up with such themes in museums. Plenty of other authors have drawn attention to the somewhat overwhelming nature of commemorative war exhibitions elsewhere. Still, it is a fair criticism to note that there are a lot of these doing the rounds, with limited variety in terms of exhibition theme and content. This, mercifully, is where ‘Equus’ succeeds. ‘Equus’ is one of a series of exhibitions that will be rolled out across all branches of the National Museum Wales in the coming months, to engage with the First World War narrative. Some, such as Big Pit’s ‘When Dai became Tommy’, make more obvious connections, telling the story of war time tunnellers coming from a mining background. ‘Equus’, of course, has a greater challenge, connecting war time engagements separated by some two thousand years. The exhibition team have approached this through the use of recent archaeological discoveries, namely the identification of what is thought to be horse armour. Now, the launch team were quick to stress that this is not a definitive/final interpretation, but decorative armour to cover a horse’s head would appear to be a best fit at this point in analysis. Either way, the horse armour analysis sets up an exhibition which contrasts the use of horses in the Roman military war machine, with the strong presence of horses on First World War battlefields. It makes for an engaging and at times, quite moving exhibition. As is often the case with temporary exhibitions in the National Roman Legion Museum, space is at a premium, tucked away behind the entrance/shop area. Hopefully when the full scale redevelopment of the museum takes place in a couple of years time, more floor/wall space will be afforded to temporary exhibitions. As it is, this is still highly successful for the tight confines allowed for in the exhibition space. The key thing here is that this is a refreshing way of engaging with a highly recycled concept – and a concept which will be recycled many, many more times in the coming years. ‘Equus’ succeeds in delivering an engaging narrative in a very small space, something the team in Caerleon have a great track record on. Well worth a look, ‘Equus’ will be on display through to January 2015. The only disappointment, is that the bucking bronco used for the launch won’t be there; there are few opportunities in life to see a legionary soldier being thrown off of a mechanical horse, and the launch event was a triumph for that reason alone, if nothing else!
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Just helping to promote this event, taking place in Newport Museum later this week
‘Making Chartist Banners’ Thursday 19th June 10.00 – 14.30 at Newport Museum & Art Gallery FREE WORKSHOP – sponsored by NIACE ‘Adult Learners Week’ led by Christabel Gilbert - regional co-ordinator of the Quilters Guild Get ideas to design your own community/school Chartist Banner Have a go! Try some of the techniques See how Christabel is ‘re-creating’ the Newport Banner (1841) Learn the techniques she is using Find out how the needle workers of 1841 tackled the task - What materials? Colours? - What kind of Lettering? Images? Who, What and When were the Chartists? Find out about Chartist visual culture A limited number of places are available Apply at Museum Reception Desk or CONTACT: [email protected] Tel: 029 20613359 IT’s FREE!! That time of year has crept around once more, and we are in the final stages of preparations for our third crack at the archaeological excavations in Llanfihangel Tor y Mynydd. We have been tremendously fortunate with our excavation results over the last year, and have unearthed buildings which have challenged our expectations. When we first broke ground on this site in the summer of 2013, we could never have expected the scale and complexity of what we would be confronted with. Frankly, we probably were not really expecting, when we first planned the excavation, to be going to back to the site twice, let alone a third time. Not that we are complaining, the 'farm' buildings at Llanfihangel Tor y Mynydd have been incredibly rewarding structures to excavate, and I for one can't wait to get back into the site.
As with our past three excavations, we apply a pretty laid back and open approach to participation. A joint effort between Cyfarwydd and the South Wales Centre for Historical and Interdisciplinary Research, we've always applied a policy that encourages participation, regardless of experience. So, with that in mind, whether you have past experience or not, and whether you have dug with us in the past or not, do feel free to get in touch about joining in. We will be excavating from the 8th to the 18th of July, a nice two week stretch to try and finish off our 'big building', complete with bread ovens and possible furnaces, once and for all! If you are interested in joining in, please contact us through one of the following ways: via email: [email protected] or [email protected] via twitter: https://twitter.com/Kasuutta, https://twitter.com/CyfarwyddDigs, or https://twitter.com/heritagetales. |
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