Practicing Prehistoric Skills at Barrowburn

On a cold, clear day in December, visitors to Barrowburn, high in the Coquet valley, could be forgiven for thinking they had stepped back in time, as the National Park camping barn hosted a prehistoric skills day. At first light, small bonfires were lit ready for a Bronze Age style pottery firing, whilst inside flintknapper John Lord and his wife Val donned outfits of furs and animal hide.

As visitors began to arrive, potter Graham Taylor, of Crown Studio, Elsdon, began the process of firing pots made by people on the Prehistoric Pottery course at Rothbury Middle School earlier in the year. The Bronze Age style vessels, beakers and cooking pots, had been drying out to become hard and brittle, and were placed in the embers at the edge of the fire before being pushed slowly to the centre, eventually glowing white hot. By the end of the day, the pots were fired and, with the bonfires dying out, the pots were removed; most had survived the process well, with only a few cracks.

John Lord spent the day demonstrating the ancient art of flintknapping to visitors, showing how flint can be struck and worked to create axes, spearheads, and arrowheads. This skill, used daily by our prehistoric ancestors, is lost to most of us today, and it was amazing to see exactly how tools were made in times past. Val Lord showed off other prehistoric skills, including the use of a bow drill, which was tried out by visitors to various degrees of success!

Inspired by Archaeology

Over 50 people were able to take part in the community excavation at Harehaugh this summer, and many thoroughly enjoyed taking part in a dig for the first time.  Some would even say they were inspired by the experience…

'Exposure'

Old stones and bones among the heathered hummocks
Remains of people, much like you and me
Who carved their piece of time in this wild landscape
And called it home.
We naively trowel your remnants and sacred spaces
Exposing your bare earth, layer by layer
Hoping for echoes of your time held stories
And grow sullen when you do not speak
We systematically seek to bare you of your secrets
Promising to restore you, cleaned and chronicled
Once we have touched all your timewashed fragments
And I cannot help feeling an intruder
Exciting in your exposure
Like uninvited guests at a funeral.

Valerie Apted, August 2005