The Bog Blog: Part IV

Much to everyone’s delight, the seat has now been sanded! The aesthetic result has been remarkable and, as each new piece is finished the more 'convenient' the convenience is looking... The footboard has been reinforced and the back of the seat tidied up, whilst the adjoining villa wall, artfully finished by the master masons, has been spurring the slaves on.We even managed to get the Master Masons to try the new and improved seats and they were impressed with the results: no splinters!Inevitably, the Slaves were getting bored and started playing games on the toilet seat as well, preferring the Roman game Latrunculi to work. When asked to explain the rules, they suggested it is like a combination of checkers and chess. They made gaming counters from redundant ceramic building material from nearby Fishbourne Palace. Half the counters were covered in charcoal to distinguish between the two players.That’s everything so far!From, the loveable slaves at Butser Ancient FarmCatch up with the rest of the Bog Blog here:The Bog Blog: Part IIIThe Bog Blog: Part IIThe Bog Blog: Part I

The Bog Blog: Part III

The construction of the great Roman Bog is taking its toll on the slaves. This September a fresh pair were newly acquired and set to work, taking over where the previous slaves left off.(‘Wham bam thank you mam half a toilet constructed when we take over’, remarked one slave.)Their first task was to mix up a gauge of lime mortar and apply this to the inside of the latrine, partly to tart up the bits that no one sees (!), but more importantly to ensure a smooth exit…The side walls were built up to support the substantial oak seat and an attempt was made to secure the foot rest but a slave stepped on it and it came off again. More work needed! More successful was the installation of the flushing system:A number of unofficial tests have been carried out in recent days by the slaves and persons unknown. The flushing system was put through its paces with a slosh of water and ‘woo!’, it worked brilliantly. More circumspect was, well, see for yourself:The oak has now been measured and cut to the appropriate size and work has commenced on cutting out holes for the toilet seat: two 9” diameter thrones and a 6” baby seat.The slaves have promised they will not forget to sand down any splinters.

Mullein for Moths

This morning we were happy to escape the office and work outside on a project with Fiona Haynes, Conservation Officer from Butterfly Conservation. Butser is in the South Downs National Park, and due to the surrounding farms restricting their use of pesticides, we have lots of cool species that make their home here. One of these is the rare striped lychnis moth (Shargacucullia lychnitis) which only feeds on the flowers of dark mullein (Verbascum nigrum).After discovering a few striped lychnis caterpillars in the summer, Fiona asked if we wouldn’t mind distributing the mullein plants further to make the farm into a local stronghold for the moth. A nationally scarce species, they are on the UK BAP (Biodiversity Action Plan) priority list with declining populations, mainly due to loss of habitat. They can only be found in West Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, where dark mullein grows on disturbed, low-nutrient ground.We first collected seeds from the mullein flowers that already grow here. Some were still in flower, but the majority could be shaken into a bag to release their tiny children. Most were growing in our pig paddock, where the pigs spend all summer uprooting the ground, spreading seeds and trampling them into the soil to germinate. For this reason, pigs are sometimes used for woodland management, where they remove larger competitive plants and help make room for wildflowers.Once the seeds were collected, we found new spaces to plant them around the site. As we’re open to the public and schoolchildren, we do usually strim long patches of grass to keep the place safe and tidy. To combat this, we marked on a map where we’ve planted to ensure we leave these areas longer before cutting back, allowing them time to drop their seeds and regenerate. We used mattocks and trowels to clear little patches in the ground, drizzled the seeds over and stamped them in with our boots.Hopefully, this will bring a little boost to the mullein flowers that tend to pop up across the farm! Next spring I’ll be setting up a moth trap to see if we can find a striped lychnis hanging around, although they are extremely rare to find. They are also very brown and I’m terrible at moth ID, but we must all seek to improve ourselves! A lovely morning out of the office in the autumn sunshine - with Fiona's lovely dogs! You can find more on the striped lychnis moth at Butterfly Conservation here.

Farewell to the Butser Roman Summer!

It's back-to-school week! Our autumn term is already full to the brim with children coming to learn about prehistoric life, and we can't wait!

 

For now, we'd like to thank everyone who visited Butser over the holiday and made our Roman Summer such a fantastic event. We've uploaded our favourite selection of photos below, all taken by our BRILLIANT volunteer Eleanor.

 

Next year's summer is already being planned, and we have loads of other great events for half term, Christmas and next spring. See you again soon!

Mary's Villa Blog: Villa Near Completion!

The Roman villa has been shut off all summer, cocooned within a metal fence.  The sounds of hammers, saws and working men wafted intermittently through the open windows. Now and again the sound of a concrete mixer turning, maybe the odd mechanical tool and the radio gently playing. Visitors may have witnessed deliveries of wood, sand, lime plaster and, in the middle of August, the return of the sandblaster!The villa is undergoing awesome alterations, and will emerge transformed in September.Duncan Morrison and his team, brothers Matt and Phil, have worked tirelessly since June.  They have built a staircase and mezzanine barrier; widened unforgiving flint doorways for wheelchair access; raised a ceiling; built all the walls up to the roof; dug out forty tonnes of mud floor and replaced this on their hands and knees with mountains of opus signinum (Roman concrete) to level the floors.  Recently they have been seen perched on the roof in the sunshine mending the ridge tiles.Chris Allen and his team from Emsworth Plastering have laboriously lined the walls with thousands of oak lathes adorned with three coats of lime plaster of different consistencies.  The final, glassy coat creates a luxuriously cool, sophisticated air to the rooms and feels so Roman!In the middle of August, John of Airstrip Ltd, returned to blast the front of the villa with his lethal force of sand, to remove the lime coating and make it ready for plastering.As the summer draws to a close and autumn hovers on the skyline, children will be getting ready to return to school.  The villa will be ready and waiting for those lucky enough to be coming on a Butser trip!

The Winners are Announced!

Yesterday we had a fantastic time at our Glorious Games & Gladiators event - thank you so much to everyone for coming! There will be more photos from this event coming soon.We also announced the winners of our Art & Poetry Competition on the theme of 'Roman Life', which was held throughout August for young visitors to enter. We had such an amazing variety of entries, and our judge Caroline Lawrence (bestselling author of the Roman Mysteries series) joined us yesterday to announce the winners:Art CategoryWinner: Holly HilditchRunner Up: Celeste WaltonPoetry CategoryWinner: Kitty LangdonRunner Up: Felicity EldridgeCaroline was delighted with the quality of entries and said that they all deserved to win, but the final winners really did shine above the others. Congratulations! For everyone else who entered, Caroline would love to give you each a signed copy of one of her bestselling Roman Mysteries books - we have emailed you all with details on how to claim these.Many thanks to Caroline for spending the day with us and judging our fantastic entries, which you can find below. Enjoy!Poetry Winner - Kitty LangdonPoetry Runner Up - Felicity EldridgeOther EntriesAlice Mae DibbAmrita May SinghCallum LeamoreDaniel PooleDexter WylesEva FitzgeraldFinn RobartsIsla EldridgeJasper SimmonsMatthew PooleNoah WylesPenelope WaltonSofia JamesTheo LeonardThomas Mayer

Revisiting the Roman Onager

A piece on the onager experiment by students Hannah Rock and Lewis Beck:We are archaeology students from Cardiff University, undertaking a month’s fieldwork placement at Butser Ancient Farm. The farm is well known as a site for conducting experimental archaeology.As part of the national Day of Archaeology, the farm organised a ‘Try it Day’, where members of the public could participate in a variety of activities ranging from wattle fencing to stone baking bread. Our activity was to build and test a functional Roman style onager, rectifying the problems found in our first attempt.The onager, named after its donkey-like kick when it fires, is a siege engine developed in ancient Greece and later adopted by the Romans, which sources its power entirely through torsion. The basic framework for the onager is constructed from 4”x4” timber around a 48” x 27” frame with a 46” arm.The site’s original onager, which measures an approximate 10ft in height, faced two key issues surrounding both its ease of use and capability. Firstly, as the rope bundle would not hold high torsion, the siege engine would not fire particularly far in proportion to its large size. Secondly, those who used the original onager faced tremendous trouble cocking it to fire effectively.  To conquer the torsion issue, pins would need to be installed to secure the torsion rods in place and prevent the bundle slipping. Furthermore, to amend the struggle of cocking the firing arm, a ratchet system would be installed to crank back the firing arm which would then be fired using a pin on the end of a string.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6jmr_u83swEven though we faced a fair few bumps during the construction of the onager, we managed to construct it just in time to fire on Try it Day! The catapult was set up, we were all dressed up, and the rotten apples were just waiting to be fired. However, there was one problem we were unprepared for; the sheer popularity of the onager amongst the kids. The system worked, firing time and time again in succession, achieving a greater distance each time as the torsion was further racked up. Then disaster struck, in the form of a child cracking the dowel on the firing mechanism. Halted for two hours, we scrambled to find an alternative but safe firing mechanism which would still let the children participate. As the sky broke and heavens opened, we settled for cocking the arm by hand and pinning it through two eyes screwed into the frame of the onager. Regardless of the rain, the children kept in high spirits and carried on participating. Interestingly, the rain aided us in our efforts by lubricating the bundle and dowels, in turn allowing torsion to be again increased, flinging apples further and further until it reached the end of the paddock.Overall, the project was a success and proved popular amongst kids of all ages, successfully introducing them to what you might term ‘experiential’ archaeology. Furthermore, once the dowel on the cocking mechanism is replaced, we aim to conduct some experimentation around the firing of the onager – testing different lengths of sling, and subsequently different firing arcs, to see which is deemed the most effective and efficient method of catapulting projectiles.

Welcome to the Butser Roman Summer!

The Butser Roman Summer kicked off with a bang this week, as we celebrated our first Toga Tuesday exploring the Roman home and kitchen. Visitors were able to taste real Roman food from our cook Janet and have a go at Roman chores using only materials available at the time, such as polishing silver and washing clothes. They also made their own clay oil lamps, herbal soap, bristle brushes, wooden pendants and much more.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our first Toga Tuesday - it was fantastic! The Roman Summer continues next Tuesday 8 August with our Weapons & Wardrobe day, where you can dress up as a Roman and hold real Roman weapons. We are open 10am - 5pm and standard entrance rates apply of £8 adult/£7 concession/£4 child/Under fives free. See you there!

All photos taken by our fantastic volunteer Eleanor Sopwith.