Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans filmed at Butser!

We’re thrilled to share our involvement as a key filming location in the recently released Horrible Histories Movie!

Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans is set amongst the clash of cultures between native britons and the invading Romans! Our Iron Age Roundhouse and enclosure and Roman Villa became sets for key scenes in the film and we were delighted to be featured so prominently in the movie!

Our English goats, sheep, pigs and event staff member Will all got in on the Hollywood action too!

Here is a description about the film and some photos (c) Nick Wall

Who are the Celts? What have the Romans ever done for us? And why is Emperor Nero dousing himself in horse wee?

 Friends, Romans, Celts… Lend us your ears. The all-conquering Romans rule the civilised world – and that includes “the stain” that is Britain. While the young Emperor Nero must battle his scheming mother Agrippina for ultimate power, Celt queen Boudicca gathers an army in Britain to repel the rotten Romans. Mixed up in this battle for liberation are the teenage Atti, a reluctant Roman soldier, and Orla, a young Celt with dreams of becoming a warrior like Boudicca. Will they fall on opposite sides or forge a friendship in the chaos of Celtic-inspired rebellion?

HORRIBLE HISTORIES: THE MOVIE - ROTTEN ROMANS is in cinemas July 26.

Summer intern blog - settling in

’ll start by introducing myself – I’m Dan, one half of the pair of interns from University College Dublin that’s working at Butser for a month as part of my degree. Last week’s entry was from my fellow intern, Martha.

Writing this at the end of our second week feels crazy, since it feels like we’ve just arrived. A month originally sounded like plenty of time – but with the variety of activities, all the interesting people we’ve been meeting, and staying in such a great area, the time is flying. We’re officially halfway through, and this week felt we had found our feet a bit more.

We were lucky enough to accompany Butser farm to the rare breeds show at the Weald and Downland Museum last Sunday, where the resident English goats Branwen and Sorrel were being shown. This was a great way to spend the Sunday and, particularly for me, a great chance to see the open air museum and get to explore a bit of English history and culture while I’m staying here. Myself and Martha had a great time not just at the show, but also the many reconstructed old English dwellings and farmsteads.

As for our work on the farm, it involved less bread and more digging than our first week. We continued working on levelling one of the floors of an Iron Age Roundhouse here at the farm. All the mud, mattocks and trowelling made it feel very excavation-y, so we’re definitely getting well versed with the many aspects of work at the museum. It was quieter with fewer schools visiting this week, but no shortage of labour and work to be done.

On Thursday myself and Nathaniel, another intern here for a days this week from Reading University, got to attend a natural dyeing workshop hosted by Helen, one of the team here at Butser. I’ll pop a few pictures here of our end results, this was something we were really looking forward to! On the same day a crew from Channel 5 filmed a segment for a documentary on site. I missed most of this, but keep an eye on the Facebook and Instagram for the farm to catch it when it airs.

The week wrapped up today with a morning spent trying (unsuccessfully) to catch a sheep, getting to watch the installing of two roof trusses on the in-progress saxon hall, and otherwise sheltering from the rain. A nice quiet day to wrap up the busy week, Martha and myself are loving it here but feeling pretty worked out by the end of the week! We’ll be staying on site tonight in one of the round houses, so looking forward to a night indoors by a fire. A nice break from camping!

Dan

Summer intern Blog - let the good times roll!

Martha and Dan are archaeology students from University College Dublin and are joining us for four weeks over the summer to get hands-on with some experimental archaeology and public engagement. Here is their first blog post written by Martha about what they have been up to so far…

As week one of our internship at Butser Ancient Farm rolls to a close, Dan and I are enjoying the challenges and excitement of staying away from Dublin where we are both studying archaeology.

Over the course of our 4 week stay learning and experimenting with the wonderful team at Butser we are each going to share with you a little about our adventures along the way. This week it is my turn.

A little introduction, my name is Martha and I am halfway through a part-time MSc in Experimental archaeology at University College Dublin. Previously I did my undergraduate in archaeology at Cardiff University, before working for 3 years as a commercial archaeologist in east Kent. But now I have headed back to university to further develop my career and delve deeper into the past. I have many interests in the world of experimental archeology but my main interests revolve around rocks, food and the outdoors, as you will soon see. But enough about me back to the fun stuff.

This week we have been exploring the world of Iron age bread ovens, because who does not love a freshly baked loaf? Over the course of our internship our goal is to run a number of small experiential and experimental tests with the aim of building a new iron age bread oven in the Moel y Gerddi roundhouse, with the hope of providing an alternative archaeologically based interpretation to the existing replica already in Danebury CS14 ( the red roundhouse).

So far we have tested the effectiveness of the current oven so we can make improvements with a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t. This has not only given us an opportunity to run a small scale experiment. but has also provided a brilliant opportunity to engage with visitors. We’ve had brilliant conversations with families from all over the world, from Belgium to Australia. Some staying to watch a loafs progression from flour to tasty morsel! It was clear the topics of fire and food connected us no matter where we are from or how old we are. It was great to see how people were provoked by our practical activity to think on the similarities between modern bread making and that in the iron age. It is wonderful how food can bring us together not just from people around the world but a connection to our shared ancestors.

If this bready delight sounds interesting definitely watch this space for more, as we take what we have learnt and apply it to our new Moel y Gerddi bread oven.

The other main task has been the design of a new activity for the festival of archeology on wednesday 24th July 2019. If you have ever wondered how Neolithic man moved the monoliths (standing stones) of Stone Henge, this is for you. A , thankfully, scaled down version has been sitting the Butser car park ready and waiting for its star part in the big day, but……

we needed to work out how to get the near 1 tone lump of stone to its new home, needless to say, we wanted to be authentic. I won’t give away too much of the how and whys, although the pictures and the title of this blog may give you a clue, but if you come on Wednesday to 24th or with your family make sure to bring your engineering brain and the solve the monolith mystery!

Well, that’s it for this week I hope I have whetted your appetite for more bread bites still to come. I am off to start the design of our next bread oven. If you enjoy making bread and have any top tips or use an unconventional cooking method do post a pic and tag us so we can see your culinary delights @butserfarm

bye for now Martha.

Two Proud English Goats

Sunday the 14th of July was a marvellous day for the Weald and Downland Rare and Traditional breeds show! Rare and traditional sheep, cows, pigs, horses, poultry, rabbits, Guinea pigs and of course goats were brought from all over the country for the show.

Our team brought along two of our English goats to join in with the fun, and did exceptionally well! Sorrel our 3 year old ash white and black striped lady won 1st place in the Female Kidded category and Branwyn our fawn coloured goatling, won 2nd place in the goatling class!

They celebrated their little victories by chomping on hazel branches and getting lots of attention and affection from visitors. We are very much looking forward to next year when we will hope to bring some kids with us!

UCL’s ‘Prim Tech’ Course is coming to Butser Ancient Farm!

See below for an exciting update about a new partnership between the farm and the UCL Institute of Archaeology.

Left to right Maureen Page (Butser Ancient Farm Director), Fagan the dog, Sue Hamilton (UCL-IoA Director), Simon Jay (Butser Ancient Farm Director) outside the farm’s Iron Age round house.

‘We are delighted to announce that, from September 2019, Butser Ancient Farm will be hosting the UCL Institute of Archaeology’s annual ‘Prim Tech’ course marking the start of what both institutions intend to be a period of partnership in teaching, research, and public engagement in the technologies of the past and their contributions to present-day issues of sustainability.

The ‘Primary Technologies’ course has been run every year by the UCL Institute of Archaeology since 1982. It introduces their first year students, in the very first week of their time at University, to the basic elements of technology, essential crafts and skills. These include making stone tools, extracting copper from ore, making and firing clay pots, processing crops to make bread, and learning about constructing ancient buildings. As well as these core skills the students learn how important experiments are in understanding the past, how to build useful experimental approaches to archaeology and how to use the results to interpret data in more nuanced and sophisticated ways,

In considering where to relocate this course, after more than a decade based in West Sussex, Butser Ancient Farm was an obvious choice. Founded in 1972 by the celebrated experimental archaeologist Peter Reynolds, Butser has been a pioneering force in understanding ancient farming and prehistoric technologies and is internationally recognised for its contribution to the field. Run today as a community interest company, Butser Ancient farm is a powerful force in school and adult education in exploring the human past and in providing opportunities for unique experiences and experiments in the technologies encompassed by past societies and still used by many traditional societies.

Butser Ancient Farm Director, Maureen Page said
“I am excited to welcome UCL Institute of Archaeology to Butser Ancient Farm. For us this signals a new chapter in the farm’s development. We value this collaboration as it will enhance our ability to promote current research and encourage the enthusiasm of new archaeologists, enabling us to bring this knowledge and understanding to a wide and varied audience. Experience, experiment and education were the founding principles of Butser Ancient Farm for Peter Reynolds and this opportunity will help us to reinforce these principles.”

UCL Institute of Archaeology Director, Sue Hamilton said
“I’m thrilled by this collaboration and it could not be at a better place. The common ethos and interests of the UCL Institute of Archaeology and Butser Ancient Farm makes this a compelling partnership centre around investigating ‘primary technologies’ to better elucidate the past and provide more alternatives for sustaining present-day environments and resources.”

Both teams are now working to prepare for this September’s Prim Tech and welcoming the 2019 cohort of Institute of Archaeology first years. For the future, we hope to work together to deliver new research and exciting projects for the wider public.’

For further information, please contact:
Jo Dullaghan, UCL-Institute of Archaeology Research (Pre-Award) Administrator & Communications Manager, j.dullaghan@ucl.ac.uk

Maureen Page, Director Butser Ancient Farm, 023 9259 8838 (UK) or +44 23 9259 8838 (International)

Butser Wildlife Watch - June 2019

We’ve been keeping track of the wonderful wildlife we see here at Butser as the seasons change. Here is our June update written by team member Victoria Melluish on what we’ve witnessed this month!

The humidity, rain and sunshine seem to have truly given the flora what it needs, the farm is looking remarkably vibrant and full of life! A magnificent ambiance for the summer solstice this year.

This month has been rather surprising in many ways, with the most surprising one of all being a new born lamb found cuddled up next to her mother in one of our sheep fields. A late edition to the farm but a welcomed one for sure, it’s impossible to be out on the farm without hearing the cooing and aww’ s of the public and staff when passing the little woolly late comer.  We decided to name her Solstice, she will be going to her new home in August to be a part of a new flock of Manx Loughton.

For the insect enthusiasts out there this is the perfect time to visit the farm, our Mullein caterpillars have emerged and they are looking rather striking, enjoying themselves it seems whilst they munch through the Mullein plants, they are very easy to spot! This of course beckons the rare Striped Lychnis caterpillar whose species looks incredibly similar to the Mullein caterpillar the difference is in the stripes and type of mullein plant they prefer. Striped Lychnis only eat dark mullein plants, so it is crucial to preserve them. By working with the Butterfly conservation charity we have been able to gradually increase the numbers each year. We should be expecting them in early July, however I am already searching every dark mullein plant on site just to make sure!

Our beautiful Roman garden has had some newly planted trees by archaeologist Claire, which have been mysteriously nibbled. We put out our trail camera to see what naughty creature has been using the new trees as their own personal buffet and it turns out that the culprit is a fallow doe. It is likely that she has a fawn with her somewhere, so the leaves must be providing her with much needed nutrients! Luckily she doesn’t seem to be interested in them now that she’s nibbled her favourite bits.

In our Stone Age crop field we have been astounded by the healthy growth of our darnel seeds, they have flourished and are doing very well to the surprise of Dominic Price from The Species Recovery Trust, who has said that his plugs have not survived on any other plot of land accept ours, very curious!

Roman Villa renovations complete!

During May half term we celebrated the completion of our Roman Villa renovations as the final tesserae of our mosaic was laid, the final lick of paint applied to the walls, and furniture and flowers made the building into a home.The villa, based on excavations from Sparsholt near Winchester, is now displayed in a way we feel represents how those who lived here almost 2000 years ago may have experienced the villa. The mosaic is a copy of the design originally in the villa, the walls have been painted based on evidence from the plaster found during excavations and we have furnished the space according to current research and experiments about use of domestic space. Of course, despite our renovations being finished for now, this is just the beginning of a new phase of life for the villa and there is still more we would like to do! We are now able to test out, adapt and reflect changing theories about life in a Roman villa... things never stand still for very long at Butser!Here are some photos of the villa taken last week and of our opening celebrations to mark the occasion. Many thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to make the villa renovations a success!

Butser Wildlife Watch May 2019

Butser Wildlife Watch May 2019

We've been keeping track of the wonderful wildlife we see here at Butser as the seasons change. Here is our May update written by team member Victoria Melluish on what we've witnessed this month!

What a curious month it has been for wildlife on the farm! If you follow our Facebook page and blog you will see that we have been renovating our Roman Villa, whilst we have been painting, sweeping and clearing we come across quite a few unusual things. The occasional spider or other interesting bugs and sometimes even mice, however this curious little thing was found in a large roman like pot that we have had in the villa for a number of years.  A petrified frog!

“In geology, petrifaction or petrification is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals.”

On a rather sunny and peaceful afternoon we also spotted a white shape moving in the field opposite our site, could it be the white hart? We took out our camera and decided to get as close as we could to get a good shot, a few minutes passed and the deer had slipped away back into the forest. Upon looking at the photographs we saw that the white stag had lost his antlers ,we then realised that fallow deer shed their antlers around April/May time, so be sure to have a wonder through your local forest to find them!

We have also been joined by four rather cute pink and black spotted piglets! Known as Gloucestershire old spotted pigs, a rare breed and one of the oldest too. Their other name is the orchard pig, people would say that their black spots were actually bruises from apples that had fallen from the trees! Make sure you come down to the farm and say hello, they are very friendly and will most certainly make you smile with their curious oinks and squeaks.