History comes to life: looking back at the Llŷn Archaeology Festival, December 2023

A successful week-long Archaeological festival was held at the Llŷn Maritime Museum just before Christmas 2023 organised by a team from Bangor led by Dr Kate Waddington attracting 185 visitors to the Museum.

In collaboration with the Community Engagement team from Gwynedd Archaeological Trust (GAT) pop-up exhibition of Iron Age objects from the recently excavated Iron Age and Romano-British hillforts of Meillionydd and Dinas Dinlle was set up.

The objects on display provided the perfect springboard for discussion about life and society in later prehistoric north-west Wales. The events included a family craft day where participants (both young and older!) learnt about later prehistoric personal adornment and then set about creating replica necklaces, hair pieces, rings and bracelets using a variety of natural materials and wooden and glass beads.

Three primary school visits to the exhibition enabled over 60 school children to explore prehistoric textile production, grain production, and prehistoric gaming, as well as to develop skills, such as the archaeological illustration of flint knives and the identification of prehistoric stone objects.

The bilingual guided walk to the Iron Age hillfort of Garn Boduan encouraged lively discussion with participants, and some of the themes were developed further in an evening talk by Dr Kate Waddington and Rhys Mwyn, which was well attended.

This is the fourth archaeology festival organised by the Llŷn Ecoamgueddfa and we are planning a fifth at Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw in Autumn 2024.

For more information on the festival, the Llŷn Ecoamgueddfa project and its resources, and to keep an eye on future events, keep an eye on the Events section of this website

o To read more about Bangor University’s excavations at Meillionydd, please read The Story of Meillionydd (arcgis.com)