My name’s Chris, and I’m currently in my first year of studying a PhD in archaeology with the University of Reading and Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. My PhD is on Later Bronze Age hoarding in south Wales, which means that I’m currently spending a lot of my time looking at metal artefacts with unlimited supplies of tea and coffee - a nice change of pace from working as a field archaeologist for the past few years!

Since April, I’ve been spending a couple of days a week in the National Museum Cardiff where I’ve been immersing myself in all of the wonderful objects the museum’s collections. My day can be quite varied, but lately I’ve been reporting on a Late Bronze Age hoard which was recently discovered from south-west Wales. This means that I have to do a lot of detailed recording of the objects, but it all feeds into my research which you’ll all be able to read about in the future.

Recording is not just about taking measurements and weights, but it also involves describing the character of these objects. One artefact from this hoard (above) is a fragment of a spearhead which was broken up in prehistory. Those of you with a keen eye will notice that what’s left of the hollow centre has been crushed, probably as the result of someone hammering the object repeatedly before it was buried in the ground. Observations like these fascinate me and, aside from making me feel like an archaeological detective, it really injects some personality into the study of prehistoric people.

On that note, I’m off to record some of my recent findings, but not before making another cup of tea with my favourite mug!