A new Chapter – Art Car Bootique

Packing our Shamanic selves we trotted off to most eccentric and coolest car-boot sale you have ever been to with over 50 pitches of art, fashion, performance, street food, vintage booters and curated projects. From travelling cafes to rock ‘n’ roll caravans from moustached gentlemen to bright red lobsters the Art Car Bootique was an … Continue reading »

Thanks for 2012

Guerilla Archaeology would like to thank all those working on the Shamanic Street Preacher events in 2012.   Special mention firstly to those who helped to design the project, events and resources – Ffion Reynolds shamanic specialist and blog manager, Ian Dennis creator of the stag head dresses and the iTribe images and Edwina Williams-Jones … Continue reading »

Time Team and Shamanic Street Preachers

This week GA went out with TimeTeam to film their  special program on the Mesolithic. Part of their focus is on Star Carr, an early Mesolithic site, and the famous antler head dresses found at the site in the 50′s and now held in various museums.  Our role was to help explore what these head dresses, … Continue reading »

Shamanic Street Preachers meet the Green Man

Last weekend Guerrilla Archaeology braved the rain and mud (oh the mud) to bring our tent to the Green Man Festival, set in the gorgeous Glanusk Park in the shadow of Crug Hwyel Iron Age hillfort. This was our second visit to the festival, and this time we brought the shamanic theme that had been … Continue reading »

Wild thing – you make my heart sing

Guerilla Archaeology had a grand old time at Wilderness giving formal talks and informal classroom sessions.  Many people answered the call to the wild and explored their shamanic side, left hand prints and checked out the effect of geology and climate on their internal chemistry.  See all the images here on Flickr. We are busy re-packing our Shamanic … Continue reading »

Ochre Mining – Deep Reds

GA went on a day trip to the only working British ochre mines - Clearwell Caves were one of the first producers of ochres,  in the late Neolithic to early Bronze-age and are now one of the last. Well worth a visit, particularly to purchase their range of ochre colours – yellow, orange, brown, red and purple and … Continue reading »

Shamans out on the airwaves.

Listen to this interview with Dr Henry Droselda – our shaman recorded at Secret Garden Party.  Henry describes his five years living in Papua New Guinea, discusses the role that animals play in Shamanism, and his encounter with a grouse that later ended up on his Shaman Tree. There is a later interview with Dr David Luke … Continue reading »

Ain’t no stoppin us now – we’re on the move!

Our brakes failed on our way to SGP setting the tone for a non-stop weekend of shamanism.   With our lovely yurt as a base, we invited one and all to come and talk about past, present and future shamans.    We conversed with around 1000 people, inviting them to channel their inner shaman via drumming and … Continue reading »

Guerrilla Archaeology does Day of Archaeology

My Day of Archaeology post will feature one project in particular: my involvement in a new creative engagement project which sees a group of like-minded Cardiff based archaeologists, artists and scientists bring the past alive at festivals! This is quite a new thing for archaeologists in Wales, and perhaps the UK, and I believe there’s … Continue reading »

Bronze Age shamanism?

This week, I’ll be moving forward into the Bronze Age, which dates to around 4000 years ago in Britain. Specifically, I’ll be exploring  the possible shaman’s grave at Upton Lovell round barrow in Wiltshire. Here, there is evidence for a very elaborate burial, with several objects suggesting that it was perhaps a grave of a … Continue reading »

Neolithic Shamanism?

I’ve been studying the Neolithic period now for more than 8 years, and I really do think that we can observe shamanic attributes in their way of life, from monument building to daily life. In this post I will explore the Neolithic site of Knowth in Ireland. The aim is to show you how shamanism can … Continue reading »

Mesolithic Shamanism?

Star Carr is a seasonal Mesolithic site situated in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, England. Early Mesolithic activities dating back about 10,700 years can be found here. The site was originally excavated during the early 50s, with excavations led by Manchester and York Universities continuing to today. In this post I will explore the evidence found … Continue reading »

Paleolithic Shamanism?

Goat’s Hole cave, Paviland, on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, is the name of the now famous burial of the ‘Red Lady’, who actually turned out to be a man! It is one of the best-known prehistoric burials in Britain – discovered back in 1823.  Goat’s Hole Cave, the final resting place of the … Continue reading »

Antiquities Liberation Army

Short story entitled Guerilla Archaeology ‘I looked down from the police helicopter at the gridlocked streets. We landed near the cause of the chaos, and I walked to the hole in the road I knew we were on the site of a first century Roman villa. The neatly excavated trench that spanned the full width of … Continue reading »

Guerilla Archaeology: Singapore

‘Archaeologists have an important role in extending mankind’s memory beyond its natural capacity, limited by personal memories, and therefore enabling us access to a wider perspective of the past’ GAs are around the world.  See the talk by Prof Miksic, titled Guerrilla Archaeologists and the Singapore Story.   Miksic believes that, like many guerrilla units who … Continue reading »

Get ahead – Shaman style

This week we took delivery of seven deer skulls we will be using to recreate the Star Carr head-dresses. The originals are twenty-one adult red deer skull with antlers altered to be worn as head-dresses.  They all date to the Early Mesolithic, about 9,500 years old, and were discovered at the site in the Vale of Pickering, North … Continue reading »

A Day of Deer

The skulls of seven deer arrived today, ready for us to work into antler head dresses.  They are all relatively young males, teenagers of the deer world.   Their skulls and antlers are extremely beautiful – deer bones are some of the most attractive, being extremely gracile compare to most other terrestrial mammals.   We … Continue reading »

Becoming Shaman

In 2011 we went to Green Man music festival with Back to the Future  in 2012 we are holding a series of Shamanic themed events. Ritual formed a central part of the earliest British societies and Shamans were part of these ceremonies.  Guerrilla Archaeology offers participants the chance to explore the earliest evidence for native British Shamanic … Continue reading »

Back to the Future@Green Man

Guerilla Archaeology were out and about at the Green Man music festival.   Our vibrant programme included workshops, installations and performances that blended science and nature with entertainment, art, craft and design and was held in the Festival’s ‘Einstein’s Garden’ area. Back to The Future focused on three main interactive themes: Future Animals, an art-based workshop … Continue reading »

Shamanic Shoppers

Last week the team of Guerilla Archaeologists took shamanism to the shoppers! As part of the Made in Roath project we set up our activities and information in the Queens Arcade shopping centre in Cardiff much to the surprise of the passerby’s who experienced archaeology when they least expected it. Young shoppers enjoyed making antler … Continue reading »

Shamanic @ Shambala !

Our last outing as the Shamanic Street Preachers this summer was at the fantastic Shambala Festival 2012, which turned out to be a colourful and imaginative weekend – it was such a friendly festival, everyone was smiling and the atmosphere and general ambiance was really happy… The beautiful grounds at Kelmarsh Country Estate, a huge … Continue reading »

Going Wild at Wilderness this weekend

Guerilla Archaeology will be performing at the Secret Forum, Wilderness Festival at 20.25 Friday 7th August. Come and listen to us as we draw on thousands of years of experience to bring out the beast in you and breathe new life into Shamanic ideals. British Shamans have been with us since the earliest times and … Continue reading »