The enclosed field near the Shire Horse Centre at the National Showcaves Centre for Wales contains full-size representations of a stone circle, stone lines and a stone avenue, characteristic of the Bronze Age culture that existed in Wales around 3500 years ago.

To encourage children to recognise and interact with these displays, a ‘search and discover’ game has been devised, linking the stones with simplified rock-carving shapes based on Bronze Age archaeological finds.

The 19 standing stones on the left of the track have a total of 16 carvings engraved on them (1 per stone with 3 outlying stones without a carving). They are to be found scattered on different sides of the stones (i.e. N, S, E, W) to allow for an additional directional focus to the activity if desired.

A starting (and possibly finishing) point for the activity is the rock burial chamber (quoit) near the gate to the field.

Standing Stones: Rock Carvings Hunt

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Teachers’ Notes

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A duplicate of one of the carvings (no.16) has been added to this feature so children can be shown what to look for before they start the activity. It may also be suitable as a supervision position during the activity. Children should stay in the field and always to the left (west) of the path. They do not need to, and should not, climb any of the stones.

Children, individually or in small teams, can search for, locate and record their discovered carvings. The activity can be simplified for pupil age, preferred learning objectives, equipment (if any) and pupil ability. Paper copies of the children’s sheet, stones plans and possibly clipboards are recommended.

These and possible extension activities are numbered below as a graded list.

1 Very young or low ability /special needs children can be encouraged to find just 1 carving and draw it, or choose their favourite one from the key and find it.

2 Where the school party is large, use small teams. They can describe what they have found, verbally, pictorially, on a map or in writing.

3 They can use the carvings in class for artistic or historical extension work.

4 The map can be duplicated from the downloadable activity pack and used by children to record the locations and orientations of carvings next to the stone on the map (using the map north sign).

5 A competition element can be used: a timed event to find, record and return to base with a full (all 16 carvings) record sheet.

6 The introduction to the stones may be followed by visiting the standing stones interactive display just 40m away to the south, on the other side of the entrance roadway near another burial chamber.

This display provides extension information on characteristics, possible uses, construction methods, and archaeological value of standing stones and stone circles.

Page 3 is an answer sheet to the locations and orientations of the carvings.

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