Mick Aston’s Young Archaeologists (Somerset)
Mick Aston’s Young Archaeologists (Somerset) or ‘MAYA’ is open to everyone aged 8–16 years. YAC clubs get involved in all sorts of activities, including visiting and investigating archaeological sites and historic places, trying out traditional crafts, taking part in excavations, and lots more.
MAYA is based at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton and usually meet once a month. The club has been set up in memory of Professor Mick Aston from Time Team who was very keen to start a new YAC club for Somerset.
Contact: Liz Caldwell
Email: contact@yacsomerset.co.uk
A team of volunteers runs the club: if you want to know more about how we recruit YAC volunteers and make sure children at YAC clubs are well looked after, check out our FAQs.
If you’d like to get involved with MAYA, get in touch with the team using the details above. Read on to find out more about what we have been up to recently!
For more information about all our previous sessions visit our website www.yacsomerset.co.uk
Christmas Party 6th December 2025
We had a special guest for our Christmas Party this year, story teller Dan Broadbent. Dan told us an amazing selection of local tales, legends and ghost stories. Dan explained how important these stories were as they had been passed down through generations of local people and could reflect ancient beliefs and practices. Dan also explained that telling ghosts storied at Christmas was an old Victorian tradition.
We dimmed the lights and lit the room with about a hundred LED candles so it was very atmospheric – especially when Dan told us about the ghosts who were supposed to haunt Taunton Castle where we meet!
After Dan had finished we had our Christmas party with loads of food, crackers and pass the parcel and a lucky dip.
It has been really great year for MAYA and we have a lot of activities planned for 2026 which will be our tenth anniversary! A huge thank you to Dan and to everyone who has supported us over the past year and helped to make MAYA such a success!
Prehistoric Cave Art 3rd January 2026
In our first session of 2026 we learnt about Upper Palaeolithic Cave Art in Europe. We started out with a PowerPoint presentation about where cave art was found, what kinds of things were painted, and discussed why people might have painted them. We also looked at how the paints were made out of minerals and organic materials and how we could use this to date the art. We finished with a quick look at prehistoric cave art from other parts of the world.
After a short break we then designed and painted some cave art of our own! Each of our MAYANS were given a flat pebble to paint. We had lots of pictures of cave art from all sorts of different site to inspire them. The designs they came up with were fantastic, very varied and colourful. The pebbles were dry by the end of the session so they could take them home with them.
We also had a virtual walk through tour around the cave at Lascaux in France which is one of the most famous cave art sites in the world. Throughout the session the MAYANS took it in turns exploring this amazing site on the computer.
Finally our MAYANS also decorated a long freeze with cave art, a combined effort which produced an amazingly colourful result! The most popular image was definitely the hand print which is a common motive in prehistoric cave art, and we ended up with some amazingly colourful hands as well! A really messy but really fun session!
Visit to WWII Anti-tank Defences 7th February 2026
This month we were treated to a really special session. We were taken on a guided walk around WWII archaeological sites in Donyatt which formed part of the anti-tank defences of the Taunton Stop Line. Our guide was Chris Webster from the South West Heritage Trust.
Despite the pouring rain, our MAYANS were undaunted and we had a good turn-out. Chris showed us a number of fascinating and sometimes partially hidden sites, including pill boxes, gun emplacements and huge concrete anti-tank blocks. The tour also included a walk along the former Ilminster – Chard railway line near Donyatt Halt which was lined by anti-tank concrete blocks and posts.
The pill boxes we visited were on private land and we are very grateful to the landowners for giving us access to these extraordinary historical sites.
A massive thank you to Chris for coming out in the pouring rain to run this fascinating and memorable session!
