SKILLED CRAFTSMEN OR THUGS WITH CLUBS?

CREFFTWYR MEDRUS NEU LABYSTIAID Â PHASTYNAU?

The tomb builders worked stone, made pots and carved bone with a

level of skill rarely matched today.

Knives, scrapers and arrowheads were flaked from flint.

Pottery bowls were made for cooking, storing and serving food.

Bone was used to make points of all sizes, from pins to digging tools.

And not everything was geared to survival. Even quite basic tools were

carved and polished, making them objects of beauty.

Roedd yr adeiladwyr beddrodau’n gweithio carreg, yn gwneud potiau

ac yn cerfio esgyrn gyda medr nad yw’n gyffredin heddiw.

Naddwyd cyllyll, crafwyr a phennau saethau o fflint.

Gwnaed powliau crochenwaith ar gyfer coginio, cadw a gweini bwyd.

Defnyddiwyd asgwrn i wneud pigau o bob maint, o binnau i gelfi cloddio.

Ac nid oedd popeth ar gyfer para’n fyw yn unig. Cerfiwyd a chabolwyd hyd yn

oed offer sylfaenol, gan eu gwneud yn bethau hardd.

the life zone y parth bywyd

Prehistoric flint knives and scrapers.

Items like these often accompany the

dead in tombs.

Cyllyll fflint a chrafwyr cyn hanes. Mae

eitemau fel y rhain yn aml gyda’r meirwon

mewn beddrodau.

© Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru ~ National Museum of Wales (Jim Wild)

Neolithic pottery from Ty Isaf tomb

in Powys. This bowl may have held

offerings to the dead.

Crochenwaith neolithig o feddrod T ̂y Isaf

ym Mhowys. Gall y bowlen hon fod wedi dal

offrymau i’r meirwon.

© Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru ~ National Museum of Wales (Jim Wild)

Flint arrowheads and scrapers. The broad

tip of the arrowhead was designed to make

a wide cut when it hit the target.

Pennau saethau a chrafwyr fflint. Lluniwyd

blaen llydan pen y saeth i wneud toriad

llydan wrth daro’r nod.

© Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru ~ National Museum of Wales (Jim Wild)

Bone pins are a common find in tombs.

They may have held in place the clothes or

hair of the dead.

Mae pinnau asgwrn yn bethau cyffredin i’w

cael mewn beddrodau. Efallai eu bod wedi

dal dillad neu wallt y meirwon yn eu lle.

© Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru ~ National Museum of Wales (Jim Wild)

It’s amazing what you can make out of bone and stone.

A flint knife is as sharp as any metal blade!

Mae’n rhyfeddol beth allwch chi wneud o asgwrn a charreg.

Mae cyllell fflint mor finiog ag unrhyw lafn fetel!