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Stone circle found on Dartmoor but which is it?

Nancy Detchon

May 14, 2015

Stone circle found on Dartmoor but which is it?

Barbrook I stone circle in the Peak District. There is a great deal of interest currently in a stone circle, which has been found on Dartmoor. Stories about the find have made the mainstream press e.g The Plymouth Herald and The Guardian which of course is good news – we like to see archaeology in the news from time to time. Well, we’ve been sifting through the various elements and presentation of the story and have come up with a few interesting things. Let’s begin with the

Nancy Detchon

May 12, 2015

What’s in your school grounds?

Hey, we couldn’t resist this one – a school in Reading has come up trumps – a hoard of Roman coins has been discovered in its grounds! Roman coins shown here in situ – the scale is 30 cm. Courtesy of Reading Borough Council. Excavated Roman coins. Once excavated they will be sent for conservation and then to Reading Museum. Courtesy of Reading Borough Council. The Ridgeway Primary School are the lucky school in question. As part of development work at the school, archaeologis

Nancy Detchon

Mar 23, 2015

Orkney ahoy?

Its getting to that time of year when we begin to look around to what’s going to be happening in the archaeological world over the summer months. We were excited to hear that the excavations at the fantastic Ness of Brodgar site are going to be running for 8 weeks over the summer – from July 8th to August the 28th. Not only that, but if you miss the excavations there’s going to be an exhibition at Stromness Museum from April to October featuring some of the art and artefacts

Nancy Detchon

Mar 5, 2015

Why is finding wheat that is 8,000 years old exciting?

On the face of it, finding wheat DNA from a sample dated to 8,000 years ago shouldn’t be so exciting. After all, people had been growing it for a couple of thousand years already. Well, if that wheat sample comes from southern Britain, then yes, exciting is the word. Why? we hear you ask! Well the answer is relatively simple. Until now archaeologists in Britain have thought that the arrival of wheat and then agriculture did not happen until somewhere around 6,000 years ago, o

Nancy Detchon

Feb 19, 2015

Teaching the Stone Age to Iron Age – where to begin?

Teaching ‘Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age’ is now required as part of KS2 History curriculum in England. For many teachers, this means tackling a completely new subject and facing the task of finding appropriate sources to build up their knowledge. Whilst there are many sources of information out there, they can be difficult to navigate and know which to trust. So, as promised in an earlier blog post and encouraged by teachers we have spoken to, we are h

Nancy Detchon

Jan 19, 2015

Stone Age to Iron Age in Cheshire

What a wonderful day we had in Cheshire! Armed with our trenches, tools and artefacts, Dr Ian Parker Heath (trusty archaeologist husband and colleague) and I, made our acquaintance with Lower KS 2 at Offley Primary School in Sandbach. We explored prehistory from the Palaeolithic to the coming of the Romans, covering what the new primary history curriculum calls ‘Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age’. After ‘training’ to get the children thinking like archaeol

Nancy Detchon

Jan 18, 2015

Teaching ‘changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age’

At the end of my prehistoric archaeology workshops, teachers often say to me that they have learned as much as the children have. Of course, they may just be being polite, but after further conversation, it transpires that many teachers are, in fact, learning alongside the children they are teaching. After even further conversation, it becomes apparent that they might just appreciate a bit of a helping hand. So, with this in mind we (my archaeologist husband and I) have set a

Nancy Detchon

Jan 17, 2015

Prehistoric Levenshulme!

After delivering a workshop covering the Stone Age to Iron Age to Y4s at St Andrews CE Primary School in Levenshulme in October, the beginning of 2015 saw me returning to delve deeper into the Stone Age with Y3s. The second visit saw me ensconced in a brand new ‘dance studio’, which proved to be the perfect place for our excavations of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. Animal bones, charcoal, waste flakes and artefacts of each period (with ‘toolkits’ provided by the

Nancy Detchon

Nov 30, 2014

Back to the Stone Age for Ormskirk!

Y3s at Aughton St Michaels CE Primary School in Ormskirk became archaeologists for the morning when they excavated artefacts from the Stone Age. Over three hours, the children were ‘trained’ to become archaeologists, to think like archaeologists and to understand how we excavate. Armed with these skills, they dug up objects from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic and analysed what they had found, thinking about what objects can tell us about how people lived in the pa

Nancy Detchon

Nov 19, 2014

Archaeology Day at Garstang

I love delivering Archaeology Days, because Archaeology Days allow time for me to really develop children’s interest and enable them to progress from one activity to another. Hopefully, by the end of the day they leave for home with a good grasp of what archaeology is, what it sets out to achieve and some information about the period they are studying, as well as smiling faces at a day well spent! One such day was had at Garstang Community Primary School in Lancashire, when w

Nancy Detchon

Jun 21, 2012

The Megalithic Portal Live in the Peak District…

Some of you may already know about the The Megalithic Portal, a website which describes itself as the top destination for Prehistoric and Ancient sites worldwide. It is indeed a veritable feast of images, descriptions, locations etc. of sites around the world and well worth a perusal. Well, the Megalithic Portal is coming to the Peak District over the weekend of 28th and 28th July to host a variety of free guided walks, public lectures and other events. Details can be found h

Nancy Detchon

Feb 13, 2012

Discovering Prehistoric Buxton!

The brief from Burbage Primary School was quite specific – a day that would take the children away from the school grounds, discover the archaeology of the area but without the need for transport. To fulfil this I developed a walking field-trip to some of the prehistoric sites of Buxton. The children, using picture clues, led the way to the site of Lismore Fields where Neolithic structures were excavated before modern housing was built in the 1980s. After considering the sim

Nancy Detchon

Feb 13, 2012

Arbor Low Environs Project: Test-pitting

We have now finalised the dates for the test-pitting in a field near Arbor Low. This phase of the project will run from 26th March – 7th April 2012, and will attempt to ascertain whether the spread of material recovered from field-walking is true representation of past activity or whether archaeology towards the bottom of the field has been hidden by colluvium and other deposits. We intend to dig approximately 125 1m x 1m pits! Members of ARTEAMUS have signed up to help as ha

Nancy Detchon

Feb 13, 2012

Make and Break with CADW

Interesting ideas for engaging children in archaeology are coming from Cadw and Archaeology Wales. On the back of their excavations in the Vale of Galmorgan they will be inviting school children to ‘make & break’ prehistoric pottery! It is believed that in the Neolithic, people deliberately broke and deposited their prized possessions in the burial chambers of the dead. This reminds me of the activities we did with Mrs Gresham and the Y5s of Burbage Primary school at Solomon

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