Last week I have the opportunity of visiting Must Farm,  a Bronze Age settlement site, with members of the Prehistoric Society. Right off, I have to say this was a fantastic site in many ways, and that the work being undertaken by the Cambridge Archaeology Unit with the support of Historic England and the landowner Forterra is exemplary. There was so much to see and we had Mark Knight of the Cambridge Unit to act as our guide. The story of Must Farm has emerged through a seri

Here’s the second in our occasional series of what archaeologists actually do, beyond excavating. You might want to look at What do archaeologists actually do? for the first. One of the activities I use in workshops for children is called “Piecing together the past ” where they try to figure out what the artefacts found during excavation are and whether they are complete. As part of this activity, I ask them to try to fit the pieces of the object back together again. This is

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

I was privileged enough to be invited to take part in the Year 9 Classics Day at Loughborough High School. Designed to encourage the girls to think about the relevance of Classics beyond the classroom and to try to promote the three Classical subjects (Latin, Greek, Classical Civilisation) that they offer at GCSE, the day involved a number of workshops focusing on different ways of engaging with the Classical World. Alongside in-house workshops and one delivered by Sonya Nevi

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

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

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

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

After being invited back for the third year in a row, we are top news story on the Derby High School Website! Read all about it! http://www.derbyhigh.derby.sch.uk/ #workshop #excavation #school #KS3amp4 #artefact #stratigraphy #education #Archaeology #timeline #dig

Last Thursday, I returned to the Croft Primary School in Rugeley, Staffordshire, to deliver a workshop to Y5 to support the teaching of their ‘Treasure Island’ topic. Being only a few miles away from where the Staffordshire Hoard was found, meant that a focus on the Anglo-Saxons was perfect for this occasion. After considering what ‘treasure’ is, and discussing how even the most seemingly insignificant objects can be treasure for archaeologists, the children were ‘trained’ in

What a great day we had at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Primary School in Doncaster! Recently back from excavating in Egypt ;-), Dr Catherine and Dr Ian  were keen to train a new generation of archaeologists and Egyptologists.  Starting with training in how archaeologists think and analyse evidence, followed by an activity teaching how archaeologists go about dating artefacts, the ‘trainees’ were soon ready to dig up Ancient Egyptian artefacts themselves. The training mu

I returned to St Richard’s Primary School in Atherton last week to deliver an Anglo-Saxon archaeology workshop. After training the children how to think like archaeologists and helping them to understand concepts such as stratigraphy through a variety of activities, we began to excavate a range of Anglo-Saxon objects. After closely analysing our finds, ranging from pottery and animal bones to spearheads and jewellery, we were able to show each other what we had found.  We eve

One of the enjoyable aspects of my work is the preparation I do for workshops and projects in terms of finding and making resources. Lately, this has involved sourcing artefacts from places such as the University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham, and the Derbyshire School Library Service and liaising with the wonderfully helpful staff there – Hannah Cobb, Jo Wright, Ken Wardle, Clare Mullett, Emily Millward and Marilyn, to name but a few.  I have also increased my

The last week saw my continued work with the Park Rangers, Rose and Steve, at FitzHerbert Primary School in Fenny Bentley, culminating on Thursday 19th with the presentation of the 1st part of the Peak District Award to the KS2 children who had taken part. On Thursday 12th we began to dig in the school field.  After a lesson in stratigraphy, the children were set to work, under the watchful eye of Steve Bell, de-turfing the patch that is to become a wild flower meadow.  They

The first two days of the Arbor Low Environs Project dig this year have been a resounding success. I’m not so much talking about the archaeology here – although I’m sure many exciting things will be unearthed as the days go by -no, what I am talking about are the school visits we have had so far. I have had the pleasure and privilege to introduce and re-introduce many young people and their teachers to Arbor Low, Gib Hill and the wonderful world of archaeology. The children (

On Friday 10th February, I visited parents and children from the Buxton Area Home Education Group with my archaeological tools and artefacts for a 1 hour workshop. After receiving a lovely warm welcome, I introduced the group to the idea of stratigraphy and set them a task of deciding which artefacts belonged to which layer. They thought hard about this, including whether some of shiny gold items were necessarily newer than other items less shiny. I was also given a few thing

A flexible approach was needed with a group so disparate in age and previous knowledge, but everyone was able to get their hands dirty as soon as possible after a brief introduction to the tools of the trade. Luckily for the home educators, Highfields Adventure Playground in Sheffield, where they meet once a week, did not mind us digging up their grounds. The children soon found many artefacts, such as hinges and cupboard door handles. We were able to consider what they were