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Inspiring the Next Generation, Part 2: Creating an Excavation Exhibit for a Children’s Museum

By on July 13, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Excavation, Museum Archaeology

Our project coinciding with the Day of Archaeology 2012 was to build up an “excavation” for children to dig at the Cheshire Children’s Museum in Keene, NH, USA. The excavation activity will be in the Egypt themed area. At first I fretted over how we could possibly replicate an Egyptian excavation within our 2 m x 1 m box (that just wasn’t going to happen!). I decided to focus on simply portraying a few main ideas–the measured square units that archaeologists dig; the idea of layers– so that this excavation activity would look more like archaeology and a little less like a sandbox.

I am very lucky that my husband Randall, an architect, designer, and person who knows how to make anything with fiberglass, agreed to help with this project. First we stacked sheets of foam into an excavation grid with several different “layers.” After a messy first attempt that caused some of our materials to self-destruct, Randall worked with sticky resin and fiberglass fabric to mold the excavation units and places for artifacts, while I made some “ancient” ceramic sherds out of pots from Agway. (As I mentioned in my preliminary post, it proved to be rather difficult to find suitable artifact replicas to purchase for the exhibit.) Later, we applied more sloppy glue and a bucket of sand to the fiberglass surface, and glued the artifacts into their layers (based on rather loose relative dating).

Creating archaeology = messy basement!

What a relief when we delivered this mold to the museum and it fit right into its designated crate! To this will be added some loose sand, so that children can dig and discover the artifacts. Setting the scene further will be excavation tools (or, children’s shovels, etc.) and grid indicators/measurements, and an Egyptian desert mural behind the excavation. In addition to digging, we plan to provide clipboards so that children can choose to draw or record their finds. Based on my 7-year-old’s suggestion, we’ll also provide an “artifact report”/ “fun facts” sheet for each of the artifacts. She and her sister are really excited to learn more about these mysterious items, so I’m hoping that will be true for all the local children who visit the museum!

The mock excavation table, in situ in its museum home.

If time, space, and budgets permit, I’d love to add additional activities or games, perhaps some puzzle activities for the younger children. But this is only one small part of a museum with many different topics and activities. So for now, if a few children share in the fun of discovery, and leave with some idea that real archaeological excavation involves those neat square holes in the ground,* or if a few children are inspired to learn about ancient cultures, we’ll be thrilled!

 

*My subliminal anti-looting message for the youngsters!

In addition to thanking Randall Walter, who did all the dirty work here, I’d also like to thank the Cheshire Children’s Museum for the opportunity to work on this fun project, and Rita Elliott, a fellow archaeologist who, although I have never met her, took time out to discuss with me ideas for “mock excavation” activities. Thank you!


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Meeting the Challenge of Public Archaeology

By on July 10, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education

Who knew that the meeting Kary and I would have with the folks at the Capitol City Museum in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky on Day of Archaeology 2012 would be such a pregnant one! and actually, as our picture shows, Kary IS pregnant…

 

Kary Stackelbeck and Gwynn Henderson just before we left for our incredible Day of Archaeology 2012 meeting

Our meeting was about planning an education project for school students to be held on National Archaeology Day in October at the site of an historic dairy atop Fort Hill in Frankfort. But by the time our meeting was over, 2.5 hours later, all of us in attendance (Kary, me, John, and Mike) had laid the foundation for a much longer-term project. It included a survey for all prehistoric and historic sites on the city park; and the development of a long-term research, education, interpretation, and management program for the sites.

For 2012, there will be visits to the local schools with artifacts already recovered from historic sites on the park to show students tangible remains of their local history; and tours will be held at the park, to engage the public and to kick-off the project.

WOO HOO!!!! This is what public archaeology is all about!! Archaeolgists and community members collaborating for the benefit of everyone and for the resource, too.

It just goes to show you, that in ANY aspect of archaeology, in the field or out of it, you don’t always know what you’ll find, and you need to be prepared for anything!!!

Hope everyone’s Day of Archaeology 2012 was as productive as Kary’s and mine!

 

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A Busy Day for an Archaeology Educator

By on July 8, 2012 in Community Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Museum Archaeology

My name is Andrea Keller, and I am an archaeologist working as “cultural program coordinator” in museum education at the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in West Virginia, USA.

When I was a kid, our family had a subscription to National Geographic. Every month, this magazine brought stories of fabulous people and places from faraway into our home. I decided early on that I wanted to be a jungle explorer. However, an article about Queen Nefertiti of Ancient Egypt gave my youthful interests a whole new direction.

It turns out you don’t necessarily have to travel to remote places to learn about ancient cultures and how they lived their lives. While I have had the good fortune to have worked in Switzerland, Arizona, Illinois, and several other states in eastern and midwestern USA, I am now at home in West Virginia and discovering a rich archaeological heritage here. From early ice-age hunter-gatherers to hard-working industrial era folks, people have left their marks on the land and have left clues to their daily lives for us to ponder.

Our facility is open on weekends;  it is my turn to work on Sundays but I have Fridays off. Since the official Day of Archaeology is on Friday, June 29, I will describe an actual working day, that is, Thursday, June 28.

Working with the public, no two days are ever the same, and Thursday promises to be one of our busy days. We are expecting a group that consists of children and adult leaders from two local day care centers, who have reserved time for a guided tour of the museum and mound and one of our hands-on programs. Thursday evening we will also be hosting the June installment of our monthly lecture and film series. We usually feature speakers from other organizations, or films.  This evening, I will be presenting a slide show and leading a tour of our Interpretive Garden.

 

Thursday, June 28

Our work day starts at 9 am which is when the museum opens.  Some last minute preparations are to be made for the day care group.  They will arrive at 11 am to tour the mound and museum, eat a picnic lunch, and try out some replicas of prehistoric tools in our “Prehistoric Tools” program. I take out a trash can to the picnic area, and check the Activity Room where we will be experimenting with the replica tools. I set out corn for making corn meal on our grinding stones, and make sure the other tools are ready.

It is a record-setting hot and dry June, so the next order of business is to water the Interpretive Garden.  I am hoping the garden will be looking O.K. for the program tonight.  The plants are getting stressed from the heat and lack of rain.  Our garden represents prehistoric Native American gardens in this region. It is partially based on archaeological information, and partially on historic accounts of Native American gardening techniques.  My favorite account is Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden, by a Hidatsa woman who lived in North Dakota.  It is incredibly detailed, with precise instructions on how to plan, plant, and harvest a garden.  You can find her account on-line – it’s worth a look if you have an interest in Native American gardening.

Watering the Interpretive Garden at Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex

 

At 10:30 am I am inside.  There is a little time to polish my slide show for the evening and start my write-up for the Day of Archaeology.  I get three sentences written for the latter, and my group is here. Time to hit ”save” and get the show on the road.

 

The Day Care Group

The group today is a day-care group consisting of children ages 2 – 13 years, a range of abilities that can be a challenge for a museum educator.   The Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex consists of several parts: the Grave Creek Mound and surrounding grounds which include the Interpretive Garden, the Delf Norona Museum (Delf Norona was a local historian and one of the founders of the West Virginia Archaeological Society), and the Research Facility.  The group will tour these areas with me.

There is a majority of very young children in this group, so we skip the introductory slide show, and head out to the mound.  There are over 50 stone steps to climb to get to the top, and the adults and older kids help the smaller ones along. It’s quite a climb for those little legs!  At the top, we catch our breath.  Climbing to the top of the mound is exhausting even without carrying a load of dirt, as the people who built the mound did around 250-150 BC.  We look for familiar sights such as the Ohio River, Central Elementary School, and the old West Virginia Penitentiary, and wave at the adults with the kids in the strollers who are waiting below.  We look around, and consider how much effort it must have taken to build the mound.  Someone calculated that it took around 3 million loads of dirt, carried by hand. No bulldozers, wheelbarrows, or steel shovels!  Two main tombs were discovered in the mound during excavations back in 1838 – the whole monumental effort of building the Mound was done for three people.  What made these people, and this location worthy of such an investment in time and effort?

 

Day Care Group at the Top of Grave Creek Mound

 

The Day Care Group at the Interpretive Garden

 

We head back down the mound, tie a loose shoe lace, and stop to take a look at the Interpretive Garden.

Next it’s lunch time for the kids, and me, too.

Time to check my e-mail, while I’m in the office.

After lunch, we take a peek into the research lab viewing widow. We see a display of  drilled shells, a piece of elk antler, and chipped stones that were once part of hoes – perhaps similar to tools used to build the mound.  In the back of the room, we see the curators at work and wave at them.  They smile and wave back.  Heather takes our picture – you can see it on her Day of Archaeology post.  On the way out, we pass the Marble King exhibit, which is on loan from the West Virginia State Museum.  We run marbles through the exhibit’s marble machine – fun for kids of all ages!

We continue our tour.  There are models of prehistoric homes, and a hunting scene.  One of the highlights is a model that shows the Grave Creek Mound being built.  Tiny model people are hard at work digging up soil and carrying it to the mound. There is a burial ceremony in progress on top of the mound, and daily tasks such as cooking and scraping a hide can be found by an observant eye.

We enter the Activity Room, where we will do the “Prehistoric Tools” program.  I have set up three stations with replica tools.  There are sandstone abraders that are used to sharpen bone awls, grinding stones for making corn meal, and pump drills for making holes in pieces of wood.  The pump drills are a challenge for smaller hands, but with help from the adults and older kids, everyone gets the hang of it. The kids’ eyes light up when that pump drill is finally spinning and making a hole!  The goal is to drill a hole in a flat wooden shape to make a pendant.  Strings and colorful plastic beads are available for completing a stylish necklace.  I help one small girl tie her necklace and get a great big hug in return.  All to soon it is time for the group to say good bye. A chorus of “thank you” rings out and they are heading out the door.

Corn Grinding

Pump Drill

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awl Sharpening

Time to finish getting ready for the evening.

Before heading upstairs, I check on the condition of the ladies’ rest room – looks OK.  John, our maintenance supervisor, has taken care of the trash from the picnic, which is very much appreciated!  I make more copies of our lecture/film series calendar so there are plenty available tonight.

On the way to my office, I check on the museum’s Discovery Table, where small groups of visitors can make a craft to take home without having to sign up ahead of time. A family is making jewelry using beads made by rolling pieces of copper foil, our craft of the season.  I replenish the supply of copper blanks for making the beads.

Family at Discovery Table

Showing off Copper Bead Jewelry

 

At 5:00 pm I go home for dinner, a shower, and a change of clothes.

Evening Program

I return at 6:30 pm. Time to start up the audio-visual equipment, and unlock the museum doors. It’s still oppressively hot outside, so we start with the slide show.  The subject is our Interpretive Garden, which we will tour later.  I take the opportunity to thank the many individuals who have helped with the garden: the horticulture students from our local John Marshall High School who prepared the garden back in April as well as volunteers and visitors who helped plant the garden in May.  We go outside, and walk around the garden discussing the plants.

We had an early spring warming, and the larger plants grew from dropped seeds as “volunteers”. The smaller plants were planted May 20th, some even later when the first seeds did not grow. The corn is planted in small hills according to the traditional methods of some Native American gardeners. Beans will be planted when the corn is a little taller, and the weather becomes a little more hospitable to tender young seedlings.  The garden also contains pumpkins, squash and gourds, sunflowers, and goosefoot, also known as Chenopodium, lamb’s quarters, or spinach weed.  The people who built Grave Creek Mound probably were familiar with sunflowers, gourds, squash, and Chenopodium.  Corn and beans probably did not become used widely in our region until later, but their importance on later sites justifies including them in our garden.  It must have been an interesting time as people became more settled, and learned to grow a larger variety of plants.

Examining Goosefoot Plant in Interpretive Garden

The garden looks exhausted in the summer sun.  Legend has it that corn, beans and squash are three sisters that live together in the garden. Tonight, sister squash’s leaves are drooping, and sister corn is curling up her long, pointed leaves.  Sister bean is still very young, and will need water very soon to survive. One of the men in the group volunteers to help water the garden.  His help will be greatly appreciated.

We walk back to the museum in the last of the long summer evening light.  Time to lock up and head home.

 Thank you for sharing the “Day of Archaeology” with me.  If you should find yourself in our “neck of the woods”, please stop by and visit the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex.

You can learn more about the Complex and West Virginia Archaeology  by visiting the website of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History at www.wvculture.org.  You can also read posts by my colleagues here at Grave Creek and some of our wonderful, couldn’t-do-it-without-them volunteers and interns right here on the Day of Archaeology web site.

 

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An Interlude About a Roman Lead Scroll

By on July 7, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012

I received a call on the morning of Day of Archaeology from the PR officer from KAS about a recent find that they are funding me to conserve for the Maidstone Archaeological Group. It has recently been translates by Roger Tomlin in Oxford. there are two columns of seven names each. This discovery will be published in Britannia and KAS is working on a press release for it. It had gone to Switzerland for neutron tomography, because we were hoping to read it without having to unroll it. Unfortunately, this the method was not conclusive (this time – an earlier experiment had been successful), , so it has been unrolled, although quite fragile and now needs a supportive backing.

Drawing by Roger Tomlin of Maidstone Archaeology Group’s Roman lead scroll

  Continue Reading →

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A Town Unearthed: Folkestone Before 1500 – Community & Archaeology.

By on July 7, 2012 in Community Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Excavation, Finds, Iron Age, Prehistory, Roman, Romano-British

Hello and welcome to my post!  My name is Annie and I one of the lucky few who are undertaking a Community Archaeology Training Placement being offered by the Council for British Archaeology and I’m doing it with Canterbury Archaeological Trust.  Here’s a link to the CBA web-site where there is more information on the placements, the project is set to continue for a few more years so do keep an eye out if you are interested in signing up!

Anyway, down to business and I’ll start with a quick run down of the project.  A Town Unearthed: Folkestone before 1500 is a 3 year community project centred around uncovering Folkestone’s rich and varied history through a variety of activities including archaeological excavation, lectures, school visits, events, talks, forums, and exhibitions (to name but a few!) with volunteers taking a lead in organising, stewarding, and generally making things happen.  The project is in it’s final year and I have been tasked with being in charge of the archaeology side of things which is where our Day of Archaeology day comes in….

…Last year the archaeology side of the project centred around a Roman Villa which is tragically falling off the edge of a cliff (estimates are predicting the whole site will be gone in 50 years).  The Villa was uncovered and open to the public from the 1920s-1950s when post-war austerity forced it’s closure and it was re-buried until the 1980s when some archaeologists went in to see how much was being lost; since then more has gone over and it was decided to open it up to have another look.  Around 200 people from Folkestone had a go at excavating the site over 3 months, with plenty more dropping in to have a look, and the results were surprising. Only a portion of the Villa was re-excavated and produced some fantastic finds of the period, but more exciting perhaps was the discovery of a large Iron Age settlement beneath the floors of the Villa.  This settlement appeared to be industrial in nature, as a large number of quern stones, made from the local Green Stone found on the beach below, were discovered, and have been found in the gardens of the houses surrounding the area (many of them now making up attractive fireplaces and rockeries!); some were even incorporated into the fabric of the Roman Villa.  This year we are not returning to the Villa site but are instead test pitting in the gardens of the houses near to the site in the hope of picking up some Roman or Iron Age features to establish the extent of the site.  On our Day of Archeology day we were mid-excavation in our first ‘pit’ and I’m going to give you a insight into how I like to involve my volunteers on community projects.

So our day starts and we immediately pick up where we left off on the previous day with everyone getting stuck in with the trowels…

We find an interesting green patch of clay, which turned out to be a very unexciting modern dumping episode…

..we persevere…

…giving the trench a quick scan with the metal detector…

…and come up with a bullet! We also had two coins (possibly Roman) and a few buttons which may have been from military uniforms. Folkestone played a large part in both the First and Second World wars and to find evidence for this is very exciting for me…

..and finally starting the recording. I’m a big believer in volunteers getting involved in all aspects of archaeology, including the paperwork, so if you ever end up on one of my sites I will torture you with it..

…and there we have it, a day of community archaeology with a fantastic bunch of people who I’d like to thank for their hard work and dedication to the project. Although this particular test pit did not produce any Roman or Iron Age features we had a lot of pottery from the period so I’m satisfied. We’ll be test pitting all through the summer. I am blogging about my placement so if you’d like to have a look at what I’ve been up to, or want to keep up to date on this project then here’s the link.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

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A Day at Abbot House Heritage Centre

By on July 6, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Museum Archaeology

Hi, I‘m Gillian Ramsay a human osteoarcheology graduate volunteering at Abbot House with the collections and education programmes. We are currently in the process of planning an exhibition for the late autumn/early winter which will celebrate 20 years since the first excavations were carried out at Abbot House. In 1992 a series of excavations were conducted by Fife Council before the building was renovated and transformed into Abbot House Heritage Centre. The excavation found evidence of occupation on the site stretching back to the 12th century, including workshops, stables and a late medieval graveyard. At the beginning of 2013 a new excavation conducted by Fife Council will start on an area of land right beside Abbot House. The excavation will prepare for the construction of a new Dunfermline Museum. The aim of our exhibition is to show the public what was found during previous digs, and to excite them about archaeology in general and about discoveries that might be made during the new excavation.

The Archaeology Exhibition is all part of our new renovation and rejuvenation scheme for Abbot House. We are trying to encourage local people to visit the house more often with a series of family events, night- and day-time lectures, and rotating exhibitions. In intention is that by 2014 the house will have been completely renovated, bringing the exhibits and facilities right up to date, with more hands-on interactive exhibits and engaging displays aimed at all ages.

The exhibition will display a number of the artefacts found at the sight within the context of what they can tell us about life in medieval and early modern Dunfermline. The majority of the artefacts will be loaned from Fife Council, although the displays will also include finds from Abbot House’s own collection. Abbot House has a small collection in storage on the property. The artefacts had been placed in boxes in the attic and forgotten about for 20 years so in preparation for the exhibition we brought them out of the attic, washed, catalogued, bagged and tagged the finds, and placed them in more suitable boxes.

As part of the exhibition we are considering having a stratigraphy display depicting the levels of activity at the site, with objects from the excavation placed within their respective horizons. So on the Day of Archaeology we began by going through the collection housed at Abbot House looking for artefacts for each layer.

Abbot House also runs a successful schools programme called Step into Medieval Dunfermline, which includes a mock excavation where kids can dig for finds and record them. On Wednesday a visiting school group managed to find all the objects in record time— so we thought it might be best to bury a few more artefacts! In the afternoon we selected a few more child-friendly and durable artefacts from the collection to bury in the dig pits.

 

For more information on Abbot House, the archaeology exhibition this autumn, our schools programme, or any of our other events, Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter (@abbothouse), log onto our website, or give us a ring at 01383 733 266. Abbot House is a registered charity (SC018318), and is actively seeking support and sponsorship through our Friends scheme; for more information please ring the House.

 

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Escaping the Storm Clouds

Folkestone Research & Archaeology Group: Finalising our First Newsletter & Exploring the Downs

By on July 6, 2012 in Archaeological Prospection, Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Publishing

We set up the Folkestone Research and Archaeology Group in January this year, having met on a recent dig in the area. Realising that there was no local group in existence, we set about creating one. Since we started, we have engaged in a number of activities and also hold monthly meetings. We decided that a regular newsletter would update any of our members who were unable to join in some of the activites and also to help promote our group to anyone who is interested.

Our editor composed our first newsletter, and on The Day of Archaeology, a few of us met up to finalise the content for distribution the next day.  We also had a good chin-wag over upcoming events. The newsletter can now be viewed on our website here.

A day later, one of our members came up with the bright idea of taking a walk “up the downs” (dont you just love that term?) on Sunday. Other than being a bit of a social event, we also wanted to explore the locations of a number of barrows that we may be able to excavate at a later date.  As usual, the bright sunny day (as predicted by the weather forecasters) turned out to be “unsettled”, with us having to wait for the heavy showers to abate before setting off.

Walking over the downs, we located a number of the barrows we were looking for, whilst also enjoying the views. We covered the area we wanted to explore, with intermittent sunny spells and rain showers. We then noticed some black clouds ominously advancing towards us, so took the shortest route (the road) back to the pub, with cattle racing along in the field next to us, also trying to avoid the oncoming storm. Thankfully, we made it back, just in time, before the rain and hail began their assault.  Over a Guinness, our chairman had a quick chat with the pub landlord about conducting a dig in their beer garden, whilst the rest of us discussed the training dig we have starting in a member’s garden this coming weekend.  It looks like we could be a busy group in the near future.

Escaping the Storm Clouds

Escaping the storm clouds and the deluge to come

 

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A Day at Wessex Archaeology

By on July 6, 2012 in Commercial Archaeology, Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Education, Excavation, Finds, Illustration, Maritime Archaeology, Science

Summarising the 29th June 2012 for the staff of Wessex Archaeology is a both a challenge and an opportunity.  Spread over four regional offices in Edinburgh, Sheffield, Rochester and Salisbury everyone is busy working on a range of activities, from diving wrecks to excavation, examining finds in the lab to research. This blog aims to provide a glimpse of some of these activities.

In the field

We have a variety of staff out in the field today.

A Wessex Archaeology diver © Crown Copyright, taken by Wessex Archaeology

Our dive team are currently working for English Heritage on the Contract for Archaeological Services in Relation to the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.  Today, falls within the fieldwork season,  however they are not diving due to bad weather.  You Can read their own Day of Archaeology blog – A Quiet Day.

 

A very small Chris in the distance © Wessex Archaeology

On dry land, well almost, Chris Ellis, Senior Archaeologist, is running investigations at Steart Point.  In advance of a habitat creation scheme, Team van Oord, on behalf of the Environmental Agency working in partnership with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, commissioned Wessex Archaeology to undertake the mitigation work on what is, and has always been, a low-lying peninsula prone to flooding.  However over the past few month’s fieldwork, including a walk over survey, geophysical survey, evaluation and excavation, our team have discovered evidence for settlement spanning several thousand years, including Iron Age, Romano-British, medieval and post-medieval occupation.

 

Out on site © CEMEX UK Materials

There are also various excavations going on across the country run by our different offices.

Hannah Brown sporting the latest geophysics acessories © Wessex Archaeology

Two of our  terrestrial geophysics team, Ben Urmston and Hannah Brown, are also occupied out in the field undertaking a magnetometry survey.  This is the kit the team use the most because it can detect a wide range of archaeological features.

In Scotland

OCHMAPP © Wessex Archaeology

On Friday the Outer Hebrides Coastal Communities Marine Archaeology Project (OHCCMAP) team from Wessex Archaeology (Coastal & Marine) and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) were in a very remote area of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, accessed only by boat. The team have been studying previously unrecorded buildings and archaeological features, some of which are now underwater. Based upon reports from local people and communities the team have been mixing diving with landscape surveying and geoarchaeology to examine the development of these remote coastal landscapes during prehistory and in recent centuries. This year’s results are already looking very interesting.

In the Sheffield Office

 

18th century system for the water features at Barnham Park © Wessex Archaeology

In our Sheffield offices the team are finalising the report for fieldwork undertaking at the Grade 1 listed Barham Park, Wetherby, West Yorkshire.  The excavations explored early 18th century water features that no longer exist in the contemporary gardens.

In the Salisbury Office

Walking through the various labs and offices in the Salisbury offices, we collected a few photographs of people.

 

Pulling together a site story © Wessex Archaeology

In the Project Officer’s room, things are quiet as nearly everyone is out in the field.  However, Sue Clelland, Senior Archaeologist, is working is on all the paper records from a large scale evaluation and excavation project.  The written, photographic. drawing, environmental and site survey all need to be cross referenced.  With this task now completed, Sue is trying to make sense of it all, grouping records together to develop a site story.  On the computer, you can see the information for a late Roman building.

Overlaying historical maps © Wessex Archaeology

Chloe Hunnisett, Heritage Consultant, is back in the office after a trip to a site, walk over survey and visit to the local archives.  It is now time to start on the desk based assessment for this site.  Here, we can see uploaded digitised copies of historic maps overlaid onto the GIS over the HER data for local monuments. Chloe will now start her assessment of how the landscape has changed over time and what archaeology could exist in the area.

Enhancing records © Wessex Archaeology

Sophie Thorogood, Marine Archaeologist, is busy working on the final report for the South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment. This is an English Heritage project, which aims to enhance the archaeological records of the National Monuments Record, local Historic Environment Records and Sites and Monuments Records, and to serve as a basis for improved management of the coastal historic environment.

Marine Geophysics

The marine geophysics team are busy interpreting sidescan data from the field.  Sidescan is a type of geophysical survey that measures the intensity of soundwaves reflected off the seafloor.  These experts can assess if the sidescan shows natural or man-made features. If man-made they could indicate the location of a wreck. Their work is very technical and complicated – illustrated by the complex combination of computer screens required.

 

How many computer screens does one person need? Four, apparently © Wessex Archaeology

Louise Tizzard, one of our Geologists, is looking at the geology of the seabed to understand submerged prehistoric landscapes in marine dredging zones. In particular looking at License Area 240, where in the past there has been a major discovery of Palaeolithic handaxes.

In the lab

In the lab you can find all our post-excavation specialists.

Examining cremated remains © Wessex Archaeology

Dr Jackie Mckinley, is our human remains expert.  Today she is examining a cremation burial. Here, she is detailing all the identifying fragments of bone that can help her conclude about age, sex and other important information.  For example, examining the cremation burial by spits can highlight how the skeleton was placed into the burial vessel.

Back from the field and cleaning finds © Wessex Archaeology

Tom, currently back from the field, is washing finds from an excavation.

Post excavation finds sorting © Wessex Archaeology

While Ellie Brooks is looking through these washed finds, sorting, counting and weighing them by type and content bag, then preparing to box them up.

Chris in the environmental lab © Wessex Archaeology

 

Delicate work © Wessex Archaeology

In the environmental lab, Chris Stevens and Nikki Mulhall  are delicately picking out charred plant remains from residue of processed soil samples.  These remains will be analysed, the plants identified and then cross-referenced with information about the features on site where they were excavated to see what conclusions may be drawn.  For example, what were the people from the site eating?

Geomatics

Volunteers learning and using a Total Station on previous Churches Conservation Trust project © Wessex Archaeology

Geomatics is the discipline of gathering, processing, and delivering spatially referenced information and is vital to modern archaeological practice.  Our Geomatics team, led by Paul Cripps, are mainly in the office but today Paul is organising a fieldwork event for the Churches Conservation Trust as part of the Festival of British Archaeology.   You can find out more on Paul’s own blog  – A Day of Archaeological Geomatics

The Graphics Office

The Graphics Team are a fundamental part of the company, we rely on these talented people for a range of activities, from typesetting and providing figures for reports to artefact and reconstruction illustration to creating exhibitions and posters.

Here you can see Kitty drawing a Palaeolithic handaxe found in a marine aggregate dredging area.

Getting out and about

Wessex Archaeology is a charitable trust with an educational remit to promote archaeology.  As a result, we have dedicated staff for working with the public, who unsurprisingly decided to provide their own material for Day of Archaeology.

Sarah Phillips, Senior Learning and Access Officer had the least exciting day.  This is sadly the price of heading up the team but her blog – The Glamour of Outreach – illustrates that it is not all fun and games, admin exists in outreach too.

CBA Comunity Archaeology trainne Angus, our experimental archaeologist © Angus Forshaw

Having said that our CBA funded Community Archaeology Trainee Placement, Angus Forshaw had a great day on site working on Barrow Clump as part of Operation Nightingale . You can find out more about the site and project on his blog – A Day with Operation Nightingale

Laura interviewing Alex, a Rifleman for Project Florence podcast © Wessex Archaeology

While Laura Joyner, the Project Florence Officer was also out at Barrow Clump working with young film volunteers and filmmakers from Salisbury Arts centre on a documentary.  You can read about her day on the Project Florence’s Day of Archaeology blog – Lights, Camera, Action.

The End of the Tour

So that is a brief tour of Wessex Archaeology and you have only seen a fraction of what is going on here today.  Before I finish this blog, I have to mention the people not shown here at all, our board of trustees,  the directors, project managers, our amazing finance team and admin staff that keep the company running so that we can do all these activities.

This is just one day at Wessex Archaeology, the next might be completely different, and you never know what you will discover.

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The Glamour of Outreach

By on July 6, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology

My name is Sarah Phillips and I head up Wessex Archaeology’s Learning and Access Team, which can involve anything from community excavations to creating online computer games and teacher packs, raising awareness of archaeology to marine industries or writing content for the Wessex website.

However, my 29th of July definitely sums up the unglamorous side of our work.  While my team were off doing interesting things out in the field – you read their blogs  A Day with Operation Nightingale and Lights, Camera, Action -  I was stuck inside doing administration tasks.

My job can be a lot of fun, but it is also hard work.  We are the public face of Wessex and so we need to ensure that what we produce is of high quality, true to the archaeology but also accessible to our desired audience.  Today, I am working on the final draft edit of the Offshore Renewables Protocol for Reporting Archaeological Discoveries annual report for The Crown Estate.  This protocol, like other marine protocols run by WA, helps staff to identify and report any unexpected archaeological discoveries at sea.

We go through several edits, considering content, interpretation and then general quality control before the final draft will be sent out for consultation. My team works closely with the graphics office, relying on them to develop our ideas and text into something interesting.

The rivetting world of admin

More project management tasks, finances, sorting out permissions for images for school a workshop, chasing up feedback from them and a billion other things – my day is not getting anymore glamorous.

However, things significantly improve thanks to Day of Archaeology. Tasked with the challenge of summing up Wessex Archaeology’s Day of Archaeology – A Day at Wessex Archaeology - I took a notepad, pen and camera and took a journey around the office.  Until recently, I worked in our Coastal and Marine department but my remit has expanded to the whole company and this was a great opportunity to talk to people and find out what they do in both Salisbury and our other offices.  It was fascinating and helped me to understand more about how the company works as a whole.  I hope it is as interesting for people to read.

 

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