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Last Friday Gemma Ingason and Katie Card joined pupils at Baden Powell and St Peter’s Middle School to each deliver five one-hour workshops on the Tudors for Year 5 and World War Two for Year 6. 

Pupils at Baden Powell and St Peter’s Middle School enjoying the workshop

The sessions began by introducing how maritime archaeologists find out about the past by using different methods such as diving, research and geophysical survey.

Year 5 became detectives identifying artefacts from a mystery box and trying to work out who their owner was. Children examined coins, medieval pottery, wooden pulley, nit combs and a potato. They discovered the owner was a Tudor sailor. Students discussed what life would have been like on board a Tudor ship.

Meanwhile in Year 6, the children identified fragments recovered from the seabed and tried to work out what they came from. They were excited to discover that the artefacts belonged to a German aeroplane called a Junkers JU 88.

One lucky pupil from each class donned an authentic aviator’s suit. The class discussed the different parts of the uniform, including a scarf map, knife tied to the suit with a string and woolly gloves.

The children were brilliant and very much enjoyed learning about their maritime past.

Trying on an authentic aviator’s suit

In advance of filming for the new BBC series “The Manor Reborn” Wessex Archaeology were commissioned by the National Trust to undertake a programme of archaeological investigation and recording of the Grade I listed Avebury Manor. This would provide accurate dating of the various parts of the house, and to provide a record of the house before the transformation of its interiors.

The four part series begins on Thursday 24 November on BBC One at 9pm.

Find out more about our work at Avebury Manor.

The South range at Avebury Manor added c.1601 and significantly altered 1740.

In 2008, Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Countryside Properties to excavate at Whitelands Farm, the site of the new Kingsmere development in Bicester. The results of this excavation are being published in the local journal, Oxoniensia. This year we developed teaching resources and a display about the excavation for the local school, St Edburg’s. Katie Card and Nicolas Bigourdan recently visited St Edburg’s School in Bicester to talk to the pupils about their local history. Katie tells us all about it:

“In October, Nic and I visited the school to talk to the children about the archaeology at Kingsmere Development.

“During their morning assembly we started by asking the children what they thought an archaeologist did. I went on to explain how archaeologists use different methods, such as geophysical survey and excavation, to find out about the people who lived here in the past.

Katie Card explains what archaeologists do during St Edburg's school assembly

Handling real artefacts“In their class groups, the children became archaeologists for the day. They handled objects discovered during the excavations and tried to identify them. Nic and I were on hand to give them clues. The objects included a 250,000 year old stone tool, some Roman pottery and grave goods from a Beaker burial, including a flint blade and bone toggle which are over 4000 years old.

“The day was a great success and the children enjoyed being able to handle real artefacts found near their school. We even made it into the local newspaper.”

Finds from the excavation are currently on display at the St Edburg’s School along with a leaflet and display posters. A teacher’s pack full of activities suitable for KS1 and KS2 is also available to download.

Handling, identiying and talking about the artefacts brought into the classroom

As Britain moves into another tempestuous Autumn/Winter with our staff employed on numerous wet watching briefs and muddy evaluations we thought it would be a good opportunity to report on some of the research work conducted by our staff in more exotic (and sunnier) locations around the world this year.

The Forum at Pompeii

Daniel Jackson, one of our archaeologists based in Rochester, spent part of the summer working with the Via Consolare Project, a multinational team researching the ancient city of Pompeii, Italy. The VCP have been working in Pompeii since 2005 recording and analysing two important, and often overlooked, areas of the city. This year the focus of the research was Insula VII, 6, a city block close to the main forum of Pompeii which was heavily damaged during the Second World War.

Surveying the excavations in the front rooms of two shops in Insula VII.6

Using a combination of geophysical survey, historic building recording and targeted excavation the team have been able to reveal a large amount of information about the development of the area as well as providing an important permanent record of the current condition of the remains. The research has demonstrated that although the structural remains in the area were very badly affected by the bombing the subsurface stratigraphy appears to have remained well preserved. The investigations have produced important new information regarding not only the final phase of the city, prior to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD, but also the development and evolution of this key central area.

Wessex Archaeology is fully supportive of staff continuing academic research as it is often through this interaction between the commercial and academic communities that new techniques and technologies are developed and improved. By taking advantage of these advances in archaeological computing and fieldwork we can work more efficiently and offer innovative high tech solutions to our clients.