We’ve been running our Ancient Craft Sessions in schools across Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. These aim to share archaeological discoveries and get children thinking about ancient ways of life.
At every school, our team lead an all-school assembly, sharing the discoveries from the excavations on the A428. This includes talking about archaeological finds and what they tell us, and if there’s time we’ll do a little Q&A.
We then lead classroom workshops during the day. The schools choose between weaving or brooch designing, and the children get to have a go at making these crafts and discussing what life might have been like over 2,000 years ago.
Both of these activities link closely to what we’ve discovered during our excavations. We’ve found evidence of looms and weaving, as well as a portion of wattle and daub. Objects like small brooches and clothing pins have also been found.
We encourage more than just a simple making task – we include opportunities for children to trade materials and experience a ‘barter economy’.
Like all our school programmes, we customise our sessions based on what the class has been learning about in their own lessons. This means the craft sessions reinforce what has already been taught.
These activities and archaeological excavations are taking place as part of the proposed National Highways A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet Improvements.
