Archaeology

Yesterday I went on an archaeological dig that the archaeology museum was organising. There were some other home-schoolers there as well.

First we went to a tent and learned that wooden houses have foundations under them to hold them up. When the wood rots everything falls down except the foundations.

Then we started walking into the dig site. It was very, very, very muddy. Our shoes were completely covered in mud, so later we couldn't wear them into the car!

When we arrived at the dig site we learned that you can work out where an ancient Roman house was by looking at the difference in the soil. The archaeologists had also found a place where the Roman road was but the house was right in the middle of it. So they realised that the house was a Celtic house and the road was a Roman road.

Then we went to a place where the archaeologists were really digging. They were digging at a place they think was a Victorian dump. The Victorians didn't have any rubbish bins so they put all their rubbish in the dump. The archaeologists had found a lot of bottles and two marmalade jars. They'd also found a lid which fitted one of the marmalade jars.

After that we went back to the tent and did an object description sheet. I did a jar that was probably Roman. She also explained a bit about Roman pottery and we got to hold some Roman pottery.