Young Archaeologists in the Pandemic

 The Chairman of Colchester Archaeological Group explained to Colchester Young Archaeologists' Club how to recognise sites of previous human activity and occupation from aerial and satellite images. He said that Fordham, near Colchester had been on the edge of the reach of the last ice age. The young people were able to answer all his questions, before they split into groups to do find washing and identification, reconstructing broken pots, dating fossils. Each of them tried metal detecting techniques, all of them discovering metal objects, except one who found a worked piece of flint, which looked as if it had been used as some sort of tool. There were also worked flints among the find the young people sorted and washed.

We had a popular creative theme for Archaeology Day at Roman Circus House. Young Archaeologists' Club volunteers helped members and visitors make bead necklaces and bracelets; some will be used for re-enactments. Imaginative and creative colouring of fossil images using coloured pencils and felt pens was enjoyed by visitors of all generations.  Our quiz challenged everyone to date some specimens. Our oldest fossil is 449,000,000 years old, an age which is almost inconceivable. Our youngest fossil, 100,000 years, is a freshwater snail from before we separated from the continent. It came from the confluence of some mighty rivers.... the Thames, the Medway and the proto Rhine. One of our many distinguished visitors, who solved the quiz in an impressively fast time, is a lecturer in biodiversity at the University of Essex.       

On a warm June day, Colchester young archaeologists' club gathered on the Essex coast to comb the beach for fossils. One of our volunteers had prepared a check sheet for finds of such things as fossil shells from the red crag, fossil wood and sharks teeth. Everything was carefully checked by an expert on hand, who explained the geology of the coast and how and why there were so many interesting things we could discover, from thousands to millions of years ago. The tide came in earlier than anticipated, but that gave us an opportunity to examine the fossilised wood from monkey puzzle trees. sharks teeth, a fresh water snail shell fossil and a tiny fossil fish tail discovered in the shingle on the beach, among many other things. Below is a picture of these extraordinary cliffs with a key to the features.   A Glacial sand and gravel on which you can see ice wedges. During the devensian period, 100,000 years ago. B Grey/green clay sediment from a large river the Medway/Thames ran ...

  Here are some of the coin designs created by the Colchester young archaeologists at the club's May 2023 meeting. We were able to reduce the length of our waiting list by welcoming some new members. Apart from Aquila, we played Tabula, dinosaur dominos, Egyptian bingo and a Hieroglyph game. Mausoleums and mosaics were designed in Lego and mosaic coasters were created. Last week the World Health Organisation declared that "although the Covid pandemic is an on going health issue it no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern."

 As the weather becomes a little warmer, the young archaeologists' club is meeting outside again. We joined a Roman event at the Roman Circus Centre, where the young people enjoyed trying out Roman trumpets, making Roman-style beads, playing a Roman Monopoly and, of course, Aquila.

 Above is a picture of the model of the walled city of Roman Colchester. Today at the Young Archaeologists' Club we had a surprise visitor. Niles was a member of the club when it met in Colchester Castle and was one of the members who helped restart the club in October 2012. He was delighted to see the model had been completed. 'Do you know drew the plans for this?' he asked. 'Philip, I should think,' I replied. Niles admitted to drawing the plans as part of his work experience at Colchester Archaeological Trust.  

 Find washing, mosaic grouting and designing, using genuine Roman tesserae, colouring pictures of fossils and dinosaurs for our time-line project, and drawing and colouring their own artworks kept members of the Colchester Young Archaeologists' Club creative and busy for their February meeting. They also had the chance to learn and play Aquila; a game devised by Alex from one excavated by Colchester Archaeological Trust.  The Roman game was found near the forceps, tweezers and infusion (tea) pot in the "doctor's" or "druid's" grave. This excavation has been replicated and is on display in Colchester Castle Museum. Alex has commented that members of the Colchester YAC have discovered new strategies for his version of the game. One member of the club kindly donated smaller aprons for the club to use for find washing and processing.