A is for Archaeology

On 22nd January 2005

Picture of a display of archaeological material with the society banner as backdrop
Picture of two people inspecting a piece of pottery
Picture of members study an array of material

I am so sorry that more people weren't able to get to the Manshead Archaeology Society on January 22nd, you missed a wonderfully fun and informative evening.

We were warmly welcomed with a hot drink on our arrival and introductions were made. Mark, our host for the evening, had worked hard to prepare an interesting evening which catered for the complete beginner.

He started with a short talk and slides showing what the Society has been up to over the past year, this included arranging a dig with local school children and having local re-enactors at a dig to give more of a feel for the history which was being unearthed. Throughout the talk Mark pointed out how to identify different items from Roman and medieval times. We were then given an ice cream carton of finds each and proceeded to identify each piece from the knowledge we had gleaned, there were a few red herrings like Victorian clay pipes and pigs teeth which all added to the fun.

Finally Mark brought from the locked cabinets whole pieces which had been painstakingly put together, the club was not precious about them though, we could handle them as much as we liked. The activity had been planned for about an hour but everyone was so enthusiastic that it was nearer 80 minutes and we were only stopped due to the fact that we had a table booked for dinner at the local Chinese buffet. It was not a full stop though as during the meal we kept going back to the great evening and surprised ourselves with how much we had learnt. We were very lucky that Mark also joined us for the meal so we still had his expertise at hand!

Tara Morgan