Young Archaeologists
2005 was another exciting year for the children belonging to North Downs Young Archaeologists’ Club. In February they became editors for a day, when they were given the chance to choose articles and images for the next edition of ‘Young Archaeologist’, the quarterly magazine of the national YAC. Not surprisingly, the more gruesome and grisly stories of plague and burial appealed to their editorial discretion! They were posed the question ‘Guns – good or bad?’ in March, in a version fitting of firearms through time, looking at their uses for procuring food, for defence and for aggression. The following month they became ‘House Detectives’ at the Centre for Kentish Studies, tracing the history of their homes and learning about available sources, and in May they were swept back into the Neolithic at the Medway megaliths. A fun day trip to Portsmouth Dockyard and the Mary Rose in June proved very popular, and was followed up in September with a meeting on long-bow archery, Tudor style.
Parents, children and YAC leaders worked hard to make the July National Archaeology Day event, ‘Prehistory – life B4 txt’, a successful event. Despite torrential rain, over 200 visitors arrived to take part in lots of free activities, including a ‘mini-dig’ of objects deliberately buried some months before. A task by Carenza Lewis of Time Team, on Channel 4’s ‘Big Roman Dig’, drew the crowds.
The last three months of the year focussed on World War II, beginning with the anniversary events happening around the country. In October, Dover’s Western Heights was explored, the Napoleonic defences intriguing the children and terrain itself was much fun for the more energetic boys. At home, air raid shelter drill was brought along for them to operate. As they eagerly queued up to have a go, YAC leaders did wonder what Dover’s residents made of the unearthly wail emanating from high above the town. Aerial photos taken in the 1940’s were used in ‘Spies!’, a meeting which examined how this resource developed from wartime reconnaissance and its subsequent applications in archaeology today. The Christmas party saw the children in wartime dress, evacuees with cardboard boxes, resistance fighters with secret codes, spies with torches taped inside their jackets and snowballs in their grandparents’ original tin forms, gathered to celebrate under red, white and blue bunting.
2006 holds the promise of practical work at various drill locations, including Leigh Gunpowder Mills near Tonbridge. The support of the KAS for North Downs YAC is, as always, very gratefully acknowledged; the support given encourages the archaeologists of the future.
RIGHT BELOW: Climbing the Grand Shaft staircases at the Western Heights.
BELOW: Working the air-raid siren.