Young Archaeologists in Kent

Following the Thanet branch’s visit to Margate’s Shell Grotto last summer, members spent the summer holiday collecting shells. During their monthly meetings in the autumn, they designed and made shell panels. Making them highlighted many of the problems faced by the builders of the Grotto, wherever they were and whenever it was. Making the shells fit the design or vice versa was hard enough in good light on a flat horizontal surface. What was it like, the members wondered, if you were working in a damp chalk cave with only candles for light? Jack McCowan, Michael Bryant, Reece Dawson, John and Andrew Gillen and Elizabeth Mabb showed off their panels at a TAS lecture in November, when archaeologist Emma Boast also presented the YAC branch member of the year award to Andrew Gillen. Later some of the members and their leaders returned to the Shell Grotto and presented the panels to the owner, Sarah Vickery. The panels were displayed in the Grotto until early March and featured in the local paper.

So what next? Members are now putting their literary skills to the test by writing Viking Sagas for the annual national YAC competition. This has involved reading from the Orkneyinga Saga and finding references to the Vikings in Thanet. Later in the spring we plan to visit the Viking ship at Pegwell Bay and hopefully have a visit from a Viking. Early signs indicate that their Sagas look like being exciting and thought provoking.

Jose Gibbs

North Downs

YAC has spent the chilly months in its base at Maidstone Museum. We have played ‘Archaeologists from Mars – the Dustbin Game’, asking members to visualise themselves as visiting aliens and work out the lives of humans from the contents of their bins. The ‘Toad in the Hole’ food packaging caused much merriment!

It was a privilege to have the use of the KAS library in Maidstone Museum for our March meeting, where members discovered how artefacts were drawn for reproduction and produced their own versions, and then heard from Denis Anstey how computer applications can be used in archaeology.

In April we are excavating at Stelling Minnis windmill, searching for its predecessors, and in May, a group of 60 members and families are visiting West Stow and Sutton Hoo (with privileged access onto the burial mounds) for our annual ‘day out’.

Our ‘National Archaeology Days’ event in July will be held in the Museum of Kent Life – further details appear on page 5.

Above: Members busy drawing artefacts and left: a great example of a handaxe by Jack Standen, aged 10.

Above: Some of the many exciting panels made during the autumn.