News Dig up a real find at the Festival of Archaeology
Come along to a family festival with a difference at Maidstone Museum on Saturday 13 July between 10am – 3.30pm.
Dig up a real archaeological find in a sandpit, follow the archaeology trail and claim a badge, create a cropmark with seeds to take home and grow, and handle artefacts from the museum.
The Museum’s youth group, called Cur8, will also be on hand during the morning to help the team run the different activities including making clay oil lamps, the sand pit dig and colouring activities.
There will also be three fascinating talks throughout the day, which are free to attend but must be pre-booked.
11am – ‘Dating Finds: from bones to brooches’
A talk by Dr Sophia Adams. Suitable for ages 8+
A local archaeologist with a specialism in the Bronze and Iron Ages, Sophia is a lively energetic speaker who will be talking about the principles of putting a date on local objects - and bodies!
1pm – ‘Maidstone’s Roman Past’
A talk by Albert Daniels from the Maidstone Area Archaeology Group http://www.maag.btck.co.uk/. Suitable for ages 12+
Albert is a very experienced local archaeologist and led the excavation of a Villa at East Farleigh.
The group has been running for forty years and has carried out large and small digs, with some fascinating results.
2pm – ‘Small tokens, strong gestures: understated grave goods in later prehistoric Britain’ with an emphasis on Kent and Maidstone
A talk by Dr Anwen Cooper. Suitable for ages 16+
Anwen will be talking about interesting, fun and quirky objects that had real personal meaning to whoever owned them, bringing the objects to life.
Paul Harper, Chairman of the Economic, Regeneration and Leisure Committee at MBC said:
This really is a festival with a difference, children will love the interactive fun activities and the informative talks will capture imaginations. It’s free to get into the museum and some of the activities have a small charge.
Festival of Archaeology is a nationwide initiative led by the Council for British Archaeology: https://festival.archaeologyuk.org/. This organisation helps to safeguard and share Britain's archaeological heritage and meet the significant challenges ahead for archaeology.