Excitement over buried treasure

Led by Charlotte Bishop from Oxford Archaeology and Suzie Westall from Balfour Beatty, the team delivered an interactive presentation to a class of seven and eight-year-olds.  Pupils first donned their hard hats and high vis before learning more about what archaeology is, what archaeologists do (and wear), what they find, and how a recent dig as part of the Hinkley Connection project uncovered a whole Roman town.

Pupils were excited to handle some of the artefacts discovered just down the road from them and participate in a ‘rot or not?’ quiz to discover how long different materials remain in the ground.  They also learnt about the part that this class will soon play in local history when they prepare a time capsule that will be placed inside one of the world’s first T-Pylons.

Earlier that morning, the whole school got involved as the team led a school assembly and took questions about what inspired them to become archaeologists and what their favourite find was.

Gillian Burnell, Project Communications Manager, for the Hinkley Connection Project, said: “What an absolute pleasure it was to visit Winscombe Primary School and share some of the finds from the recent Roman archaeological dig nearby. The children asked such wonderful questions and it was a delight to see their excitement at being able to handle some of the finds. They are a real credit to the school and their village.”

We definitely have some future archaeologists in the making!

Claire Humphrey, Year Three Teacher added: “We’ve loved working with National Grid on these fun, educational sessions. To be able handle two thousand year-old finds from a dig so near our school has been brilliant for the children and learning about the town that was discovered was a perfect fit for our Roman topic this term. The activities really captured the children’s interest – we definitely have some future archaeologists in the making!”