It’s has taken a while to get round to writing this blog piece but we cannot wait to tell you about what we did back in February!

Our Young Archaeologists had a great session exploring facial reconstruction. We learned all about reconstruction can help us to tell a person’s story and we got to put our own skills to the test using skin markers and everything!

This was really fun and exciting activity and we followed this guide to help us: https://www.yac-uk.org/activity/facial-reconstruction

Find out more about our skulls and stories below

HAIRY

Hairy was an outcast of the Caereni Tribe about two thousand years ago. He got thrown out at the age of 15 because someone did not like him. So he had a job to do which was to get food and water but the person who did not like him said that he would do his job but didn’t.

He has a lazy eye because he hit his head on a wall. When he was cast out when he was looking for a place to live he met someone else and built a small house. His friend died ten years later by breaking his legs in a hole and starved to death. Hairy died one year later from a fish by getting food poisoning.

Research, Reconstruction and Biography by YA Tristin

EYEBALLS

Spanish Pirate
Born: 1563, Spain
Died: 1602, hung by his ears

Captain of his ship, survived the Spanish Armada. His enemies captured him and would only let him go if he burned down his town, which he did. When his crew found out they turned against him and killed him.

Lost his eye due to his parrot, Squawk, flying and crashing into his face, leading his eye to fall out.

Before he died he sailed the Mediterranean Sea on his ship, the Sao Marcos, as a pirate.

Research, Reconstruction and Biography by YAs Maisie and Ailsa

HOMER

This is Homer. Homer was a soldier serving under Henry Percy, the third Baron at the Battle of Neville’s Cross (1346). While his side took a victory, Homer was fatally injured by an axe to the right side of his jaw, and died of his injuries in the days after the battle.

Homer was only 19 at the time of his death and left behind no wife or children. Homer was a poor farmer from just outside Warkworth. He was 5’3″ tall, with brown hair and green eyes.

Research, Reconstruction and Biography by Leader Blythe

VINCENT DISRAELI

Vincent Disraeli lived in Stirling with his wife Rosemary (known as Rose), his son Ronald (known as Ron), his daughter Euphemia (known as Effie) and his two sole-spaniel dogs, Minerva and Alford.

He was an explorer and died in Loch Ness looking for the Loch Ness Monster. His boat capsized after huge wave knocked against the side of it. The cause f death was the boat oar going into his skull where splinters of wood became embedded in his brain. He was paralysed from the waist down but managed to pull himself up onto a rock where his body was found three days later.

He died from hyperthermia during the night due to the cold temperatures and the wet wet clothes. His family were informed the day after his body was found and they had a closed casket ceremony (due to the mess his head was in). He was then buried in Sunnyside Cemetery in the family plot with his parents.

A blurry picture was recovered from the boat wreck that was washed up on shore, and seemed yo resemble the mythical Loch Ness Monster, Nessie. Whether Vincent saw the creature before his death or if he was killed by the monster remains a mystery to this day. The events took place during the first half of the 19th Century.

Research, Reconstruction and Biography by YAs Amy and Caitlin

Our latest Ayrshire Young Archaeologist Club (Ayrshire YAC) session focussed on the Romans in Scotland. We learned about what the Romans left behind and were impressed by how many things today were originally used by the Romans. Some of these things include straight roads, central heating and baths.

Our young archaeologists took part in a few craft activities including making their own mosaics and trying their hand at making and using Roman ink. We practiced writing with our homemade ink in Roman characters and using some Latin phrases.

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We also had some fun with the tablets onto which we had downloaded the game developed by Historic Environment Scotland, ‘Go Roman’. The ‘Go Roman’ game allowed our young archaeologists to wander around a digitised version of the Bar Hill Roman Fort. They could also select if they wanted to explore as a slave or a soldier and had different tasks and quests to do based on their roles. More information about this app can be found here:

Our YAs are very enthusiastic and we are delighted at how well our first year as a YAC is going. As a special thank you, we arranged to take our YAs on a field trip to the University of Glasgow Archaeology Department.

With funding we received to start our YAC, we were able to take the YAs via public transport and got to experience the train and the subway (which was a fun and new experience for most of them).

We met Dr Kenny Brophy, Senior Archaeology Lecturer who led us on a fascinating tour around the department. We got to experience what it would be like being a student at UoG and even got to take part in a lecture! The lecture was fascinating and focussed on some gruesome facts and stories from prehistory.

We were also lucky enough to get a chance to handle some really great artefacts and do some finds washing (which is always a favourite for our YAs).

We really had an amazing time and cannot thank Kenny and Jan enough for their time, patience and effort! It is great to be able to give our YAs these experiences and would not be able to do it without the kindness and generosity of others.

Our YAs got the chance to tell us what their favourite part of the day was:

My favourite part of today was cleaning the stones. I found it really fun and seeing all of the archaeological things. And I also liked the train because I barely every go on one.”

“My favourite thing of the field trip was 1. the train ride, 2. the tour, 3. cleaning the stuff and I thought it was a really fun experience.”

“All of it because I did not know what I liked.”

“I enjoyed cleaning the rocks and glass because it was interesting. :)”

“My favourite part of the annual YAC trip was the part where Kenny was giving us the talk about the bodies. I found it very interesting and fun to learn about. Overall I really enjoyed the whole trip and hope to go on another one soon.”

“My favourite thing was the subway train and the Krispy Kreme donuts.”

“My favourite part of the trip was the finds cleaning because it was very interesting. The chairs were also comfy and cool and the train because it was a great experience.”

“The fast train [subway] because I have only been on a train 3 times before.”

Ayrshire YAC Young archaeologists 2019-20

Our October session focussed on the Bronze and Iron Ages in Scotland. The Bronze Age is thought to have lasted from around 2300BC-800BC and the Iron Age from around 800BC-43BC. In most places there will be overlap and it is often very difficult to define exact dates for these periods.

Our YAs took part in a number of activities which explored these prehistoric periods. We measured out the footprint of the Iron Age roundhouses that used to be on Castle Hill, marking them out with pin flags. These houses were located under what is now the grassy area at the front of the castle, within the barmkin wall.

After marking out the locations of the houses, we investigated how they might have made their walls or floors. We learned to make hurdle panels using different types of branches. This was a great activity which all of our YAs thoroughly enjoyed. After practising our hurdling skills, we then made some prehistoric string from flax and nettles. These would have been common materials used in the process of making clothing and other fabrics. We finished off by learning all about plant dyes & weaving fabric with looms.

At lot of the time, Dundonald Castle’s prehistoric past is often forgotten about and it was great to be able to explore it with our YAs. We are hoping to introduce these types of activities to our visitors and enhance their experience too. It is often easy to forget about things we cannot see under our feet and focus on the fascinating upstanding castle instead.

Our YA’s had a very busy session on Sunday! We were lucky enough to be able to take part in Historic Environment Scotland’s ‘Diggin Dundonald’ event where we got to speak to some re-enactors, do some jousting and saw musket fire!

We then got into the trenches for some good old archaeological digging in Trench 1 where the YA’s put their excavation skills to good use. This is the second time that our YA’s have had to chance to excavate in real trenches this year, and we are so excited to be able to offer these opportunities to young people.

During this session our YAs were able to experience a number of hands-on and practical activities where they were able to put their own skills to good use. This session also allowed them to see how a heritage event is put together, who is involved, what it entails and who it attracts. The YAs found this very interesting and a few had some good ideas for events in the future.

We are now half way through out first year as a YAC and have to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved so far! Our YAs have shown great commitment and enthusiasm from the start and continue to impress us with their skills and knowledge.

In our next session, at the end of October, we will be focusing on some more prehistory during the Bronze and Iron Ages in Scotland.

Finally, a big Thank you to our photographers on the day, you did a great job!

Our YA’s had a fantastic session looking at some different types of recording after an excavation. As we had some excavation experience back in our May session, we thought it would be a good idea to look at how artefacts are then recorded.

We have some great examples of artefact drawing from all of the YA’s who chose to draw different artefacts including pot sherds, flint hand-axes, bones and teeth. Some of the drawings could even rival some professional artefact drawings!

We will be taking a summer break next month (July) and will return as usual for our session in August, where we will have a special guest joining us from the University of Glasgow to tell us all about prehistory in our local area.

What we got up to in May!

Our Young Archaeologists got their first experience of digging last month during the #DigDundonald2019 event which was organised by Historic Environment Scotland, CFA Archaeology and Friends of Dundonald Castle SCIO.

This was a fanastic 3-day event which focussed on digging a number of 1mx1m test pits around the village of Dundonald. This test pits were excavated in the local primary school, the church manse, local gardens and around Dundonald Castle.

This was a community event which saw many volunteers come and offer their support and turn their hands to digging, including our YAs!

Our YAs were lucky enough to get to dig in one of the local gardens where we managed to find a number of really interesting artefacts. Some finds included molten glass, marbles, pottery sherds and a few pipe bowls and stems.

Our YAs had an amazing time and will hopefully spend some time during their June session discussing skills and finds from the day.