When on a dig, what is the atmosphere like when the first artefact is recovered? Abigail Waller (13)

It all depends on the type of site that’s being dug and also on what that first artefact is. It’s always nice when you actually start finding something that is of the ‘right’ date, in other words from the time that you thought your site dated to. So this can be a worked flint, a Roman coin or a 100-year-old iron nail.

I recently worked on a church dig, and one of the diggers, Ed, got really excited when he showed me the first bit of medieval pottery! And one of our younger school diggers last year was thrilled when he found a nail from a First World War wooden hut (we were looking for a First World War Horse Hospital).

Basically all archaeologists, young and old, like finding things so an exciting find can cheer everyone up.