Introducing our newest YAC: Cirencester YAC
We’re delighted to introduce another new branch to the YAC network: Cirencester YAC, based at Corinium Museum! Branch leaders Michaela and Phillip tell us more about this exciting new club in Gloucestershire and their exciting taster event in January…
After several months of planning, Corinium Museum staff Michaela Lennox and Phill Brant-Simmons will be starting a Young Archaeologists’ Club (YAC) at the museum. The 17th of January marked our taster session for the club, with our official launch planned for 21st February.
We were both very excited about starting this club, and we’ve come up with loads of ideas for sessions throughout the year, which we can’t wait to share with the club. At our taster event, we started off with a brief talk discussing what archaeology is and what it involves, then we had an archaeological and history inspired quiz, which the kids did really well at!
For the second activity, we gave them some real pottery from a dig in 2016, and tasked them with recording, identifying, and drawing the pottery. All things that real archaeologists have to do in their jobs. I was impressed at how keenly the kids took to the task, some of them even found some sherds that went together and were from the same pot.
Lastly, we gave them two burials with grave goods from Butler’s Field in Lechlade and similarly tasked them with working together to record the finds. They worked together well and managed to piece together the stories of the two people, at least the start of it anyway.
It was a really fun first session, and we are already thinking of ideas for the next one, with a theme of fossils. We were astounded with the number of children interested in joining an archaeology club. It showed how much the area needed one, which isn’t surprising with the incredibly rich history Gloucestershire has.
Phill had mountains of ideas for future club sessions which was ideal, as Michaela’s background lies with natural history! We have so many ways to explore the past, we feel we are in an incredibly privileged position to be able to share what we know and new discoveries with the next generation.
Cirencester YAC is grateful for support from the Friends of Corinium Museum.
We are delighted to welcome Cirencester YAC to the YAC network. Find out more about the branch and get in touch on their webpage: Cirencester YAC.
