Who inspired you the most to become an archaeologist? Shirley (12)

Hi Shirley

I suppose my grandmother, who was a history teacher, first got me interested in the past.

I come from Orkney and ended up living in the West Country so I grew up with great archaeology all around me, which was inspiring.

My first site as a volunteer was at South Cadbury in Somerset, which is a famous Iron Age hill fort that was originally excavated by an archaeologist called Leslie Alcock; his book Cadbury/Camelot is very good, if a little old-fashioned now.

I also enjoyed Time Team, so I can also blame Tony Robinson, Phil Harding, Mick Aston and Carenza Lewis for leading me astray …

From Ian the Archaeologist

Answered by:

Ian Milsted

Ian works for York Archaeological Trust, managing excavations and surveys. He comes from Orkney and he once dug on a site packed with headless Romans!

I live near Pontefract in Yorkshire. Recently near where I live some builders making houses found a grave with Roman soldiers in. My grandad was talking to one of the builders and he said they still had their armour on. Did this happen often? Charlotte Wilson (9)

This does sound unusual as armour was normally re-used or recycled, although there are a few examples of this practice in Roman Britain. It sounds like a remarkable […]

What do you do when you find artefacts?! Do you put them in a museum, sell them in an auction, or just keep the items? Rukiye Shahla Babaoglu (9)

Hi Rukiye, The artefacts we find are carefully cleaned and catalogued, before being sent to specialists to study. These specialists can include people who are experts in particular […]

My 10yr old daughter wants to be an archaeologist and is mad keen on history. Can you recommend any books for someone her age? Oliver Marshall

There are loads of good books about archaeology for young people. A good general starting point is The Usborne Introduction to Archaeology by Abigail Wheatley It has loads […]