A day in the Stone Age

Today has been long, exhausting, interesting and fun.  We drove 90-something miles to Suffolk and back again for a stone age experience.  Will Lord is an experimental archaeologist and knows *a lot* about prehistoric people.

We left the house at 7.30 (7.30!  In the morning!), and arrived at about 9.45.  We were shown into the tent.  The tent was decorated with cave art type drawings, and lots of animal skins. 

We waited, until eventually we heard a sound, like a horn blowing.  The stone age men were coming!

They were dressed in furs and skins, and had even made their shoes from authentic materials.

After a fun timeline presentation, we went outside.  There were lots of things for the kids to do or watch.  They could use ochres on their faces, do cave-type art on clay, skin a deer, flint knapping, fire lighting (with no flint and steel, very tricky), making a rabbit trap, making an antler whistle (very very tricky!), as well as chatting with Will and Simon.  They are both extremely knowledgeable and interesting.

We started by watching Will skin a muntjac deer.  All three kids watched the whole thing.

Here is the meat folded up in the skin, to keep the flies (and the cat!) off.  It was cooked over the fire for lunch, and was delicious.

Fred painted his face, and I did Betsy's and Meg's.

We made some clay figures - little dolls - to represent our family.  Betsy made some clay animals too, very cute!

We watched Will and Simon make embers, using a stick and leather that looked a bit like a bow.

The kids had a go at flint knapping.  I couldn't get photos of the girls as I was holding the flint for them.

Other photo opportunities missed - rabbit trapping, cave art clay creations, attempts at whistle making.

It was a fascinating day.

Flag Fen, and birds of prey

We went on an education visit to Flag Fen near Peterborough yesterday.  It's a Bronze Age archaeological centre, developed as a result of important finds from archaeological excavations in the 1970s.

The workshop was rather schooly, with lots of question and answer moments.  Some of it didn't appeal to my kids.  I was a little disappointed.  The material was amazing, but not presented in a particularly interesting way.

The sections that worked best were, unsurprisingly, hands on.  We handled prehistoric artifacts from the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, and were set the task of identifying which period things had come from.  The kids really got into that.

They also enjoyed a bit of experimental archaeology, aka pot making.  They used the materials that Bronze Age people would have had access to, and used sticks, pine cones, shells etc to make patterns on their pots.  

After lunch we walked around the site, which I found interesting but the kids didn't.  They rolled down hills while I listened!

They have some ancient boats, found in 2012.  They're 3000+ years old, and it was a real privilege to see them.  They're being preserved, which is a long slow process.  Here are some rubbish photos of boats in bubble wrap or under water!

We also were able to see the wooden posts that Flag Fen is most famous for.

Finally we went into a replica roundhouse, built from the same materials that Bronze Age people would have used.

While the day wasn't a resounding success for my kids, they did enjoy some of it.  And I'm hoping that some seeds were sown about prehistoric people and how they lived.

We're going on a very hands on prehistoric workshop with Will Lord in May, so hopefully this visit was a little groundwork.  I'm also planning on going to the Chiltern Open Air Museum in July, for an Iron Age experience day.

Today we went to Camp Mohawk.  As well as the usual playing with friends action, there were owls and birds of prey.  A great day there as usual.