Update on the past while...

I've been out of touch for a while, everything got a bit mad with the helmet and then it was Christmas etc.....

...so what have I been up to then?

Well, I gave a talk at a 'Local Groups Day' organised by the Kent Archaeological Society and Kent County Council on my placement so far, and of course about the helmet. The day was arranged so the local archaeological and historical groups and societies could meet up and discuss not only what they had been up to in Kent, but what resources and training they felt they needed to take their members a step further into archaeology. It was very useful to me to see what all the groups had in common in terms of what they felt they needed and hopefully we can all work together to help overcome some of the hurdles mentioned during the day.

The helmet was laser scanned by University of Kent (all explained much better in this blog post if you like that sort of thing). Here it is being scanned:

Photo courtesy of CAT



Photo courtesy of CAT

 



 ..and here is the final image. The results were much better than I was expecting (though in all honesty I didn't really know what to expect!), the scan shows up incredible detail which we can't see as well with the naked eye. In places you can see where the helmet has been struck with a hammer during it's creation; it would have been made out of one sheet of metal and then hammered out into a mold. I've been helping to write small articles for various people and organisations, my contribution to the CBA website is here.

The Dover Boat was moved from Boulogne-Sur-Mer to Ename in Belgium.

 

 

A group of us from CAT went over to lend a hand putting our bits and pieces into the display cases which included two large bronze hoards (mostly made up of axes, spearheads, blades, and loads of copper cake), some pottery from the period, and one gold hoard made up of 13 gold torcs. The gold hoard is most impressive with many of the pieces being intact.

 

 

Talking of the Council for British Archaeology, they have uploaded our profiles onto the web so you can see who we are, where we are, and a little bit of what we're up too. Mine is here but for a list of the other placements click here. Applications for the next round are opening soon (if not already) so here is a link to the page with the details on. You do not need to be a qualified archaeologist to apply so if you are interested have a look at the details!

And so on to the next while. January is set to be interesting with some lovely treats for me (my Christmas and New Year brought some bad news from home and I could do with the cheering up!). Anyhoo, here are exciting things I've planned for the coming weeks:
- Volunteering at the British Museum! The lovely lady who we handed the helmet to at the BM has invited me to spend a few days playing in the back rooms. I'm not sure what I'll be doing - probably data entry - but we'll see!
- Helping CSI:Sittingbourne with their exhibition up at Westminster! I've been volunteered to go up to Westminster to assist the team in their exhibition. I've no idea what it entails but it's very exciting!
-  Arranging a small part of the final A Town Unearthed exhibition with the pupils of St Mary's. I thought it would be nice to showcase all their hard work and give them a chance to tell everyone what they got up too. I'm hoping that I can have a few of the Year 3's come and help me construct the displays and come to the big launch so they can show off what they learnt from us.

Still going to be very busy in my last months of my placement, te time will just fly by!