I had so much fun at this party that I thought it should have its own blog piece!!

We had the Young Archaeologists Club Christmas Party at MShed and everyone had a marvellous time!! We started the party with several activities including finds handling, games and we asked everyone what they wanted to learn about next year – suggestions included dinosaurs, the Greeks, trade, the history of medicine. 
 
Professor Alice Roberts joined our party and talked to everyone before cutting the cake I made – and what a nice cake!! Not that I’m biased or anything…

My favourite activity was the string timeline! Using a scale of 1cm to 10years we travelled back through the centuries, zigzagging for metres across the room, with important and memorable events pegged onto the string as we went, right back to the Mesolithic!! Parents came in very handy to hold the string and were able to add a few events of their own!

The party ended with a buffet lunch and watched The Matthew of Bristol, a replica of the English ship that discovered North America in 1497, sail around Bristol’s Floating Harbour…

I have thoroughly enjoyed this week – two Takeover Day sessions, a training day on Medieval and Post-Medieval Ceramics and I got to make miniature laurel wreath headdresses for teddy bears!! I love my job!!

The first Takeover Day session was at Oasis Academy Brightstowe and our Roman Merchandising Project. Yes I had to be at the school for 8:30am - but so did everyone else. The students really engaged with the idea of the project and enjoyed creating their designs for a range of different products. I liked chatting to the students and asking them about the parts of Kings Weston Roman Villa which had inspired them.

The second Takeover Day session of the week was part of our second project for Kids In Museums with the very enthusiastic Duke of Edinburgh Group from Henbury School who became Curators and Conservators of Kings Weston Roman Villa. Kate and I started the session by introducing ourselves and the history of the Villa. Kate then took them on a tour and I told them about Roman food as well as answering some curious questions about the villa...

Q: “Did they have gladiator fights and bear baiting over there?” 
      Points to dining room 
A: “The Romans did have entertainment during dinner but I don’t think they had gladiator fights or bear baiting."

Q: “Is it a swimming pool?” 
      Points to hypocaust (heating) system
A: “Not really.”

Q: “Are people buried under here?” 
      Points to dining room floor
A: “They didn't find anyone when the Villa was excavated.”

I had a lot of fun working with the Duke of Edinburgh Group because their enthusiasm for the history of the Villa and for the tasks knew no bounds!! I am sooo looking forward to the next session with them!!

The training day on Medieval and Post-Medieval Ceramics was very handily based at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and was run by Mike Ponsford and Kate Iles. Mike is the leading expert on the Medieval and Post-Medieval ceramics held by the museum. He was the Museum’s Curator of Field Archaeology before retiring and is now back working with the museum as a Monument Fellow. Mike is, simply put, an absolute fount of information about Medieval and Post-Medieval ceramics and was more than happy to answer any and all questions asked – which I did. A lot.

Now to explain how I got to make miniature laurel wreath headdresses for teddy bears…

… Over Christmas and New Year the museum is offering half-price family tickets for Roman Empire: Power & People if you bring along your teddy dressed up in a toga. Of course this is not an easy thing to do so Gail decided to make a ‘How to…’ video. So I got to make laurel wreath headdresses for teddy bears for the ‘How to…’ video and photographs to promote the offer.

This week has been dominated with preparations for our first session of the tentatively titled ‘Roman Merchandising Project’.

The project, funded by the Bristol Decorative and Fine Arts Society, is for Year 10 Art Students at Oasis Academy Brightstowe to work with the artist Julie Roberts, to design and produce a new range of merchandise inspired by Kings Weston Roman Villa, which will be sold in Bristol Museum & Art Gallery Shop.

The first session started at 8:30am at Oasis Academy Brightstowe and we (myself and Kate from Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives, Marion from Bristol Decorative and Fine Arts Society and Julie Roberts) introduced ourselves and explained the aims and objectives of the project to the students. We then took them on a short field trip to Kings Weston Roman Villa to show them what remains of the Villa and to hopefully inspire them to create beautiful designs.

This project is also one of two projects which Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives are running for Kids In Museums Takeover Day. So, as well as the students seeing their products for sale in the museum shop – they have participated in a national celebration of children and young people’s contribution to museums, galleries and historic homes.