Archaeological skills and concepts
These worksheets can be used on their own to get pupils familiar with methods of
investigating the past other than looking at historical documents, or with enquiry
based worksheets looking at the archaeological remains left from each period.
Below are short descriptions of what each worksheet aims to do and links to the
full worksheet, should you want to use it.
National Curriculum Links
This worksheet is intended to supplement historical knowledge, skills and
understanding. Many archaeological skills also involve geographical skills.
History; Key Stage 2; Knowledge, skills and understanding
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1b: use dates and vocabulary relating to the passing of time,
including ancient, modern, BC, AD, century and decade.
3: recognise that the past is represented and interpreted in different
ways, and to give reasons for this.
4: how to find out about the events, people and changes studied
from an appropriate range of sources of information, including ICTbased sources [for example, documents, printed sources, CDROMS, databases, pictures and photographs, music, artefacts,
historic buildings and visits to museums, galleries and sites]
History; Key Stage 3; Knowledge, skills and understanding
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1: recognise and make appropriate use of dates, vocabulary and
conventions that describe historical periods and the passing of time.
3a: how and why historical events, people, situations and changes
have been interpreted in different ways
3b: to evaluate interpretations.
4a: identify, select and use a range of appropriate sources of
information including oral accounts, documents, printed sources, the
media, artefacts, pictures, photographs, music, museums, buildings
and sites, and ICT-based sources as a basis for independent historical
enquiries
4b: evaluate the sources used, select and record information relevant
to the enquiry and reach conclusions.
Geography; Key Stage 2 & 3; Knowledge, skills and understanding
Archaeological skills and concepts
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2c: to use atlases and globes, and maps and plans at a range of scales
2d: to use secondary sources of information, including vertical and
oblique aerial photographs [for example, stories, information texts, the
internet, satellite images, photographs, videos]
2e: to draw plans and maps at a range of scales [for example, a sketch
map of a locality]
2f: to use ICT to help in geographical investigations
3d: to explain why places are like they are [for example, in terms of
weather conditions, local resources, historical development]
3e: to identify how and why places change [for example, through the
closure of shops or building of new houses, through conservation
projects]
4a: recognise and explain patterns made by individual physical and
human features in the environment
Archaeological words
There is an illustrated glossary giving explanations of archaeological words used
in the website. The glossary terms are not exhaustive but do cover some of the
most common and more outlandish terms used in the Unlocking
Buckinghamshire's Past website. Many of the glossary terms also have
accompanying pictures as examples or to illustrate some of the more technical
ideas.
They can be browsed by clicking on the Themes List button and then on more…
under the first few glossary terms. There are also links from the difficult words so
your pupils can easily consult the glossary to work out what a word means as
they come upon it.
You can use the archaeological words worksheet with your pupils to help them
get familiar with archaeological words before they do other work on the Unlocking
Buckinghamshire's Past website. This helps towards literacy targets as well as
learning words associated with history.
The first task involves finding definitions of some of the most widely used and
jargonistic terms in archaeology. These are artefact; earthwork; monument;
landscape; feature; BC and AD. They are all defined in the glossary. Your pupils
Archaeological skills and concepts
may need a bit of help to get their heads around some of the concepts, others
are easier to understand.
The worksheet continues with four types of monuments that represent different
periods in archaeology: prehistory; Roman; medieval and post-medieval. This is
a chance for your pupils to look in depth at what these monuments are and draw
a picture of them (from the illustrations in the glossary term) so they understand
them more fully. They have been given a definition of the monuments and they
have to find the word that encapsulates all of the definition. The terms (in order)
are barrow, villa, monastery and ha-ha.
The following worksheets explain and set out activities to help your pupils
understand some of the basic concepts and techniques of archaeological theory
and investigation. They are all suitable for use in the classroom.
Looking at landscape:
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Lumps and bumps in the ground
This worksheet outlines, using plans and aerial photographs of earthworks, what
to look for when out in the field. This will be a useful worksheet to do before
visiting any earthwork sites.
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Hedgerow dating
This worksheet gives some principles for hedgerow dating, which is useful for
dating the age of field boundaries, and, therefore, the fields themselves. There is
also a checklist of species you may find in hedgerows. You can then go out and
date some of the hedges of the late Saxon, medieval and post-medieval period.
See the Resources section for a website on hedgerow dating.
Map-based skills:
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How to read a map
This worksheet starts with 2 figure grid references and there are options to
extend the activities to 4 and 6 figure grid references for older or more able
students. An optional extension activity would be to select an OS Landranger
map of your area and ask the children to work out the 6 figure grid reference of
archaeological features, like settlements, tumuli, hillforts and mottes. You must
contact the County Archaeological Service for the maps to accompany this
worksheet.
Archaeological skills and concepts
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Contours
This activity is for use at Key Stage 3. It enables the students to understand how
contours are created on maps and also to transfer the contours on a map to a
scale model.
Aerial photography:
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How to interpret aerial photographs
This worksheet gives the principles for interpreting aerial photographs and some
examples for the students to test their understanding of the concepts.
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How to plot from aerial photographs
This worksheet should be used in conjunction with How to read maps. It outlines
two techniques for plotting from aerial photographs. Sketch plotting could be
done with most students whereas the network method could be used with older
or more able students.
Building recording:
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How to measure the height of a building
This gives a number of different ways you can measure the height of a building.
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How to record the fabric of a building
This worksheet gives some principles for recording the exterior and interior of a
building. After reading this the children could test their understanding by
recording the exterior or interior of the school.
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How to date buildings
This worksheet gives some principles of the history of architecture for both
secular and religious buildings, along with illustrations of each item. This is to be
used in conjunction with either the worksheet about dating your village’s church,
buildings or doing a character assessment. There are many links to building and
church architectural history websites in the Resources section below.
Artefact interpretation:
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Rubbish bin excavation
This worksheet asks the children various questions about the rubbish they are
going through. You can either arrange to bring in rubbish from home or from a
friend and the children have to deduce something about the person from his or
her rubbish, or you can use rubbish bins from around the school and the children
Archaeological skills and concepts
have to work out which room they came from. This activity can also explore the
idea of decay by getting the children to think about, out of everything in the
rubbish bins, what would survive for archaeologists to find in 500 or 1000 years
time. It is advisable that bins are vetted before use and any hazardous items
removed. Children should wear latex gloves and aprons whilst looking through
the rubbish.
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What do archaeological artefacts tell us?
This worksheet is best undertaken with real and replica archaeological artefacts.
These can be borrowed from the Schools Library Service. The worksheet asks
the children questions about the material, colour, shape and weight of each
artefact and then challenges them to work out what it was from and what kind of
date it was. This is done through an illustrated glossary of similar artefacts; the
children have to match up the objects and the pictures. Your students could also
look to see what is in their garden and bring that in to compare with the illustrated
glossary. More pictures can be found on the Portable Antiquities Scheme
website, the address is in the Resources section.
Archaeological site interpretation:
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Decay and destruction
This worksheet invites the students to think about what types of things decay
when put in the ground and which types of things don’t. They are then given the
records of four archaeological sites and asked to work out how each site was
destroyed, was it left to rot, burned, flooded or dismantled? They can then make
a decision as to which form of destruction leaves the best-preserved sites. The
archaeological site records are available under the Resources section below.
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How to interpret archaeological site plans
This worksheet gives some examples of site plans for the children to interpret.
The principles of site recording are explained so that the plans and sections of
features and whole sites become intelligible. This will be useful when interpreting
site plans in order to draw a reconstruction.
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Understanding stratigraphy
Stratigraphy is a concept that has been borrowed from geology. Rock strata were
laid down in sequence so that the oldest are at the bottom and the youngest at
the top. Some of these strata have moved over the years and lower strata have
sometimes risen above the upper strata but generally the principle is strong. The
Archaeological skills and concepts
same is true on an archaeological site. Roman layers tend to be below Saxon
ones. You could demonstrate this with a layered cake. If you cut through a cake,
you can see several layers. With a Victoria sponge cake, the top layer of cake
could be medieval, the jam Saxon and the lower layer, Roman. However, it gets
more complicated on archaeological sites because humans have a tendency to
dig into the ground, digging through earlier layers so that the strata get mixed up.
Reconstructing the site:
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Draw a reconstruction
Once the students have learned how to interpret an archaeological site plan, they
will be in a better position to draw a reconstruction of what they think a site
looked like. They will also be encouraged to find out about predominant building
materials for each period to incorporate into their reconstruction.
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Evaluate a reconstruction
The children will be asked to evaluate the reconstruction of the Saxon site at the
Orchard, Walton, which is accompanied by information about the site. Print off a
copy of the reconstruction for each child and get them to create a spider diagram
around it. Where different sources of evidence have been used for a specific
element of the drawing, they can be written in different colours. When a report is
written the colours are all grouped together. This helps the students form
paragraphs.
Planning:
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Do a character assessment of your village or town
This worksheet introduces your students to the concept of Conservation Areas
and doing character appraisals. In this way it ties in with Citizenship targets by
explaining one of the duties of the local authority. It also develops the idea of
dating buildings and can be done after the How to date buildings worksheet.
Instead of characterising a conservation area your class could characterise their
whole village or part of their town. The children will be asked to split the area you
have chosen into character areas. Character can be defined by a number of
things, such as the size, scale and style of buildings as well as things like the
detailing on the houses, the provision of front gardens, front walls or fences,
driveways and so on. The local authority often uses character appraisals to
inform planning decisions. Perhaps you could contact the Conservation Office in
your District Council and get them to have a look at the character appraisals your
class has done.
Archaeological skills and concepts
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Giving advice on a planning application
The children are asked to think about an area you have studied in detail, such as
your own village or town. Several thousand houses need to be built and the
children have to figure out where they should be put, what they should look like
and what the names of the streets should be. They will also need to think of ways
of using any archaeological earthworks in a positive way so they contribute to the
development but also so they are protected and conserved. Alternatively, the
children can take a site like Quarrendon, which has Tudor garden earthworks, the
moat of a great house, fishponds, the ruins of a church and three deserted
medieval villages within a small area to the north of Aylesbury. Three thousand
houses will be built in this area, so perhaps the children could use this as an
example.
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New uses for old buildings
The class are asked to choose an empty building in your village or town. The
class should visit the building and be split into pairs. Each pair takes notes and
photographs of the building and writes these up into a report on the state of the
building. They are then encouraged to ask local residents what they know about
the past history of the building and what they would like to see done with it (see
our suggested residents survey questions). Finally, the report and the residents
survey can be put together into a planning application to your local planning
authority. You can contact a planning officer in your local authority who may be
willing to check the ‘planning applications’ and give feedback to the students.
Resources
Building history online:
www.butser.org.uk is the website of the reconstructed Iron Age village at Butser
Ancient Farm. There is also a reconstructed villa there now and you can take a
virtual tour around the villa and compare the style of building between the Iron
Age and the Roman periods.
www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/play/wstow-buildings.cfm. This is the website
for the reconstructed Saxon village of West Stow in Suffolk where you can see
images of the houses they have rebuilt to compare them with later medieval
houses.
Archaeological skills and concepts
The following websites have information and activities based around architectural
history and how it can be traced in the styles of building and decoration in houses
and churches:
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www.lookingatbuildings.org.uk
www.building-history.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary
Map reading:
This is a link to the BBC website to a map-reading activity that may help when
teaching that part of the package:
www.bbc.co.uk/history/lj/locallj/map_entry.shtml.
The Ordnance Survey have developed a series of education packages to help
teach map-reading and other geography skills. They are also running a free
maps for schools project. www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/education.
Hedgerow dating
This link takes you to an online book on hedgerows, for more background
information on hedgerow dating:
http://handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/section/253
Artefacts
The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a scheme to encourage members of the
public to report the archaeological artefacts they find. The website has a
database of objects and many images to browse through: www.finds.org.uk.
Spoilheap is a website that goes into a little more detail about archaeological
artefacts and has a gallery of images of pottery and building material:
www.spoilheap.co.uk/finds.htm.
The Celtic Coin Index is a database and gallery of Iron Age gold and tin coins,
just in case your students are lucky enough to find one of those:
www.writer2001.com/cciwriter2001/index.htm.
Case studies
A site destroyed by decay - Saxon settlement in the Orchard, Walton.
Archaeological skills and concepts
A site destroyed by dismantling - sixteenth century house at Temple End, High
Wycombe.
A site destroyed by fire – thirteenth century building in Wing cemetery
A site destroyed by flooding – Bronze Age bridges at Dorney
Further reading
Aston, M 2002. Interpreting the Landscape from the air. Tempus Publishing Ltd.
Bowden, M 1999. Unravelling the Landscape: An Inquisitive Approach to
Archaeology. Tempus.
Griffiths, N, Jenner, A & Wilson, C 1990. Drawing Archaeological Finds – A
Handbook. Archetype.
Robinson, T & Aston, M 2002. Archaeology is Rubbish: A Beginner’s Guide.
Channel 4 Books.
Zarmati, L & Cremin, A 1998. Experience Archaeology. Cambridge University
Press.