ARCHAEOLOGY IN ACTION
ACTIVITY SESSION
Teachers’ Notes
Welcome to Colchester Castle Museum. These notes are designed to make
the running of the ‘Archaeology in Action’ session as simple as possible.
The session lasts for 1 hour. These notes provide a timetable to make sure
you are able to complete all the activities.
AT THE END OF YOUR SESSION, PLEASE LEAVE THE ROOM
EXACTLY AS YOU FOUND IT, READY FOR THE NEXT GROUP.
The session includes five activities:
1. Arrival and watching an introductory DVD (10 minutes)
2. ‘Investigating the Past’ activities (30 minutes):
 Fine sorting
 Pottery identification
 Time line activity – ‘Going back in time’
3. Building a Celtic Roundhouse and Roman Villa (20 minutes)
Running the session
DVD – An archaeologist at work (10 mins)
1. Upon entering the room, sit the whole class in front of the television
and explain that the DVD will introduce the work of an archaeologist,
showing them how they look for clues about the past from the objects
they dig up.
2. Press
(‘play’) on the DVD player. When the film has finished,
press
(‘stop’) on the DVD player. You do not need to do anything
else, as the film is on a loop.
3. The DVD will last just over 5 minutes.
‘Investigating the Past’ activities (30 minutes)
Divide your class into three groups for the archaeology activities – ‘Going Back in
Time’ (timeline activity), ‘Fine Sorting’ and ‘Pottery Identification’. Rotate the
groups around the three activities, spending 10 minutes on each one.
The activities work most effectively if the same adults stay at each activity. There
are copies of the instructions by each activity.
TIME LINE ACTIVITY - GOING BACK IN TIME! (10mins)
The Archie-bin contains plastazote ‘layers of earth’ which each represent a
period in history. The deeper down the bin, the further back in time the
period of history is. Each period of history on the time line is colour coded
to correspond to a ‘layer of earth’ in the Archie-bin. The aims of the activity
are to show the concept of chronology and show change over time.
Running the activity:
 Sit the group on the floor around the timeline.
 Take out the ‘layers of earth’ from the Archie-bin and spread them
out around the timeline.
 Read out the clues on the time clue cards. Encourage the pupils to
act as detectives and see if they can identify each ‘layer of earth’
from the clues on the card.
 Put the correct ‘layer of earth’ next to its corresponding period of
history on the timeline, then continue through all the cards.
 When you have finished, put the ‘layers of earth’ back into the
Archie-bin in the correct order, reminding yourself which objects on
the timeline were buried the deepest and which were shallowest.
At the end of the session please refill the Archie-Bin, and put the time
line cards back in the tray.
Issues to consider back in your classroom
 What materials were used in each period of history?
FINE SORTING (10 mins)
The trays contain the remains of food found in a rubbish pit on an
archaeological site. A lot of the waste and leftovers have rotted away. The
finds in the trays contain a mixture of gravel and materials that have
survived in the ground through the ages. There are menu cards on the
table for different meals.
Running the activity:
 Use the tweezers to pick up an object, then identify it using the pictures.
Put the object in the dish with the correct picture.
 Find one of each of the different types of food remains and put them in
the correct dishes.
 Look at the menu cards and encourage the children to work out which
meal the Roman slave was preparing. The menu cards are as follow:
MENU 1
Gustatio (starters)
Cucumber salad with olive oil and grape juice
Primae Mensae (1st course)
Boiled chicken with oyster sauce
Secundae Mensae (2nd course)
Egg sponge with cherry sauce
MENU 2
Gustatio (starters)
Oyster platter
Primae Mensae (1st course)
Peppered sole fish
Secundae Mensae (2nd course)
Stuffed dates
MENU 3
Gustatio (starters)
Pineapple and melon slices
Primae Mensae (1st course)
Lamb with mint sauce
Secundae Mensae (2nd course)
Sweetened bread and custard
At the end of the session please replace all items and mix them up in the tray.
POTTERY IDENTIFICATION (10 mins)
There are sherds of original Roman pots in this tray. They were all found in
a rubbish pit on an archaeological site. You can find examples of what the
whole pots looked like in the photographs.
Running the activity:
 Pick up one of the sherds of pottery. Compare it with the pictures of
the pots in the photographs and place it on the correct photograph.
Note: The pots on the photograph may be bigger or smaller than
the pots from which the sherds originated.
 Continue to match all the sherds and photographs.
 Now look at the labels and find the correct label for each of these
sherds. Each label describes the pot and says what it was used
for in Roman times.
At the end of the session please replace all sherds of pottery into the
tray and put all the labels in a pile.
BUILDING ACTIVITIES (20 MINS)
Split the class into 2 groups for this activity.
Each group will build one of the houses.
Children really enjoy this activity. It requires good teamwork, as some
parts are heavy or awkward. After building, let the groups swap and
dismantle the other house.
The easy-to-follow building instructions are available in the activity
session. They can also be downloaded from the Colchester
Museums website:
www.colchestermuseums.org.uk
AT THE END OF YOUR SESSION, PLEASE LEAVE THE ACTIVITIES
EXACTLY AS YOU FOUND THEM, READY FOR THE NEXT GROUP.