WORK EXPERIENCE

“It was really interesting to follow finds through the different stages into archiving! I’ve grown quite attached to a particular archive of finds after a week of looking after them as they continue their archaeological journey from being washed and checked, to be bagged and marked, and finally archived and boxed. Moving the boxes around was a serious game of physical and mental jenga, but was quite relaxing when we got into it!

I found the local oyster shells particularly interesting (my grandparents come from Mersea, and it’s so cool to think that people have been getting their oysters there for thousands of years!), and the fragment of human skull which I felt like I had to say hi to every time we moved the box around!

Everyone was so lovely, especially Vikki, and Hector the cocker spaniel em-p(l)aw-ee! It was such a great experience and one that I’d definitely love to repeat sometime in the future!” – Emilia

“This week has been very interesting for me with marking finds, washing them and ordering them, I have grown quite attached to the site finds we have done. It has been a very fulfilling experience and I have gotten an experience out of it which I will keep with me forever

Even though I had to use my brain quite extensively in having the patience to mark ever single piece of pottery and having to sort all of the finds into the allocate them into groups even if we had to restart the box and find a better solution, we had a lot of fun doing it which is what made this work experience so amazing.

I had a few surprises along the way with how long it takes for the reports to be written, sorting the plastic bags for recycling, how many trenches the site team need to dig and of course the human skull. I have learnt how each individual task is important to maintaining an impressive archaeological environment. These tasks were integrated each day of my work experience. For example on my first day me and my colleague had to go through 3 bags of pottery, animal bone and many more and mark them individually which is a crucial process!!

Overall it was a lovely opportunity and something I will never forget thank you to all of CAT for providing me this wonderful experience.” – Poppy

Written by work experience students Emilia and Poppy. Thank you for your hard work!

*Picture of our site visit, led by Project Officer Ben*