Visit from Professor Fulford

Professor Fulford, Professor of Archaeology at Reading University, paid us a visit on Monday 6th November. We were delighted to welcome him to our school and sat with baited breath while we waited to discover what it was like to be an archaeologist!
The whole school were fascinated to discover all the different people who were involved in an archaeological dig: people who actually do the digging; people who photograph the site and the items discovered; people who log, measure and record each individual item; people who survey the land to discover where to dig in the first place and people who teach other people all about what has been discovered to name just a few.
After the assembly, Base 3 were lucky enough to spend the rest of the afternoon learning all about the archaeological dig at Silchester which Professor Fulford had been working with for the last eighteen summers. As well as showing us lots of pictures from the site, he also brought us lots of real Roman artefacts to touch and examine. The children were spellbound.
The piece de resistance was a real human femur and skull where the children learnt how archaeologists are able to discover how a person has lived and died by looking at the bones left behind.
We cannot thank Professor Fulford enough for sparing some of his precise time to share his vast knowledge with us. A quick survey before Professor Fulford left showed that pretty much all the children wanted to visit a dig site and more than half fancied the idea of being an archaeologist when they grew up – including Mrs Heaton!