ACTIVITIES
Archaeology Projects (external)
Exploring Archaeology (XArch), A 3-year community archaeology project funded by Heritage Lottery Fund & the University of Exeter. (Newsletter No 11 2006)
Project Director: Dr. Steve Rippon
Project Manager: Penny Cunningham
The previous well-known Community Landscapes Project
(CLP) was concerned with increasing public participation in landscape
archaeology and the sciences. While highly successful in this regard,
the project faced two challenges. First, how to engage large numbers of
people in a greater understanding of their own 'backyard archaeology'?
Second, how is it possible for such community projects to incorporate
the complex issues of archaeology into educational packages useful to
teachers when the subject is not officially a part of the national curriculum?
The new Exploring Archaeology (XArch) project aims to take these challenges head-on. XArch will offer a unique range of opportunities for Devon communities to become actively involved in recording and understanding their own local archaeology and landscapes. This is to be achieved free of cost (all equipment provided, including geophysics) through a programme of locally held indoor workshops and outdoor fieldwork events for researching an agreed local topic. In addition, XArch will create a low-cost, explicitly Devon-based booklet on methods of archaeological fieldwork and deskbased research.
As a result, participants will have the basic archaeological and research skills and tools needed to record their own local heritage. This will enable them not only to contribute to public resources, but to present their findings in an end-of-project publication. Equally, schools and colleges are also targeted with workshops designed to support a themebased approach to learning, whereby archaeology will provide a medium for the delivery of a range of linked learning objectives.
These workshops provide children with the opportunity to experience archaeological thought, methods and the sciences whilst at the same time increasing our children's awareness of their heritage.
Remember, all events are free so if your community or
local school would like to be involved, then please contact:
Penny Cunningham
XArch Project Manager
Department of Archaeology
Laver Building
North Park Road
Exeter
EX4 4QE
01392 263851
email: xarch@exeter.ac.uk
http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/xarch/
Copyright © 2007 North Devon Archaeological Society