Sunday July 26th, half way through the Festival of British Archaeology fortnight, was Awesome Archaeology day. A chance for people to find out about environmental archaeology and the work an archaeologist does. First thing the weather was OK so we started setting up outside the Caban at Plas Newydd, but rain started before we had got far and we were forced indoors…………………we thought this would mean we didn’t get many visitors but that was not the case!

All day youngsters and their families called in and had the opportunity to sieve soil and find seeds, nuts and snails, all clues about the environment of the past.  For example snails are very fussy about where they live, a woodland snail will only live in the woods. If you find this woodland snail on your archaeological site, in a layer dating from the Roman period, you can say that the site was in woodland when the Romans lived there, even if it isn’t now.

There was a great ‘treasure trail’ around the grounds of Plas Newydd too, the clues (hidden in trees) were all about the tools archaeologists use and the sort of things that they find on digs. Examples of all the clues were in the Caban too, so people could see the trowel an archaeologists uses or the pottery they find. Inside the Caban as well as the activities, the Heather and Hillforts exhibition was on display………..with Llantysilio Mountains overlooking us.

By the end of the day Sam, Sarah, Rhun and I felt we’d had a really good day, about 60 youngsters had come to ‘have a go’ despite the poor weather………….and apparently the numbers of visitors at the house were up too……..so an unexpected bonus!