Archeoscan are continuing excavations this year at a multi-period site near to Tetbury, Gloucestershire. The 2010 season uncovered Iron Age ditches and a 3rd/4th Century Roman building plus large amounts of flint, coins and pottery. Final days of the 2010 season revealed hypocaust and roof tiles indicative of a high status settlement. In 2011 they excavted more of the features at the site in order to ascertain a greater understanding of the archaeology and concentrated on a Roman farmstead building. The fully supervised excavations are being advised by Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology Service and are conducted to the highest professional standards.

All are welcome from absolute beginner to the more experienced for any number of days (minimum age 16). Participants have the opportunity to take part in excavations, geophysics, recording, field walking, finds processing/handling and analysis. Training given where required. Cost is £20/day. Seasons normally run April/May through October.

Contact details at http://www.archeoscan.com/1.html

A friend bought my daughter a "crystal mining" set recently; basically, crystals embedded in a block of plaster. She spent hours slowly chipping away at it, and it hit all the right notes for her: archaeology, fossils and crystals (and MineCraft!). She was in geek-girl heaven!

[Finrod852]

Oh, that's so exciting for her! Is she planning on pursuing archaeology as a career?

Well, she's not quite eight so she changes her mind frequently, although archaeology has always been a big draw to her, probably because of my (purely amateur) involvement in it. So she's been dragged along to digs which she discovered were actually a lot more fun than she expected even when you don't uncover a Saxon hoard or Neolithic burial. Some of my friends and acquaintances are also fairly well-known "TV archaeologists" which has given her a (false) sense of 'glamour' about the subject!

She definitely wants to go into science rather than art, however.

[Finrod852]

That's a great field to be in! Eventhough I fall asleep reading science textbooks, it's a very great feat to have a passion for science. I wish I persued astronomy more, but once we got to astrometrics I was lik "Ok I'm done." So that was the end of that I'm afraid.