This year Teffont Archaeology has run a series of finds workshops at Salisbury Museum. Each workshop focuses on a different material commonly found on archaeological excavations. Sue Martin is one of our many dedicated volunteers, and lets us know what she thinks about the workshops!
Like a lot of people it was Time Team that sparked my interest in archaeology and as a result when I was offered an opportunity to study for a part time Archaeology degree at Bristol University led by Mick Aston I took it. I later transferred to the Distance Learning Course offered by Leicester University and graduated in 2017. It was during this time I also volunteered at Salisbury Museum on the Pitt Rivers Collection, in the Environmental section at Wessex Archaeology and on a variety of community digs. This was a valuable experience all round prompting me to leave my career in Law after 26 years and work with English Heritage at Stonehenge.
I joined the Teffont Archaeology Project in 2023 through the volunteer days offered by Cranborne Natural Landscape and subsequently excavated at Teffont, Coombe Bissett and Bowerchalke. These projects offered a wide range of experience from digging, drawing, finds washing and processing, environmental sampling and conservation. This was a great experience offering comprehensive training in all aspects of an excavation, not just the digging. Since January 2025 a variety of free workshops have taken place in Salisbury Museum again run by the Teffont Archaeology project. The subjects have been wide and varied, there has been something for everyone.
Sue and colleague on site at Teffont in 2023
The workshop on Roman coins, dress accessories and metalwork focused on a subject new to me. I was amazed what could be discovered on each coin. Each coin was a work of art in itself - the obverse of each coin revealed information about the current Emperor including his title and where the coin was struck. The reverse detailed imagery of various gods/goddesses and glorifying the achievements of the Emperor. An early form of propaganda! Such information enabled each coin to be placed chronologically in a Reece period and thus spot date a context. Equally the different types bow brooches were interesting and informative.
The workshop on Conservation of artefacts featured the difference between conservation and restoration, the agents of deterioration and how to clean copper alloy. I had undertaken a little metalwork conservation on site at Teffont. We all received our own individual conservation kits and set about cleaning copper alloy Roman coins using mechanical and chemical methods. Broken ceramics could be repaired by gap-filling. For this exercise we each received a broken ceramic saucer and using plaster of Paris and dental wax aimed to replace the missing ceramic piece and then decorate this to match the original pattern. However, I am not very artistic and mine fell apart prompting a lot of laughter from the rest of the group, but an interesting exercise.
Participants try out 'gap filling' ceramics at the conservation workshop
I knew a little about Samian and Black Burnished Ware so was pleased to learn a lot more about other different types in the Pottery workshop. The workshop dealt with what pottery can actually reveal about a site such as dating, culture and society, trade, distribution and production. The key production sites of Wareham/Poole Harbour, New Forest, Oxford and Samian relating to Teffont revealed just how far pottery travelled to reach the Teffont site. We finished with pottery identification, using samples and textbooks. including how to record various pottery sherds and spot dating.
Animal bone is one of the most frequent finds on an excavation and the animal workshop concentrated firstly on identification of the various mammalian skeletal bones. My group had a biology background so we were given a bag of goose bones to identify and lay out. Not too easy regarding the wing bones! Animal bones, of course give information about diet and craft practices at a site as well as the local ecology and farming practices. The workshop also included examples of different sites and what the respective faunal assemblages could reveal about the culture of that time.
The building materials workshop featured Teffont and other high status Roman sites in the area and included stone, ceramic building material, fired clay and plaster - all materials used in construction. Again, I knew little about this subject apart from recognising medieval floor and roof tiles having excavated at Clarendon Palace. Concentrating on Teffont we were introduced to the local and non-local geology from which such materials were sourced for the construction of the complex. We were shown how to identify the different types of ceramic building material, fired clay and plaster not forgetting to include the mortar which I had not realised before. Again, interesting and much more to the subject than I thought.
Participants learn from Dr Kevin Haywood at the archaeological building materials workshop
The last workshop I attended was stratigraphy which I had encountered before on various excavations using a Harris Matrix. The workshop started with key concepts and the four laws of stratigraphy followed by a practical demonstration for each group using layers of a cake as an example. No one ate the cake afterwards though! A short lecture on context sheets, stratigraphy and drawing was followed by a practical exercise of drawing a vertical section from a photo of an excavated pit and adding the contexts into the drawing. The practical session on Harris matrices presented an enjoyable challenge trying to unravel an imaginary section of multiple layers. This was followed by the principles of grouping , dating and phasing.
Each and every workshop was informative, interesting and enjoyable leaving you wanting to know more about each subject. All were interesting and well taught – a mixture of lectures and practical exercises to put your new found knowledge to use. All workshops left me with wanting to know more about each subject and feeling I had added to my knowledge. It was also great to spend time with others who I had previously met on site and who shared an interest in archaeology.
This has been a great idea to consolidate what has been learnt on site in the previous years and I am looking forward to the remaining workshops.