We’ve had snowfall at Epaicum over the last day or two so we were wondering what the landscape may look like from the air. Well, there’s only one way to find out!
While it was certainly cold, very little wind combined with sunny skies creating long shadows made for almost perfect conditions to get a drone in the air to find out. For the results, check out the YouTube video below.
For those of an archaeological disposition we hope you agree it makes some of the features of the landscape very easy to identify.
Epiacum Heritage is delighted to be a sponsor for the ‘My Place in Time’ project run in collaboration with the Young Archaeologists’ Club, The Council for British Archaeology and SharedPast, led by Professor Stewart Ainsworth who should be familiar to many friends here at Epiacum through his work on the site. Stewart presents a short film about the project, which is available to view in the LINKS section below.
Young people are being helped to investigate and discover the heritage of everyday places on their own doorstep thanks to a pioneering archaeological project – which does not use trowels and trenches – but instead involves exploring places with the tools of the new digital age.
Stewart Ainsworth, Honorary Visiting Professor in Landscape Archaeology at the University of Chester who is also well known as the landscape archaeologist with Channel Four’s Time Team, explained that the project is aimed at showing young people how they can explore the history and archaeology of a local place or space without needing to dig. While it has a flexible element of outdoor investigation, the project’s budding ‘landscape detectives’ do not even have to leave the house if getting outside is not possible due to COVID-19 – or for any other reason – offering an opportunity to explore the past even during the fluctuating circumstances caused by the recent pandemic.
The project focuses on introducing non-invasive archaeology techniques, highlighting how to find out information and identify changes over time in and around a chosen place, using a range of online resources, including historic maps, aerial photography, lidar (light detection and ranging), 3D models of the landscape and archaeological records.
My Place in Time is a collaboration between SharedPast, a group of heritage specialists and volunteers led by Professor Ainsworth, the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) and the Young Archaeologists’ Club (YAC), with Dr Joanne Kirton, Youth Engagement Manager for the CBA – who gained her PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) in Archaeology at the University of Chester – also playing an integral role.
The project will be delivered initially to YAC group leaders, who will liaise with the SharedPast team to tailor training sessions and activities to meet the requirements of their own club – of which there are more than 70 throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
