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Visitors at Prescot Street for National Archaeology Week

The recent passing of National Archaeology week was not unnoticed by the fine workforce here at Prescot Street. We held 3 open evenings and one open day, all of which were pretty packed. I was present on the first open evening (or the open open evening if you like….) which saw around 30 people gather to have a look at our site first hand. After a bit of background on the area and an overview of what was happening on site, it then came for the finds handling, overseen by my good self. At first everybody seemed to be rather nervous about diving in, however once I told them not to be shy they all dived in. Some of the objects that got the most attention was the shale bracelets and beads. Shale is a sedimentary rock, which is quite difficult to shape, and forms in layers much like slate. As Lorna reminded me later in the week, apparently Romans believed shale had amuletic properties… Other favourites included the Medieval Penn tiles and the impressive collection of Roman coins.

Well, National Archaeology Week is over now, unfortunately, but the discovery of a very well preserved skeleton has given me a delicate task to do in the ever increasing temperature. In fact, I think I hear it calling me now….