Archaeological Excitement at Northern Schools

Ever thought about the past?

If you find yourself wondering what life was like in centuries gone by, how humans lived and where they travelled, then a career in archaeology could be your calling!

Archaeology is an area that is not always the first to spring to mind when you think of STEM and large infrastructure projects like the A9 dualling project, however archaeologists are here to protect our heritage and are some of the first professionals to be brought on to a project.

As scientists who study human activity and the past, archaeologists recover artefacts, ecofacts (such as seeds and grains) and investigate sites across the landscape to help them present a picture of the past.

A wide range of scientific techniques are used in analysing objects and samples which will hopefully provide information on their age, what they may have been used for and where they have travelled from.

I say hopefully as every so often the samples don’t return as much information as originally hoped – projects don’t always go to plan!

The Academy9 team linked up with a team of archaeologists who carried out the archaeology works on the proposed A9 dualling section between Tomatin and Moy to deliver outreach sessions to the schools near the site.

The team visited Grantown Grammar School along with Carrbridge, Daviot and Strathdearn Primaries to learn how archaeologists are able to piece together and preserve evidence of our ancestors in order to tell stories from the past.

During these sessions pupils were exposed to the creativity and problem-solving required for successful archaeological digs and learned more about how archaeologists fit in to an infrastructure project.

If you would like to learn more about some of the Archeology work that has been undertaken on the A9 you can learn more here.

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