This year, the University of Liverpool's Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology was represented at the British Museum as part of University Archaeology Day 2018 and London Anthropology Day 2018.
Lego isn’t just a great toy, it’s also surprisingly a fantastic learning tool for reconstructing accurate, grand Roman Villas! For this reason, students and staff from the University of Liverpool decided to bring it down to the British Museum for University Archaeology Day 2018, to showcase how we can use different methods for reconstructing our ancient past, from what we have left behind.
Alongside this, we also brought down some bones, stones and of course stress pyramids, to give a taster of the range of subject areas available to study within the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology. Dr Jessica Pearson provided a more in-depth talk covering our degree areas, “From Fossils to Pharaohs” as our resident Osteoarchaeologist.
Image credit: Lisa Daniel, UCL Institute of Archaeology 2018.
Manning our stall was myself as the veteran student of 8 years, and our Lego master-builder and Mediterranean Archaeologist Dr Matthew Fitzjohn. A wide variety of visitors from PhD students to those having just been on their first dig, to those just looking to pique their interest, meant it was a really interesting day for us and a great opportunity to showcase our availability to accommodate those from a range of backgrounds at the University of Liverpool.
Returning to the British Museum a week later, myself, Dr Pearson and fellow student veteran Dominic Coe hopped back on the train for London Anthropology Day 2018. This time, our focus was our Evolutionary Anthropology BSc course here at the University of Liverpool, bringing with us the tools of the trade – bones and stones – and our representative for ACE, the stress pyramid! Peronsally this was a great opportunity to talk about the great experience we had as Evolutionary Anthropology students and researchers in human origins at the University of Liverpool, and the resources available from ancient technology workshops and a cave (replica), to 3D printers and cutting edge scanning electron microscopes! All in all, getting involved in outreach and generating a buzz around higher education is something I’m passionate about and would strongly encourage others to take the opportunity to share what they’re passionate about.
Image credit: Lisa Daniel, UCL Institute of Archaeology 2018.
Together, these days gave us an opportunity to bring voices of what we can offer at the University of Liverpool down to London, and as always a great opportunity to showcase the passion for the research and subjects here in ACE. Both days were also a great chance to network and discuss wider issues and hot topics with representatives from institutions across the UK. I look forward to heading down next summer - hopefully the weather will be a little cooler.
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