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irector the d from Above: Catherine Parker Heath, Marsh Community Archaeologist of the Year 2024 Right: Meeting the Small Pitts Big Ideas team in Worcester Archaeology and Community The 2024 Festival of Archaeology was a whirlwind of exploration, discovery, and community engagement for me as I travelled around the UK trying to visit as many events and activities as possible. It is always an enjoyable two weeks, if also exhausting, with almost 16 days away from home. It is not just about enjoyment however, as the Festival of Archaeology is our key shop window for presenting archaeology to wider audiences and to help celebrate all of the amazing sites, places, activities, organisations, groups, and societies, that make up the UK’s archaeological landscape. Promotion and championing archaeology is a key role for the CBA, especially at a grassroots level. Since 2020, we have been shaping festival activity by adding a theme to each year’s celebration. In 2020 it was climate change, 2021 was exploring local places, 2022 was journeys, and last year, creativity. We know from feedback from festival organisers that they find the themes helpful in thinking about their activities each year, but the theme is not mandatory and our real objective with the festival is just to try and engage as many people as possible. This year we chose Archaeology and Community as the festival theme. This was a deliberate acknowledgement of the CBA’s 80th anniversary and the key role archaeological groups and societies played in our founding in 1944. Indeed, up until the mid-1990s CBA membership was restricted to organisations only. It was also chosen to help us think about our role today and in the future, how better we can support grassroots archaeology across the UK, and how we might strengthen both our own operations, and that of the network of groups and societies that still form a major part of our membership. This aspiration, to be more supportive of grassroots archaeology, also runs through our major National Lottery Heritage Fund project, Reconnecting Archaeology, which started this year, and which will run until November 2025. We hope this project will help us connect better to the wide network of archaeological groups, society, and community projects across UK. From our Taking the Temperature survey, which we undertook earlier CBA PHOTOS ALL this year, we know that the network of grassroots organisations is facing a number of challenges, especially around attracting new members and getting people to support governance and organisation. This is not dissimilar to our own experience, and we are keen to share our learning with our grassroots network over the course of the project and beyond. A key part of our Reconnecting Archaeology project will be developing a better understanding of our membership and network, as well as our wider audiences, both existing and potential. We know from feedback that some people don’t actually know what the CBA does or what we stand for. Therefore, we have taken the opportunity in this edition of British Archaeology to set out in more detail the various strands of work and activities we do. From supporting our growing network of young people and Young Archaeologist Club (YAC) branches to our role in advocating for archaeology to government, the heritage sector, and further afield. From the Festival of Archaeology to our research projects, such as the PUNS2 Trowel and Error survey, we hope this will give you a better understand of the work you help support. My Archaeology features a range of our trustees, who play such an important role in overseeing our work, representing the interests of the 6|British Archaeology|November December 2024
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Clockwise from far left: Test pitting at Hardwick Hall with the National Trust; Cleaning mosaics at Chedworth Roman Villa; Inside Dolaucothi Gold Mine; St Andrews Church Norton Bury St Edmunds CBA PHOTOS ALL membership, and setting our strategic direction. We hear directly from one of our Youth Advisory Board members about working with us during the Festival of Archaeology. We have kept some of our regular features and asked our Chair, Gail Boyle, to act as a guest editor for this special edition. We hope this will not be a one-way conversation and that by focusing a spotlight on our work you will have questions and suggestions for us. We need to better understand what our readers of British Archaeology and our members want from the magazine, what you like, what you would like to see more of, and where we can improve its content and focus. We know, for example, that people like the letters page and have asked why it has been missing recently? Simply put, we have had no letters to feature. This is the one place we do need your help – you can write or email us on any topic, issue, magazine feature, or area of our work, and we will do our best to feature them in the magazine. My Festival of Archaeology journey in 2024 Archaeology has the power to create and deliver some amazing projects working across communities and places. To recognise this work, the CBA runs two annual awards programmes: The Archaeological Achievement Awards, that celebrate excellence in archaeology across the UK and Ireland; and the Marsh Community Archaeology Awards, celebrating community archaeology and archaeologists across the UK. I was fortunate enough to meet three outstanding archaeologists and their projects this year, starting with Catherine Parker Heath, winner of the 2024 Marsh Awards Community Archaeologist of the Year. Along with David Booker, Marsh Charitable Trust ambassador, we presented her with her award at the Family Archaeology Fun Day hosted by the Peak District national park in Castleton. Catherine is an outstanding community archaeologist, and it was a privilege to help recognise her work. In Worcester, I met the winners of the 2023 Community Archaeology Project of the Year Award, Small Pits Big Ideas, including members of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society, and Nina O’Hare, a community archaeologist at the Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service. Their project involved over 400 local people in archaeological digs across six villages. This project exemplifies the power of community archaeology, bringing people together to explore their shared heritage. Finally, I visited the Museum of Liverpool to meet Vanessa Oakden, a community archaeologist shortlisted for the 2024 Marsh Awards, and explored the museum’s rich archaeological collections. Vanessa’s work and dedication to community archaeology includes running the Mersey and Dee Young Archaeologist’s Club. British Archaeology|November December 2024|7

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irector the d from

Above: Catherine Parker Heath, Marsh Community Archaeologist of the Year 2024 Right: Meeting the Small Pitts Big Ideas team in Worcester

Archaeology and Community

The 2024 Festival of Archaeology was a whirlwind of exploration, discovery, and community engagement for me as I travelled around the UK trying to visit as many events and activities as possible. It is always an enjoyable two weeks, if also exhausting, with almost 16 days away from home.

It is not just about enjoyment however, as the Festival of Archaeology is our key shop window for presenting archaeology to wider audiences and to help celebrate all of the amazing sites, places, activities, organisations, groups, and societies, that make up the UK’s archaeological landscape.

Promotion and championing archaeology is a key role for the CBA, especially at a grassroots level. Since 2020, we have been shaping festival activity by adding a theme to each year’s celebration. In 2020 it was climate change, 2021 was exploring local places, 2022 was journeys, and last year, creativity. We know from feedback from festival organisers that they find the themes helpful in thinking about their activities each year, but the theme is not mandatory and our real objective with the festival is just to try and engage as many people as possible.

This year we chose Archaeology and Community as the festival theme. This was a deliberate acknowledgement of the CBA’s 80th anniversary and the key role archaeological groups and societies played in our founding in 1944. Indeed, up until the mid-1990s CBA membership was restricted to organisations only.

It was also chosen to help us think about our role today and in the future, how better we can support grassroots archaeology across the UK, and how we might strengthen both our own operations, and that of the network of groups and societies that still form a major part of our membership.

This aspiration, to be more supportive of grassroots archaeology, also runs through our major National Lottery Heritage Fund project, Reconnecting Archaeology, which started this year, and which will run until November 2025. We hope this project will help us connect better to the wide network of archaeological groups, society, and community projects across UK.

From our Taking the Temperature survey, which we undertook earlier

CBA

PHOTOS

ALL

this year, we know that the network of grassroots organisations is facing a number of challenges, especially around attracting new members and getting people to support governance and organisation.

This is not dissimilar to our own experience, and we are keen to share our learning with our grassroots network over the course of the project and beyond. A key part of our Reconnecting Archaeology project will be developing a better understanding of our membership and network, as well as our wider audiences, both existing and potential. We know from feedback that some people don’t actually know what the CBA does or what we stand for. Therefore, we have taken the opportunity in this edition of British Archaeology to set out in more detail the various strands of work and activities we do.

From supporting our growing network of young people and Young Archaeologist Club (YAC) branches to our role in advocating for archaeology to government, the heritage sector, and further afield. From the Festival of Archaeology to our research projects, such as the PUNS2 Trowel and Error survey, we hope this will give you a better understand of the work you help support. My Archaeology features a range of our trustees, who play such an important role in overseeing our work, representing the interests of the

6|British Archaeology|November December 2024

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