On 9th March Cotswold Archaeology held a thank-you day for volunteers who work in the Cirencester office. After a busy year of hard toil we thought it was about time that we thanked our brilliant volunteers by treating them to a series of talks from some of our experts.
The talks focussed on archaeological projects the volunteers had worked on, whilst others looked at museum store projects also involving volunteers. Some talks were just an excuse to look at recent amazing finds we have been working on! This is always a special occasion for staff and volunteers alike.
Our volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds but all have a love of archaeology. We train our volunteers in a number of tasks, usually introducing them to things they might never have tried before. Our projects range from working on skeletons from Anglo-Saxon execution cemeteries to preparing finds from large city-centre sites for museum deposition. We also run museum store projects where volunteers help local museums assess what they hold and the best way to preserve their collections for the future.
The talks were followed up by ‘a good spread’. Sandwiches and fizzy pop were consumed whilst beautiful (and carefully handled) artefacts were admired. Although we have had to temporarily suspend our volunteer programme at Cirencester, we are looking forward to further exciting volunteer projects and the next thank-you day for volunteers!
Hazel O’Neill
