Festival of Archaeology

Shout Out Loud is delighted to be a major partner in the 2020 Festival of Archaeology, co-delivering the youth strand with exciting and creative events for our audiences aged 11-25. Find out more!

Between the 11th and 19th July, we partnered with the Council for British Archaeology for their digital Festival of Archaeology! Together, through activities and events, we amplified the voices of young people involved in heritage and to broaden the appeal of heritage to reach more people.

The CBA Festival of Archaeology offered hundreds of opportunities to get involved in archaeology across the UK. Throughout the Festival, young people lead the way, running a series of events featuring English Heritage experts and exciting guests, as well as sharing their ideas about heritage through blog posts and social media takeovers.

The festival theme, ‘Climate and Environment’ was the inspiration for our programme of Shout Out Loud events, which featured a Stonehenge special event, discussions with youth leaders including young environmental influencer ‘Birdgirl’, archaeology careers talks, and a digital mystery tour across England to find some of the best examples of historic graffiti! We also hosted a special episode of History at Home Live! hosted by CBBC presenter Ben Shires.

Friday 17th July was also Youth Takeover Day! Young people took control over the Council for British Archaeology, the Young Archaeologists’ Clubs and the Shout Out Loud social media accounts and blogs in a #YouthTakeover. While we were unable to visits sites in person we wanted to share the work (paid and volunteer) of young people across the sector.

History at Home Live!

On the 15th July we had a special Festival of Archaeology episode of History at Home Live! Where English Heritage expert Matt Thompson talked to CBBC’s Ben Shires about archaeology through the ages. Archaeological sites have always faced threats, from wildlife to treasure hunters, construction to climate change, the theme of this year’s festival. Find out how English Heritage care for archaeological sites, ensuring people now and in the future will be able to enjoy and learn from them. Explore the ever-increasing role of science in archaeology and how technology offers opportunities to tackle some of the hardest questions about the past that early archaeologists could only dream of being able to answer! And discover how sometimes, the best thing to do as an archaeologist, is not to go ‘digging’ for answers at all.

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From Trenches to TV: The 21st Century Archaeologist

If you want to be an archaeologist then this is the place to be to get the inside scoop on what day to day life can be like for an archaeologist in the 21st century.

Watch Dr Heather Sebire an English Heritage archaeologist from the world-famous Stonehenge World Heritage Site, and Alex Fitzpatrick, a zooarchaeologist and science communicator, in a discussion hosted by one of the Shout Out Loud Young Producers.

You’ll have the opportunity to test your archaeological knowledge with a quick quiz, before hearing more about how you might become an archaeologist, and learn about some of the most difficult parts of the job and, of course, the best bits too!

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Filming amongst the Stones at Stonehenge

Bacon Sandwiches and Stonehenge: Connecting Local Youth with Heritage Sites

In ‘Our Stones’, one persons most vivid recollection of Stonehenge, was at Winter Solstice with the taste and smell of the bacon sandwich he was enjoying on a cold December day. This discussion focussed on how heritage sites can support local youth organisations, and examine the ‘Our Stones’ documentary film project led by young people from Durrington Youth at Stonehenge in 2019.

Youth leaders Rebecca Lock (Durrington Youth), Lucy Hunter (Army Welfare Service Families), and original ‘Dust Kicker’ Hannah, shared their experiences of bringing local youth projects to Stonehenge with our Shout Out Loud Youth Development Manager, Claire Simmons.

We explored how heritage organisations not only plan exciting and innovative projects – but ensure they address the needs of local youth, who rarely connect with local heritage sites on their doorstep?

Stonehenge 3019 – Climate Past and Future

If you could picture Stonehenge, one of the most iconic sites on earth, in the Year 3019, what would it look like? Last year, that’s exactly what we asked a group of young people living nearby and we were amazed at the world they imagined. Discover how our climate has changed over the last thousand years see what our panel of experts had to say about the environmental challenges Stonehenge could face over the course of the next millennium.

Check out the video, exploring this year’s festival theme ‘Climate and Environment’ with young climate activist, Mya-Rose Craig, aka ‘Birdgirl’, Susan Greaney, English Heritage archaeologist and BBC New Generation Thinker, and environmental archaeologist Dr Matthew Law. They were also joined by a young film-maker whose imagination helped to create the Stonehenge 3019 film. She will be on hand to talk about their experience of this time travelling adventure before introducing us to a premiere screening of their exciting futuristic film: Stonehenge 3019.

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Image collage from the Smoke Drawings project

Graffiti: Making a Mark on History

Graffiti is as old as humans; from cave walls to the Colosseum in Rome, right up to modern-day. But what is ‘graffiti’ in the oldest sense of the word, what separates historic graffiti from modern and why is old graffiti preserved and studied? In this exciting session, Kevin Booth, English Heritage curator and graffiti expert addressed these questions and more as he led a virtual tour of sites across England to find examples of historic graffiti hidden on the walls and inscribed on collections in the English Heritage portfolio.

We also dropped into Berwick Barracks where participants from a local Young Archaeologists’ Club revealed the creative approach they took to help understand the 300-year-old graffiti they discovered in the Barracks. We’ll find out how graffiti can help unlock hidden histories and shine a light on lesser-known stories, such as those of the prisoners held at Berwick Barracks during the Jacobite rising in 1715.

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