Archaeology in Action: Sara gets digging during her tour of the UK

Join CGA student, Sara on her archaeological journey as she digs deep into the mysteries of an abandoned village during her visit to the UK. Discover her remarkable finds, her path to archaeology, and her future academic endeavors.

At the start of the Greenwich summer holidays, CGA's Teacher, Mr Yates was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to catch up with Sara during her visit to the UK.

Sara (and her Mother) were kind enough to take some time away from their digging in the dirt to give Mr Yates a guided tour of the archaeological site they were working on. Mr Yates had plenty of questions; as usual, Sara had all of the answers and Sara’s Mother was good enough to take some photos as evidence of the visit.

The conversation went something like this . . .

What are you looking for?

The team’s main aim was to find the primary function of an abandoned village, who lived there, and the reason why and when it had been abandoned.

What have you found?

Through the excavation at the Deserted Medieval Village site, I found a lot of pieces of pottery and animal bones (some of which had cut marks) and some metal works.  Although all the findings were important in solving questions, including the primary purposes and why the village was abandoned, the most remarkable discovery for me was a copper-alloy object.  Nothing similar had been found before I unearthed it, and it might provide an important clue as to the function of the village.

When did you first become interested in archaeology?

When I was 10 years old, I went to a museum near my hometown (2 hours by car though) to see the exhibition of Ancient Egypt.  I was impressed by it and how gorgeous the Egyptian civilisation had been, and it was the direct trigger that made me interested in archaeology.  However, since I was much younger, I have been interested in natural science, such as dinosaurs and fossils, so perhaps my original interest comes from that point as well.

What have you learned from this experience?

By being a part of the professional archaeological excavation and working with archaeologists, I was able to learn the exact steps and details of excavations from A to Z, as well as draw a much clearer understanding of which skills I will need to be a good archaeologist. 

All the moments were filled with archaeological conversations, such as other excavations that participants had experienced and how to determine the type of pottery that all seemed to be the same at the beginning!

What are your plans for the rest of the summer?

Straight after I finished this dig, I participated in the Oxbridge Summer Scholars.  It was a two-week academic and residential programme at the University of Cambridge.

During the course, we took 4 lectures each day taught by teachers from Oxbridge and other top universities. We were divided into 3 streams, and the most relevant lectures were delivered to each stream.  The “stream A” focused on STEM, the “stream B” was a humanities and entrepreneurship stream, and “stream C” was for art and architecture.  As it was heavily an academic programme, by the end of the course, we completed essay tasks.

At the certification ceremony at the end of the course, I was awarded 5 prizes, the highest number of all, despite many of the participants being native English speakers, which gave me the biggest confidence and motivation to continue my journey towards my dream university.

Join students like Sara at CGA!

Since returning from her busy trip to the UK, Sara has started her EPQ journey (under the initial supervision of Mr Yates). She is in the process of formulating her project question on the topic of archaeology.

Sara is also part of the new student leadership team for the Scholars’ Society - a student-led extra-curricular society that aims to nurture curiosity, facilitate vertical peer mentoring and to promote engagement with super-curricular learning.

Find out more about the value of super-curricular learning here or find out more about the EPQ by reading this.