Saurday 18 July - Sunday 2 August 2009.

Once again National Archaeology Week proved to be an enormous success, and because of this it has now been renamed and extented. It will now be called the Festival of British Archaeology, and will take place over two weeks.

This is great news for Nottinghamshire, as previously National Archaeology Week fell the week before the summer holidays. Now hopefully even more peoplewill be able to get involved.

The Festival of British Archaeology is an opportunity for people to find out about the archaeology and heritage of their local area or region, co-ordinated by the Council for British Archaeology (CBA)

Please see the upcoming events page for this years events

Previous year's events

The previously named National Archaeology week in Nottinghamshire has consisted of a comprehensive range of activities and events for people of all ages to get involved in.

Below is a taste of some of the events coordinated by Nottinghamshire Community Archaeology.

Iron Age Roundhouse; Open Day

Woodview Farm, Calverton.

People were invited to come along to a day of ancient technology demonstrations and soak up some Iron Age atmosphere at the roundhouse, built by Graham Watson in Calverton.

The event was very well attended, and a lot was learned about life in the Iron Age, and ancient technologies. Reconstructions included a bed, a loom, bow and arrow carved from flint tools, and a herb and vegetable garden.

There were demonstrations of natural cordage, Iron Age recipes and food products, and visitors could see examples of wattle and daub, lime plaster and grain pits.

Family Archaeology Day

Rufford Country Park.

Despite the English weather people turned up to enjoy the family Archaeology challenge, which was relocated to the undercroft at Rufford Abbey to avoid the torrential rain.

Families enjoyed digging for artefacts, cleaning finds, and pottery reconstruction.

Events also included colouring in representations of Medieval tiles and windows. Every successful candidate was rewarded with a certificate and a badge.

Half Day Conference; Iron Age Nottinghamshire

University of Nottingham, Department of Archaeology.

The half day conference consisted of a series of short lectures on topics based around Iron Age Nottinghamshire.

Talks included an introduction to the Iron Age in Nottinghamshire, by M. Bishop, reports on recent excavations by Dr D Knight of Nottingham University, Emily Gillot and James Wright of Nottinghamshire Community Archaeology, and a talk on constructing an Iron Age roundhouse, by Graham Watson, Woodview Farm Calverton.

Attendants also had the opportunity to view artefacts in the Nottingham University Museum.

Ancient Arts day

Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve, Nottinghamshire.

Visitors to Sherwood Forest enjoyed a day of demonstrations and activities for people of all ages set against the backdrop of the famous Major Oak.

One of the highlights of the day were the fighters of Team Falchion, who re-enacted medieval combat, performing with swords, axes and quarterstaff, as well as shooting bows and arrows.

Visitors could watch demonstrations of Saxon spinning and weaving, pole lathe green woodworking, they could shoot bows and arrows, as well as learning from a medieval surgeon, complete with severed hand and live leach.

As well as all this Nottinghamshire Community Archaeology ran our own stall where children could make and paint medieval tile, and enjoy a chance at calligraphy.

All the events were accompanied by Medieval music, provided by wandering minstrel Peter Bull.