On Friday we met with the Head of the Education Department at DIG, Jorvik's sister site. DIG is an archaeological education center geared many at school-age children. Our guide was a trained archaeologist, and therefore he was pretty good at defining the work of an archaeologist in simple terms that even children can relate to. We participated in a "dig" and had the opportunity to try to sort different kinds of finds (bones, rocks, petrified wood). Identifying the items was much harder than I anticipated. We also looked through their interactive displays, which I found to be engaging, even for an adult.
After our tour, we met with Siriol upstairs, where she produced literature for us to read about their program. Schools often visit both DIG and Jorvik, and although Jorvik's flashy style brings in the majority of their revenue, I found DIG to be more appealing. It had dual educational purposes: to teach visitors about history, and to teach visitors about the work of someone in the field of archaeology. I believe the staff at DIG performed the latter quite admirably.
DIG was our last site visit. Throughout this month we have visited so many unique museums and historical sites. It has been a truly rewarding and enlightening experience.
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