Golden Day

On a wonderful Olympic day, Silchester achieved its very own gold medals. We had more people visit our excavation today than we have ever managed in the last 16 years – 1212 visitors! So, if you were one of the 1000 plus – a big, big thank you! The students were delighted, and their exuberance throughout the day was for me one of the highlights of the excavation so far.

Meeting and Greeting visitors!

I am sure I have confessed this in previous blogs…..but I am always very nervous about Open Days. I struggle with being the centre of attention – and of course if you are giving site tours every other hour, it is hard to do so without people looking at you! Once I get into my stride it is fine – but giving a tour in competition with the various pumps in action around the trench is quite challenging! There are areas on site when I cannot hear myself talk – and that is distinctly un-nerving!  My aim today was to talk about the archaeological process as much as the discoveries we have made; it is difficult to point out all of the detail of the buildings. But I did my best – and took everyone on a tour back in time, beginning with the early Roman archaeology and then heading back into the Iron Age.

Showing off

Jan and her mobile burger bar did a roaring trade; and Cindy and Elise showed off our finds and environmental techniques. Tom and co weaved wonderful stories for the children, and Harry and Alex led childrens’ site tours. We had face painting, childrens’ colouring-in and dressing up, Reading Museum – and may other impromptu excavation offerings. And – in the trench – we kept on digging!

The hourly site tour

John Heff and Finds entertain the visitors!

Reading Museum on site

It was such a successful day. Jim did a wonderful job of organising the parking off site – and we were in a swirl of visitors all day. I don’t think I sat down at all! By 5.30pm I had given 4 site tours, each an hour long – and my voice had run out. I was ready for an evening of Olympics and a big glass of wine. I had run my race and I sat down to watch Mo Farah run his. We both won!