Interactive Archaeology...
That is what we are all about!
Why use our products?
Hands on activities enrich the students learning processes.
They provide a means for moving the student beyond the standard classroom learning environment allowing them to as one scholar put it ..."To shake hands with the past."
They allow Ancient History and Archaeology to be presented in a variety of ways.
- Archaeology is a great motivator....it brings the past into the present allowing students to research and learn from our ancestors...interactive archaeology allows them to reach out and touch items/artifacts once used by people from our past.
- Interactive Archaeology is a great way to stimulate students that have different learning styles and difficulties.
- Archaeology is our primary resource about people from our past and gives the students insight into how they lived, worked, ate and died and in essence broadens their understanding beyond their own environment.
- Interactive archaeology helps students investigate, research and analyze evidence teaching them new analytical skills and observation.
- Interactive archaeology is not purely restricted to the topic of Ancient history but broadens out into other subjects such as: Data recording (Mathematics),Pottery/artifacts design and decoration (Art), study of written texts (writing), research and reporting - presentation (Creative writing/English and Public Speaking).
These are just a few areas that interactive archaeology can broaden a students studies and development, so why not try some of our kits and resources....
All our kits work on the assumption that the teacher or coordinator has a good understanding of the basics of archaeology and excavation techniques.
We have a range of basic Forensic Archaeology Kits available for use within the classroom as an in-class project or as part of an Outdoor Excavation.
The range of Forensic Anthropology Skull kits include several different trauma/pathology case studies each made from a replica 1:1 skull. Also available is a Pelvis - Sex determination Kit, and A Radius/Ulna Kit. These are suitable as part of the Senior year 7/8 and 11/12 school curriculum for historic analysis.
We do have access to more complex kits that are moulded replicas from original ancient excavated skulls and come with the excavators reports.
Contact us for details.
Artifact Handling Kits
Analytical Research - Activities
Artifact Handling Kits 
Historic Connections are always developing new ways to make studying history a true adventure..... hence our catch phrase "Bringing the Past Alive..."
Our latest series of kits, "Artifact Handling Kits" bring the experience of a real museum right into your classroom. Your students will have the opportunity of exploring the Ancient Roman Empire (and others) by using real artifacts to study and research the material culture of Ancient Rome. These artifacts will stimulate your students interest as they handle and then study artifacts that were actually used by citizens of Rome 1600 -2000 years ago. An opportunity to handle a real piece of history, putting them literally in touch with the past.
From time to time as they become available we will offer artifacts from other cultures as well including written documents and pottery items from the recent and ancient past.
These kits perfectly suit analytical research, by allowing students in group work to identify, research, analyze and interpret artifacts.
Students will then understand that everyday objects used by everyday people thousands of years ago will unlock an understanding of our past unrealized before and hence make their study of history so much more real.
Genuine artifacts
Great for hands on research in the Classroom...
These kits are practical tools for the classroom:
They can be used again and again over the years.
Can be used with all class ages.
Suitable for school library display when not being used as a handling kit!
NEW KITS COMING SOON...
Contact us for details.
Would you like to keep up with the latest resources and new products from Historic Connections?
Take a look at our Facebook page.....
Go to the bottom of this page and click on the link!
Over coming weeks we will be posting information on Pottery from the Ancient World including profiles on ancient pottery items from our collection.
Feel free to use these resources in the classroom.
Archaeology Displays
Archaeology Matrix DSI-1
This is designed for a static display such as a school library or similar.
Its purpose is to display how an ancient pottery artefact looks as it is in the process of being excavated.
This includes a replica pottery inkwell c1st century AD within a soil matrix. 120 x 90mm.
It is NOT designed to be repeatedly handled.
$49.95AUD plus P&H
Archaeology Matrix DSD-1
This is designed for a static display such as a school library or similar.
Its purpose is to display how an ancient pottery artefact looks as it is in the process of being excavated.
This includes a replica pottery bowl c1st century AD within a soil matrix. 120 x 90mm.
It is NOT designed to be repeatedly handled.
$49.95AUD plus P&H
Archaeology Matrix DH1
This is designed for a static display such as a school library or similar.
Its purpose is to display how an ancient pottery artefact looks as it is in the process of being excavated.
This includes a replica pottery Oil Lamp c1st century AD within a soil matrix.
It is NOT designed to be repeatedly handled.
$49.95AUD plus P&H
Artefact Handling Kits
Why is it important to understand pottery excavation in archaeology?
Pottery fragments or what are commonly called sherds are found in archaeological excavations all over the world. The are a window into the past for the people that one lived there.
They are almost indestructible, being castoffs once the original pottery item was broken or no longer of practical use. However a small sherd can tell us a lot.
But how? If you were to show a vintage car part to a person who collected vintage cars or was a specialist restorer of a particular marque, say a holden. He/she just from examining
a door handle or a hubcap could tell you all about the particular model of car from which that part came. He/she would tell you the date it was manufactured, what were the special
characteristics of that model, where it was made and if it was a base level model or a luxury model. Even more so, an archaeologist can examine a tiny broken piece of pottery and because
of his/her study tell you where it came from, what approximate date it was manufactured and on closer examination of its fabric they could tell you all about how it was made.
These basic kits cannot give you all the expertise of a seasoned archaeologist but they give you and your class a basic look into how this process works.
You will need to do some research yourself. You will need to touch and feel pottery that once adorned someones table thousands of years ago. Try to imagine what it was used for,
examine the cross section and the form of the sherd.....is it the base of a pot, or maybe the rim? If it is the rim, can you work out the size of the original?
Has it been glazed, painted or are there stamped or embossed decorations? What do these mean? Look at the cross section on the broken edges. Do you see tiny pieces of broken shell?
What are they doing there? What is "grog" in pottery manufacture? What does it do?
That piece of Samianware from the Roman villa....what does it indicate? What does it compare with today, and that makers stamp on the bottom, does it indicate it may have been imported.
If you find a lot of expensive Samianware or Terra Sigilata on a site what would that indicate?
A great resource is: "Pottery in Archaeology Edition 2" by Clive Orton and Michael Hughes. available in hard copy and digital download.
Have a look here for glimpse of the book: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=blxUsbQgOIoC&pg=PA3&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
Roman Pottery Artefact Lab Kit
This is a set of Roman pottery pieces from Roman Britain.
The set includes a group of three thin cut sections of Celtic Roman Iron Age Shelley Ware, Roman Grey ware and a Roman Samianware as well as a set of three untrathin section glass aside mounted
pottery including Iron Age Shelley Ware and 2 Roman Grey ware Pottery sections.
This set is designed for you to use in the classroom with microscope facilities so students can learn about pottery and how it was formed in ancient Celtic and Roman Britain.
This is designed for a teacher who is already well versed in pottery making with a particular understanding of ancient pottery.
Only one set available.
$99.95AUD plus P&H
"Greyhound" Roman Artefact Handling Kit GH3
A set 11 ancient artefacts from excavations in the UK. Also included is a set of thin section pottery (Iron Age Shelley Ware, Roman Grey ware, Samian ware) and a yet to be identified ancient Roman bronze coin.
The set includes Roman pottery sherds, a Roman Tessera, Roman bronze fibula pin, Roman glass fragment, Roman glass beads, Egyptian "Mummy" beads all with full descriptions.
The coin does not come with an identification. We are leaving it to you to discover. It has a Roma Emperor with avery distinctive crown on the obverse with a characteristic standing figure on the reverse. The students will need to do some detective work using online research to see what they can discover.
The object of the kit is to give students the opportunity to handle artefacts 1800 - 2400 years old and examine and research what they have found.
The kit comes with worksheets.
They are ideally suited to be used throughout the school with the benefit of making a great school library display in between lessons.
This kit as well as many of our other artefact handling kits can be used again and again.
$299.00 AUD plus P&H SOLD
Neolithic Europe Pottery Handling Kit.
This is a basic pottery handling kit to introduce students to the Neolithic world.
Each kit comprises of 32 pieces of Neolithic pottery body sherds and a basic questionnaire/research sheet on the Neolithic world.
It gives your students the opportunity to handle artefacts 5000 - 6000 years old and to do research about how people lived and provided for themselves so long ago.
From an early 20th century German collection.
$59.95AUD plus P&H
Neolithic Europe - Diagnostic 21
This is a basic pottery handling kit to introduce students to the Neolithic world, but this kit has all diagnostic pottery sherds.
Each kit comprises of 20 pieces of Neolithic diagnostic pottery sherds and a basic questionnaire/research sheet on the Neolithic world.
The sherds are rims/bases/handles or decorated pieces.
It gives your students the opportunity to handle artefacts 5000 - 6000 years old and to do research about how people lived and provided for themselves so long ago.
From an early 20th century German collection.
$79.95AUD plus P&H
