Let’s come together to celebrate Archaeology and Community in 2024!
The 2024 theme for the CBA Festival of Archaeology is Archaeology and Community.
The Council for British Archaeology (CBA) will be celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2024 – the perfect opportunity for us all to celebrate the incredible grassroots groups, societies, and individuals that share a passion for archaeology across the UK.
At its heart, archaeology is all about people and how we explore and interpret the past through the lens of the present day. Archaeology has the unique ability to bring people from all walks of life together through our shared sense of community – what it meant in the past, what it means to us now, and how we can shape our future.
During the 2024 Festival of Archaeology we hope to celebrate ‘community’ in all its forms. From collaborative approaches to archaeological projects to sharing archaeology with others and creating new opportunities for people to explore the places they live through archaeology, the very groups, societies, and organisations that make up archaeology in the UK today. So come and join us in 2024 and celebrate your community, your activities, and your archaeology. Over our 80th Anniversary let's make the biggest possible noise about archaeology and community.
If you would like to organise an event for the Festival why not incorporate the theme? We have included some examples of how you might do this below:
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Have a party! Invite the local community and celebrate your society, a local heritage asset, or what you think is special about the place where you live.
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Storytelling – invite members of your community to share their stories. It might be a story about the past, it could be experiences from the present day or even an aspirational story about how your community would look in the future. Use maps as prompts and encourage people to bring photos or objects that relate to their stories.
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Organise a family friendly site visit or a guided walk to an archaeological site, you might think about coordinating a picnic or some hands-on activities as part of the event.
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Do you live near or meet in an interesting building – why not create an event to share information about the past communities that were part of its story?
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Co-create – you might like to reach out to your community and ask them to help shape your event. Ask them how they would like to celebrate.
With your help, we can make the Festival of Archaeology bigger than ever and a real celebration of all the groups, societies, and organisations that make archaeology so fantastic and engaging.
If you would like to talk to us about how you can build community into your event, then we would be happy to have a chat. Contact our Festival Coordinator, Debbie Frearson at [email protected].