Announcing the Archaeology Competition Winners 2023

During our 2023 Festival of Archaeology, we invited everyone to take part in an archaeology-themed Haiku competition. Our judges included Chris Gregory from Alternative Stories and members of our new Young Associates Network.  

We had a spectacular number of entries (130 in total!) and we'd like to thank everybody who took part, we hugely enjoyed reading them all. We'll continue to feature the entries on our social media channels, so keep your eyes peeled!

The under 18 winner: Ishaan Deb

Bones in dust concealed,
Unearthed tales of ages past,
Time's secrets revealed.

The over 18 winner: Sue Mackrell

Laid on a swan’s wing
a mesolithic baby
mother lies nearby

Winners will receive a prize bundle which includes - £100 worth of books of their choice from Thames and Hudson, a £50 Etsy voucher to help their creativity flow, an audiogram recording of their Haiku by a professional voice actor, courtesy of Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories, and a copy of Everyone Sang – a poem for every feeling by William Seighart.

Due to the high quality of the competition, the judges also decided that the following people deserved a special mention as highly commended:

Rosie O’Toole

Simon O’Leary

Elle Kent

Heather Millard 

Michael Williams

You can listen to all the poems, read by professional voice actor Tiffany Clare, here: