Byron has been participating in the CBA's Dig School project, delivered by Professor Carenza Lewis. Dig School is a new online programme of lively extra-curricular in-school and home-school based workshops themed around archaeology. Week by week, participants can enjoy developing new knowledge, ideas and transferable skills for life and learning, including excavation.

Byron in his own words:

Hi

My name is Byron. I live in Golden, Colorado. Although I live in America, I have attended the online Dig School. The weekly Dig School lessons are fun and experiential. I learned a lot. I have also been watching Time Team on TV with my family. I hope to visit the UK someday, too, and visit some of the castles and fortifications.

On Dig Week, I even did my own dig in an area called Tucker’s Gulch and found some artifacts. At the foothills to the Rocky Mountains, Golden, Colorado once had clay deposits used to make bricks. My site next to a stream was full of old bricks. In one of the layers of my dig site were several bricks, too. The bricks were all made upstream from the dig site. More amazing, I explored the area next to my site and found a long-abandoned spur rail line that ran upstream to the local brick factory. The rails were covered in soil and lots of grass. Lots of bricks were also found in the ground next to the train tracks. I think this is where my site's bricks came from as they match the one's in my site.

Besides old bricks, one artifact that I discovered was an old leather shoe sole. The shoe had many little nails and holes and looked repaired many times. When I shared with Dig School, Professor Carenza Lewis shared how years ago people had their shoes repaired rather than just buying a new pair. I think the shoes were worn by someone working on the rail line or the brick factory.

I am now exploring another hidden site near my dig. That will be my next adventure in archeology and local history.

This is Byron reporting from Colorado for the Festival of Archaeology #YouthTakeover