The Council for British Archaeology’s Young Archaeologists’ Club (YAC) provides young people with an opportunity to get involved in archaeology and learn about the past. The MeRit team was keen to work with the YAC to help highlight the Medieval Ritual Landscape project to a young audience and to think about what objects mean to us today.
On 5 September 2024, Michael Lewis (British Museum) and Tim Pestell (Norwich Castle Museum) joined the YAC at Norwich Castle Museum. In Norwich, the YAC is led by Sophie Cabot (Norfolk County Council), who explained that ‘medieval lived religion’ would be the theme for YAC sessions over the next few months, providing a project for those interested in working towards their Heritage Hero bronze award and culminating in a display at St Peter’s Hungate, a space (now) used to showcase medieval art.
In this session, Michael talked about the aims of the MeRit project and its work using the Portable Antiquities Scheme database. YAC members were asked to think about terms such as ‘medieval’, ‘landscape’ and ‘everyday people’ and what they might mean. Then Michael and Sophie led a discussion about objects that the YAC members held dear to them, why they valued them, and ritual activities they might be involved with, religious or not – some quite intriguing things were practised by the YAC members and the adult leaders!
In the final part of the session, YAC members were able to see and handle some medieval archaeological finds from the Norwich Castle Museum collection. These included a pendant with religious inscriptions, papal bullae issued by the Church, and a stone mould showing religious scenes – quite a gory story, in fact! Finally, there was a brief opportunity to sketch memories of the finds. Lots of the YAC members were taken by a Jewish medieval finger ring.
It was lovely to meet the Norwich YAC. The day provided a valuable opportunity to reflect on what ‘ritual’ means to young people today. We look forward to seeing how their work exploring the medieval ritual landscape progresses.
