Festival of World Archaeology or the place where I work

 By day I'm not a craft obsessive photographing maniac but a mild mannered administrator at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Every year we hold an archaeology festival where we throw open the doors of both the Institute itself and the wonderful Gordon Square which is opposite and put on a variety of activities for both old and young. Listen to me, I sound as if I was involved in setting it up which I wasn't but I did volunteer to photograph the event. Here's what I saw

 First up the bone lab. This is a sheep's head which I love to photograph (I know, I need to get out more....). The activity was guess which bone belonged to which animal. 

 Next is the conservation lab with one of the current MSc students showing people recent restoration work carried out by the students as part of  their degree. 

 Now we're onto Egypt, making little votive status. 

Outside we were lucky with the weather. There was a little bit of drizzle at first but it soon cleared up. Here you could have a go at surveying. Or as I like to call it experimenting with depth of field to get an arty shot....

This is current student Robert explaining to young Tabitha what to do. 

 Cave painting was a sure fire hit with many. 

As you can see it was great to photograph. 

One more for good luck.... 

 Moving onto flint knapping which always amazes me. Ashley (in the front) is using a deer antler to hammer the flint. 

  For  the more artistic you could have a go at pottery making 

 Overseen by Ben who has a hat in the same colour to match his glasses would you believe. 

And finally if you are squeamish stop reading now ....

Because next up is the wonderful Matt Pope showing you how to skin a deer with a bit of flint neolithic (or should that be palaeolithic, I did say I was  the administrator right?) style

This is the end result. The deer turned up to work in a cardboard box on Friday so I found myself carrying it downstairs to the cold store. I was quite surprised it actually fit in the box to be honest! Last year I was incredibly squeamish about this sort of thing but watching Matt at work was so enthralling I am no longer squeamish, after all it's part of life. This year I found myself dashing over to watch him do his thang. 

 Final shot is of the deer skin starting to be treated. Takes a lot to get it to being wearable. 

So these are just a few of the people I work with. Happy days.