Hands-on Training
Learn about the role of prehistoric lithics in archaeology, their identification, assemblage analysis and recording, interpretation, report writing and best practices in fieldwork.

• Workshops can be tailored to specific interests and ages including schoolchildren, local history and archaeology societies, community projects, students and commercial archaeologists
• Extensive teaching materials include replica assemblages − Early Mesolithic, Late Mesolithic, Early Neolithic and Late Neolithic to Bronze Age, plus pottery typical of later prehistoric periods
• Modules are based on the audience’s needs and experience – from inquisitive beginners to practitioners who want more in-depth guidance

“Each year Elmet Archaeological Services host a series of inexpensive workshops on specialist topics for a broad audience – students, general interest and beginners, community and vocational practitioners. We were delighted with Spencer’s day workshop on prehistoric lithics. It is one thing to know your subject as a specialist but quite another to communicate that with enthusiasm and clarity.

Spencer exudes passion and experience with an easy delivery style that places ancient technology, and archaeological best practices, into a period-based human narrative – plus valuable hands-on exercises using skillfully-crafted replica assemblages and artefacts.”
– Christine Rawson, Managing Director, Elmet Archaeological Services

Key Topics

• Natural or human? | The nature of flint and chert, how to tell if it has been used or worked
• Signatures in stone | Technology of knapping, nomenclature, attributes, form, function and symbolism
• Keyholes to the past | Key lithic indicators and changes through time, material culture associations and typologies
• Lithics matter | Important research questions, things we know and things we don’t, occupied spaces, human mobility and exchange
• From field to archive | Good practices in field-walking and excavation, how to approach assemblage analysis and recording, cataloguing, principles of illustration, photography and archive preparation

If your group or organisation, whether commercial or community non-profit, is interested in receiving training − for example, as part of your staff Continuous Professional Development (CPD) − please get in touch with me at TimeVista Archaeology to discuss opportunities.

Learn more about the Archaeology Skills Passport »

[Workshop Materials]