I am currently a student at Firth Park Academy in Sheffield and my school has arranged for the whole of Y10 to do work experience for a week, 19/03/18−23/03/18. When I was younger I had a strong interest in archaeology and history and still do and I was given the opportunity to work at Wessex Archaeology North as an Archaeology Assistant, this made me happy because it could help open a wider range of work and give me the choice to be an archaeologist along with many other job roles to do with archaeology.
During my time here, I have learnt that there are many jobs to do at WA such as finds processing, environmental processing, excavation, building documentation and many more and not just excavation work. On my first day at WA, I was given an office introduction and started work on finds processing which was slow at first but got quicker once I was confident with doing the work. On my second and third day of work, I went to two sites, All Saints Church in Rotherham and Sheffield Retail Quarter. I helped document the buildings and learnt more about the work at WA and learned that I should always bring extra layers because the sites I went to were absolutely freezing. On my fourth day I did more work on finds processing which went quite quickly because I got through a lot of finds and I managed to clean part of a cattle jaw and fill up a few trays with bones which was odd but strangely fascinating. On my fifth and final day I learnt how environmental processing worked and had a go at sorting out different types of residue and ended up finding a few parts of broken teeth.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience at WA and I am thankful for being given this opportunity and for giving me more of an understanding of the working world.
By Emily Carr