Although some heritage sites are slowly reopening, many of our favourite destinations will remain closed for a while longer. To fill the gap, Amy Brunskill has created another summary of some of the best ways to get involved in archaeology and heritage from home – as well as listing some of the places that you are now able to visit in person.
Virtual visits
If you’re still looking for ways to explore museums and heritage sites from home, look no further! There is a huge array of virtual tours available for a wide variety of sites, as well as extensive museum collection databases that you can peruse online.
MUSEUMS
National Museums Scotland
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-museum-of-scotland
Learn about some of the highlights of the NMS collections or take a virtual walk in selected galleries with Google Street View.
Victoria and Albert Museum
www.vam.ac.uk/collections
Explore 5,000 years of human creativity through the objects and artworks from the museum’s collection available online.
Ashmolean Museum
https://collections.ashmolean.org
Browse some of the wide variety of artefacts, sculptures, and paintings in the Ashmolean’s collection, spanning more than 10,000 years.
York Museums Trust
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/york-art-gallery
Investigate objects and stories from York Castle Museum, Yorkshire Museum and Gardens, York Art Gallery, and York St Mary’s on the Google Arts and Culture page.
National Museums NI
www.nmni.com/collections/Collections.aspx
Delve into collections from the three sites that make up the National Museums NI to learn about the history, culture, and people of Northern Ireland and beyond.
HERITAGE/ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
Wittenham Clumps
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYMJyu3p9Nw&list=PLnwSwNSjVemYFJnJazvE8 O3UN3vUVHj9J&index=3
Take a virtual site tour of the large Roman villa and Iron Age village uncovered by DigVentures at Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire.
Edinburgh Castle
https://skfb.ly/6SWxo
Wander through the castle and find out more about its different parts with this interactive 3D model.
Wessex Archaeology
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLahO83m3ZEORvyxWWXWxCnkWCNZDcOrTZ
Explore a variety of sites, from Old Sarum hillfort to Salisbury Cathedral, with 360° heritage landscape videos on Wessex Archaeology’s YouTube channel.
Hampton Court Palace
https://in360degrees.co.uk/indie360/HamptonCourt/
Visit the Great Hall, Great Watching Chamber, and Great Kitchens of the royal palace with an interactive tour.
Skara Brae
www.youtube.com/watch?v=15ymOVshN3E&t
Take a virtual tour to the remains of this Neolithic settlement in Orkney with a 360° virtual-reality video.
Open Again
Slowly but surely, heritage sites are beginning to welcome visitors once more. Here are some of the first to reopen to the public…
English Heritage
www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/reopening
Six staffed sites, including Old Sarum, Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden, and Wrest Park, are now open. From 4 July, 45 more will join them, with the remainder following on 1 August. Booking is required.
National Trust
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/news/our-latest-statement-on-reopening-and-coronavirus-covid-19
More than 100 National Trust gardens and parklands in England and Northern Ireland, as well as some coastal and countryside car parks, are now open through advanced booking. New tickets are released every Friday.
Vindolanda
https://www.vindolanda.com/how-to-visit-us
The Roman auxiliary fort near Hadrian’s Wall is phasing reopening, with access to the archaeological site and gardens on long weekends. Pre-booking is essential. The Vindolanda Museum and Roman Army Museum are working to reopen in early July.
Learning in lockdown
If you’re searching for ways to learn more about the archaeology or heritage that interests you, we’ve put together some of the best resources available online, from a digital festival of archaeology to podcasts and blogs looking at behind-the-scenes stories from museums and archaeologists.
EVENTS AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Festival of Archaeology
https://festival.archaeologyuk.org/
Get involved in a wide variety of digital events, from online lectures to Twitter conferences, during this week-long festival, run by the Council for British Archaeology from 11 to 19 July.
Tudor Power and Glory
https://royalarmouries.org/tudor-power-glory/
Discover the history of the Field of Cloth of Gold – in the event’s 500th anniversary year – through this online exhibition from the Royal Armouries Museums.
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
www.youtube.com/channel/UCaBwXCoN1MKFSpgXuZcTfag/featured
Catch up on lectures on a variety of subjects, from the development of clockwork in the 17th century to palaeo-environmental investigations on Arthur’s Seat.
Noteworthy Women
www.bankofengland.co.uk/museum/noteworthy-women
Learn about the women who have appeared on, designed, and produced banknotes in this online exhibition by the Bank of England Museum.
Institute for Northern Studies
www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/institute-for-northern-studies/events/
Sign up for online public events and seminars run by the University of the Highlands and Islands, or watch recordings of past lectures.
PODCASTS AND RADIO
Speaking with Shadows
www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/speaking-with-shadows/
Find out about some of the forgotten people and stories in England’s history, such as the Caribbean prisoners captured during the Napoleonic wars and imprisoned at Portchester Castle.
Museum of Lost Objects
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0738jc2/episodes/downloads
Trace the histories of the archaeological objects and landmarks that have been lost in Iraq, Syria, India, and Pakistan.
BBC History Extra
www.historyextra.com/article-type/podcast/
Listen to weekly episodes featuring interviews with historians on a wide range of topics in British and American history.
Meet Me at the Museum
www.artfund.org/whats-on/meet-me-at-the-museum
Take a look behind the scenes of museums and galleries in this podcast from the Art Fund, featuring well-known faces taking a trip to their favourite museum.
Tower Bridge
www.towerbridge.org.uk/whats-on/podcasts
Enjoy a series of short podcasts exploring the history of Tower Bridge, with stories about the people, engineering, and architecture behind the landmark.
BLOGS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Butser Ancient Farm
www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/butser-blog
Find discussions of relevant historical
topics and updates on the experimental archaeology taking place at Butser, including the construction of their new Neolithic house.
Heritage Calling
https://heritagecalling.com/
Explore a wide range of posts about different aspects of the country’s past in this blog run by Historic England.
#FindsFriday
https://twitter.com/hashtag/findsfriday
Browse this hashtag on Twitter to see the favourite artefacts and discoveries of many curators and archaeologists, with new finds featured every week.
National Museums Scotland
https://blog.nms.ac.uk/
Read about the work that goes into a travelling exhibition, the precautions taken to protect collections during COVID-19, and stories from the museums’ collections.
Wessex Archaeology
www.wessexarch.co.uk/news
Learn about some of Wessex Archaeology’s latest archaeological work, past projects, and interesting discoveries, as well as community events and company news.
Family fun
Find something to entertain the whole family in this section. With options ranging from new TV shows to tours of British Museum exhibitions and craft ideas from a whole variety of sources, there’s sure to be something to please everyone!
CRAFTS AND ACTIVITIES
Malton Museum
www.maltonmuseum.co.uk/lucius-virtual-challenge/
Try your hand at a range of activities to learn about Roman life, from word searches and number challenges to Roman recipes and games.
Royal Collection Trust
www.rct.uk/resources
Enjoy games and activities based around the collection, create your own Victorian ‘living pictures’, or try to restore an old broken porcelain vase with a virtual jigsaw puzzle.
Photo 16130569 © Roland Nagy | Dreamstime.com
Natural History Museum
www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/try-this-at-home.html
Get the whole family involved in these activities at home, making a T. rex origami dinosaur or building your own volcano from a plastic bottle.
Vindolanda Charitable Trust
www.vindolanda.com/home-learning
Find a selection of educational activities based around the Roman fort: learn how to make honey cake, decipher Roman cursive writing, or play Roman numeral twister.
Young Archaeologists Club
www.yac-uk.org/things-to-do
Choose from an array of new craft ideas on the YAC website, from baking a stratigraphy cake to making your own ancient Egyptian death-mask.
The Historic Dockyard Chatham
https://thedockyard.co.uk/the-collections/museum-from-home
Take part in a new challenge every Monday, as well asexploring previous tasks, like making paper boats and sailor hats or decrypting secret messages using a cipher wheel.
TV SHOWS
Live from the British Museum
www.youtube.com/user/britishmuseum
Experience two of the museum’s most popular past exhibitions through exclusive private views filmed during their run. Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum and Vikings: life and legend are now available on YouTube and Facebook.
A House through Time
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09l64y9
Get a unique insight into history through the story of the people who lived in one house, from the time it was built until now.
Meet the Romans with Mary Beard
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gknyq
Join Professor Mary Beard as she explores the everyday people at the heart of ancient Rome’s empire, now available again on BBC iPlayer.
Flag Fen Lives 2012
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRjuxe2uyp8&list=PLnwSwNSjVemZUlFza QZN3Pi8P8S-nyPID
Follow a DigVentures project exploring this well-preserved Bronze Age site through a series of short video diaries.
Hidden Killers: The Tudor Home
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b050d700/hidden-killers-the-tudor-home
Learn about some of the hidden household killers in the Tudor period, as housebuilders engineered new design solutions and technologies to fit changing ideas about the home.
Civilisations
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p05xxp5j/civilisations
Explore thousands of years of visual culture and trace the development of human creativity and art around the world.
Even more ideas
You can find more ways to explore the past from your armchair in
CA 363 and 364, as well as on a new page of our website: www.archaeology.co.uk/heritage-from-home.
This article appeared in CA 365. To find out more about subscribing to the magazine, click here.
