The ArchaeOlympic Games

2 mins read

With London 2012 in full swing, we asked you to come up with some events for the ArchaeOlympic Games – and you didn’t let us down! We received a veritable spoilheap of suggestions via our Twitter and Facebook accounts , so many that we couldn’t cram all of them into our usual column in the magazine. Rather than leave out any of your fabulous ideas, we decided to put them all online. Enjoy – though you probably shouldn’t try these at home (or on site)!


Hannah-Ruth Rehbein
Mattock hurling.

Merryn L Dineley
Beer-making. It would be at least a 4-day event.

Terry O’Hagan
Hole-watching, head-scratching, 110m wheelbarrow race, plank gymnastics, magnetometer lifting.

David Meadows
Sifting singles and doubles, synchronised trowelling, or trench jump.

Rob Hedge
A nice long ditch with evenly-spaced slots, topped with string lines, is perfect for steeplechase. Just don’t tell the site supervisor…

Barbara Ford
My partner asked me if I minded him watching two weeks of Olympics. I asked him if he would mind if there was a two-week dig live on TV. He didn’t reply!

Pat Corbishley
Bog snorkelling.

David Hulme
Digging for old site reports from under archaeologists’ beds and drawers.

RB
Range-rod javelin, mattock toss, ditch-jumping… all the classics.

Helen
Timed pot reconstruction? Or some kind of recording triathlon: full completion of context card, levels, photograph?

Alex Joseph
We had some great games on site a few years ago, including ranging-rod javelin and trowel target-throwing.

Elspeth Arthur
At Silchester we play amphitheatre ultimate frisbee. Another idea could be a well or pit shoring race.

Arran Johnson
Some form of competitive hanging on to employment?

Sue Greaney
Most elegant but also accurate surveying — eg. holding staff with one leg outstretched, then pirouetting off to the next point.

Steve H11
3m trench digging or cubic metre earth sifting?

Catherine Holtham-Oakley
Getting your finds tray to the finds supervisor complete with the correct context ticket and without dropping anything out of it before she shuts the finds shed and goes down the pub?

Scott Hedge
The 100m trowel?

Adam Corsini
If you attach a hoe to the end you could do wheelbarrow jousting…

Paul J Cripps
The 100m evaluation trench shovel scrape sprint? Or even long-distance versions?

Ellen Gray
How about a 100m geophysics amble?

Steve Dickinson
Hot air balloon races for the biggest archaeological egos.

Marilyn Gautreaux
In the archaeolympics, would they be digging for Gold, Silver and Bronze?

Peter Shackelton
Surely the medals would be axe-shaped Stone, Bronze, and the ultimate prize: Iron.

Marc Barkman-Astles
Unfeasibly large trowel throw? Or speed field-walking.

Angela Morgan
Beer consumption?

Kristian Laier Rye Pedersen
Surveillance of colleagues and gossip.

Glynis
Trowel sharpening, timed unit digging trials, orienteering, pedestrian survey, breaker bar lifting.

James Hodgson
Wheelbarrow Jousting: bucket on your head with two eye-holes cut in. A ranging pole for the joust. All whilst sat in a wheelbarrow pushed by a suicidal work colleague (H&S will have a field-day!)

Nicki Macrae
Wheelbarrow race  including a 20ft spoil heap climb and bucket chicanes.

Bromley Museum
Rather than pouring a libation of wine to the gods, as in ancient times, there would be a tea ceremony…

Peter Shackleton
How about ‘Back filling’, the post event challenge?

Fiona Bridges  
I would like to see the women’s 400m squared dowsing : )

Katherine Toms
It would have to include a 100m sprint off site for the tea bell.

Peter Shackleton
Precision javelin — using a ranging pole with a view of hitting a precise point on the site grid. Sondage, not dressage, and ‘synchronised strimming’.

Sian Smith
Thoughtful stroking of beards, artistic mattocking — and of course three-day eventing, AKA Time Team!


Pick up a copy of CA 271 to see if your event was printed – on sale now!
With grateful thanks to Marc Barkman-Astles and  the wonderful people at ArchaeoSoup Productions for their fantastic illustrations.

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