ICE AND FIRE is a Heritage Lottery funded community project designed to explore and record prehistoric archaeology at risk in damaged, eroding areas where artefacts have been found on the surface. Fieldwork and post-excavation activities offer the opportunity to be part of a friendly team.
Watch the dramatic 15 minute Summer 2017 video “A Very Special Place”
GET INV
OLVED!
- Learn new skills – excavation, surveying, fieldwalking, finds analysis
- No experience needed
- Join a friendly team
- Enjoy the outdoors
- Discover your heritage
DOWNLOADS
- Visit the Publications page for posters, timelines and the free 2017-18 Interim Report »
LEARN NEW SKILLS!
Volunteers will have the chance to learn about archaeological fieldwork techniques, recording and finds analysis under expert guidance – no previous experience is needed. We will train you.
Eston Nab as it might have appeared in the late Bronze Age. © Tees Archaeology.
AIMS AND METHODS
- Establish the nature of prehistoric activity and state of preservation with test pits
- Sample wetland areas with an auger to investigate past environments
- Survey fire-damaged areas for archaeological remains including rock art
- Conduct seasonal field-walking to assess the broader extent of prehistoric activity
PROJECT GOALS
Provide archaeological training to volunteers from diverse backgrounds
- Assess the degree of damage and survival of archaeological remains in order to inform land management and conservation practices
- Obtain archaeological and palaeo-environmental data to augment our understanding of climate change, past human activity and their effects on the landscape
- Promote the unique heritage of the area, and the risks to its survival
- Encourage community awareness and pride in the value of our shared place
Image | Early Mesolithic flint arrowhead from Eston Hills
dating to the ninth millenium BC. © Spencer Carter.
RESEARCH PRIORITIES
ICE AND FIRE offers a rare opportunity to explore the early prehistory of Teesside, including:
- The first people to recolonize the landscape after the last Ice Age
- Transitions within the Mesolithic period and into the Neolithic with the onset of farming, monument building and pottery – and into the Bronze Age and later periods
- Recovery of dating evidence, organic and carbonised material for radiocarbon dating, and recording features where they survive
- Testing geophysical prospecting methods against sub-surface archaeology
- Testing 3D scanning of artefacts at Teesside University’s ‘crime scene’ forensic anthropology laboratory
Learn more about the archaeology of Eston Hills »
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