Young Archaeology Club
Recently Henry Rae, one of the Archaeology leaders for the Young Archaeology Club took two plastic skeletons to the Fisheries Museum in Anstruther to help identify the human remains the children had found in the cemetery at Dunfermline Abbey. This was an extremely productive activity as it helped the children understand the layout of the skeleton and investigate where the bones and fragmented bones came from. The children regularly find bones and teeth and on Saturday they had a chance to investigate these further.
Over 100 years ago, headstones were laid flat and then buried. No records were taken of the details of what was on the headstones or where they were. The Young Archaeology Club are helping find out where graves are and record the buried headstones by excavating down 2 feet. As these graves were reused over and over again when they were in use there are remains scattered throughout the depth of the graves. The cemetery was also used to tip refuge for a time and we are finding ash from peoples fires and discarded food, oyster shells, chicken bones, cow bones, broken bottles, pottery etc.
In excavating, the group learns more about the history of the town and the people who once lived and died in Dunfermline.
