Sir Barry Cunliffe pictured above.
On the 1st June, the eighteen members of the Archaeology Section went on a day trip to Sark to meet Sir Barry Cunliffe who was carrying out two excavations there. Sir Barry has been going to Sark for the last twenty years and much of Sark’s archaeological knowledge is down to the numerous excavations he has led over those years.
The Section had also arranged to meet with twelve members of the Archaeology Section of the Société Guernsiaise, and together we were given a tour of the Société Sercquaise’s museum by Jane Norwich, one of their members. Matt Pope also joined us as he was in Jersey for the forthcoming JICAS conference and our own field archaeologist Hervé joined us having been on Sark for the weekend with his family.
Sir Barry gave us all an illuminating talk on Sark’s archaeology in Société Sercquaise’s “Cider Barn” which has been renovated and provides a fantastic meeting and work room for them.
Most of the party then went off exploring to visit a few of the sites that Barry had mentioned in the limited time left before we had to make our way back to the harbour, stopping on the way for some refreshments at the Bel Air before descending the hill!
A very enjoyable day and the sun came out for the afternoon whilst we were there! The three Sociétés have undertaken to meet up and work together in the future – the new inter-island ferry service should be of great benefit in achieving this!
Archaeology Section Chair: Marc Yates
Archaeology@societe.je
