On November 2, the participants of the student archaeology club in Pskov participated in the inspection of archaeological monuments that were located on the eastern side of Lake Pskov. The itinerary of the inspection was through the northern part of the Pskov region. Altogether, seven monuments were visited: barrow cemetery near  Грядище, barrow cemetery near Новоселье, barrow.zhalnik cemetery near Спасовщина; hill-fort near Люботеж, single barrow near Люботеж, barrow-zhalnik cemetery near Люботеж and barrow-zhalnik cemetery near Городня.

Most of the visited monuments had been excavated in 1928-1929 during the explorations of Б.А.Коишевскйи and  Н.Н.Чернягин who are widely known for their publications dedicated to the pskovian long barrow culture, barrow cemetery of  Совий Бор (Грядище) and hill-fort of Люботеж. The participants of archeological inspection also visited the barrow-zhalnik cemetery near Люботеж that had been excavated in late 1970s by the members of  archaeology club of the faculty of history of the pedagogical institute of Pskov.  

The state of the monuments can be considered satisfactory. Unfortunately, e.g. barrow-zhalnik cemetery near Люботеж was partially destroyed by a quarry and forestworkers.

Despite numerous obstacles such as russian roads and other evil forces, the incpection was completed and the students are looking forward to new challenges.

On October 24. -25. took place another training session for school teachers. The seminar was meant for the teachers to gain archaeological knowledge from the scientists who are doing current research.

Teachers in school

From a researcher to a teacher

The conception of the training while working it out was to cover as many specific and narrow archaeology-related research topics as possible. Some small tasks were handed out during the training and the lectures were tried to be set up as example school lessons. That gave the teachers some new ideas how to make history classes in schools more interesting and versatile.

The second day of the training was filled with a practical field trip during which they visited different types of archaeological sites in Tartumaa and at each location, a short overview of the site and its type was given.

The beginning of the road to two hill-forts that are situated merely a few hundred meters from each other

Alt-Laari hill-fort

Village cemetery of Vellavere

Jaagupi tarand-graves

The impact of the training is hard to evaluate as even though the teachers were the primary target group, the information will reach numerous children through their lessons.  One of our large goals is to raise awareness in the society and especially among the young about archaeological heritage and its problems. Also, we are trying to generate interest in archaeology as it is one of the most versatile and interesting field of science.

History or social sciences teachers were the most welcome in the training sessions, but teachers of other subjects were also welcome as the curriculum anticipates the integration of the subjects and creativity.  As archaeology is a subject  that requires collaboration with other fields of research, it offers several opportunities to give archaeology-related creative work assignments to students.

Based on the feedback, all of the participants were satisfied and are already eager to partake in the follow-up training next October.