Mammoth day for cave dwellers
KING’S juniors enjoyed a trip back in time to the Stone Age, spending the whole day living and learning as our ancient cave dwelling predecessors.
Children in year three got to grips, literally, with the tooth of a woolly mammoth thought to be 60,000 years old, and learned how our ancestors used brains as well as brawn in order to survive and prosper during brutal times.
Pupils were joined by real cave-man ‘Clod’ who shared the secrets of his ancient civilisation.
On a journey spanning 60,000 years up to 8,000 years BC, Ian Morris of the living history company Portals into the Past, told the children: “Your ancestors were just as bright and brilliant as you are today and developed their own original technologies, which successive generations have continued to build upon.”
The day-long session saw all the children dress in fake animal skins and ceremonial paints to learn all about how early humans lived, what animals they hunted, how they built Stonehenge and other henges in the Orkneys, about the gender divisions in hunter gatherer societies, cave art and the increasingly sophisticated manufacture of Stone Age tools.
King’s year three teacher Claire Keen said: “Our boys and girls were incredibly excited about this inspirational living history day, loving everything from the dressing up to the handling of artefacts from our distant past.”
Fellow year three teacher Emma Yoxall added: “Our budding young engineers relished the opportunity to try to build a better Stonehenge than their ancestors did and, of course, the enormous mammoth tooth was the subject of much discussion.”