Closing Festival Weekend at the Ashmolean Museum: Family Festival of Archaeology

We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Ashmolean Museum to offer a weekend full of activities for all ages. Get creative and explore artwork on Saturday, or try your hand at being an archaeologist on Sunday. Both events explore the glorious Wilton Diptych, on loan from the National Gallery as part of their 200-year anniversary celebrations with lots of activities across the whole weekend, to celebrate the muses of history, music, and eloquence.

The Festival of Archaeology is a national festival that ‘incorporates hundreds of in-person and virtual events […] across the UK’. This year’s Festival will run from 13–28 July and we are part of this national day in Oxford on July 14.

Our day at the Ashmolean will include a range of different activities centred on life in medieval Britain and archaeology.

You can hear medieval stories and music, take a tour of the Conservation Laboratory, listen to a talk about medieval jewellery by Ashmolean curator Dr Eleanor Standley, and see models in medieval fashion. You will also get the chance make your own archaeological stratigraphy bottle, create a Royal crown, or try your hand at medieval ring-making.

Entrance to all is free

FESTIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY – SUN 14 JUL

• Opening Lecture ‘All That Glitters: The Archaeology of Later Medieval Jewellery and Devotional Objects’: 11am-12pm, Headley Lecture Theatre
  With Eleanor Standley Associate Professor of Later Medieval Archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Curator of Medieval Archaeology in the Ashmolean Museum.
• Medieval Music and Stories: 12.30pm, 1.30pm, 2.30pm, 3.30pm, Atrium
  Listen to medieval music and stories in the Atrium with Dave Tong the Yarnsmith of Norwich and Trevor James, historical music performer.
• Make a Medieval Ring: 11am-4pm, Gallery 21
  Become a medieval jeweller and make your own medieval-style ring using wire.
• Medieval Amusements: 11am-4pm, Gallery 31
  Have fun playing medieval board games such as Nine Men’s Morris.
• Medieval Messages: 11am-4pm, Learning Studio
  Write your own medieval message and keep it secret with a medieval-style wax seal. Families can make a quill pencil, write a secret message, ‘lock’ the letter and seal it closed with wax.
• Medieval Crafts: 11am-4pm, Learning Studio
  Decorate an illuminated letter inspired by those found in medieval manuscripts embellished with gold
• Making a Diptych and Medieval Book Binding Demonstration: 11am-4pm, Gallery 35
  Join a demonstration of how the wooden boards would be prepared for a diptych, and discover the types of tools used to prepare diptychs for painting and gilding.
  Also enjoy a demonstration of medieval bookbinding where similar painting and gilding techniques were used to diptych decoration.
  Families can have a go at gilding on card and making a mini diptych to colour in.
• Making a Medieval Crown: 11am-4pm, Gallery 41
  Make your own medieval crown like those worn by King Richard II and the royal saints depicted in the Wilton Diptych. We will have three medieval-style crown designs to make, decorate and wear.