The Stone Age to Iron Age Workshop
Stephen Mortimer brought the life of Stone Age people to Suttons School today in our Year 3 classes.
Steve took us through how early humans began their fight for survival by becoming hunters and using their highly developed brains to invent tools to help them find food.
The children got to handle different tools made by a using the original stone age technique of knapping ( using a harder stone to shape flint) However the stone tools the children handled had been deliberately blunted so they were safe to handle. The real items would have been razor sharp and able to cut through bones and muscle.
The Stone they used was flint, which was very delicate but could be shaped to form axe heads, scrappers, spear heads and arrow heads. Although there are no written forms of history from this period, archaeologists have found several Stone Age burial sites where individuals have been buried with their stone tool kits.
Stephen Mortimer brought the life of Stone Age people to Suttons School today in our Year 3 classes.
Steve took us through how early humans began their fight for survival by becoming hunters and using their highly developed brains to invent tools to help them find food.
The children got to handle different tools made by a using the original stone age technique of knapping ( using a harder stone to shape flint) However the stone tools the children handled had been deliberately blunted so they were safe to handle. The real items would have been razor sharp and able to cut through bones and muscle.
The Stone they used was flint, which was very delicate but could be shaped to form axe heads, scrappers, spear heads and arrow heads. Although there are no written forms of history from this period, archaeologists have found several Stone Age burial sites where individuals have been buried with their stone tool kits.
We then went to the playground to experience how early tribes would hunt, working together
to capture and kill large animals like rhinoceroses, bears and woolly mammoths, which they had no hope of killing if done as a single person. We hunted a deer in the playground understanding how early man had to develop language skills to communicate.
Steve also introduced the spiritual beliefs and practices of these early Britons looking at evidence found in several burial sites some dating back 30,000 years ago. This has lead archaeologists to speculate on the early religions in Briton, many believe that they were animists who believed that when they killed they would thank the spirit of the dead animal for supplying them with meat and food for their families. The children joined in dressing in their deer horn masks and thanking the spirits for the deer they had hunted by song and dance.
Steve finished the day by telling the children a Celtic story which originated in Ireland in the Iron Age about the King of Ulster. The children played the different characters in the story and acted the events in the tale.
The children had a fantastic day and we would like to thank Steve Mortimer of the Victrix History Company for a really informative and fun day in Year 3.