Family Fun Day 2026

I am pleased to announce that our annual Family Fun Day event will be running on the 28th February at Marchmont St Giles Parish Church.

We gratefully acknowledge that part of the funding for our Family Fun Day is provided from a Student Experience Grant which is funded by the University of Edinburgh Development Trust. Without this ongoing support we would not be able to fund these projects which do so much for the quality of the student learning experience at the University of Edinburgh. We would like to thank all alumni, staff and other donors who support the Development Trust, including through its unrestricted Edinburgh Fund.

We would also like to thank the generous support of the EUSA Student Opportunities Development Fund and the HCA Charles Mackie Student Initiative Fund for helping make this project possible.

Semester 2 Update – Annual Summary

This past year, I have had the privilege of being the president of EAOP. While a big responsibility, it was so fun and rewarding.

While president, I:

• organised our annual Family Fun Day, which was attended by 200+ people
• held sessions with IntoUniversity and the Royal Blind School, reaching children who would not usually have the opportunity to try out archaeological skills
• increased the number of socials for our members, leading to over 100 people signing up for a membership
• updated our long neglected website, including adding direct feedback from sessions and uploading digital resources for the public to use

I am so proud to have been part of such an amazing, hardworking committee. Together, we introduced many young people to archaeology, and hopefully inspired some future archaeologists. Next year, I am handing the reigns over to Rebecca Whittaker, who I know will do an excellent job. I am taking on the role of treasurer, and I can’t wait to try a new set of responsibilities!

Eve Jeffreys (President 2024/25)

Semester One 2024 Update

Hello everyone! The EAOP website is back and better than ever. As the president, I wanted to let you all know how great this semester has gone!

All our sessions this semester have gone great. We had a lot of demand from Brownie groups and so had 5 sessions with Brownies. It was so fun to help the girls achieve their Archaeology badges, and one group was even kind enough to award us with our own badges! I will treasure mine forever… Some of the activities we delivered this semester were cave painting, Roman face pot making, hieroglyphs, and of course the ever-faithful dig pit.

The EAOP community has been wonderful to be a part of. We have had so much enthusiasm for volunteers and it has been lovely to see so many new faces at each session. We also had some great socials this semester which were a fun way to meet everyone and get to know our fellow volunteers, while getting stuck in with some crafts along the way!

Next semester, we will be running our annual Family Fun Day on the 1st of March. We also have a session with the Royal Blind School, as well as an outreach day with IntoUniversity. So many exciting things to come! 

See you next semester,

Eve Jeffreys (President 2024/25)

Semester One 2022 Update

Hello everyone! 

I’m excited to be giving a massive update about what EAOP has been up to! This year has started off smashingly! We’ve had a wonderful semester, with two sessions each month for October and November. Here’s a little breakdown about each session.

Session One: Peruvian Archaeology with a P3 Class

We started off with our first primary school visit since the pandemic began and we could not be happier! We met with a class of P2s who were reading Paddington, so they asked us to talk about Peruvian Archaeology! We started the session doing a presentation about what Archaeology is and asking the students about Peruvian History! They were so knowledgeable! We then broke into three stations, our dig pit so students could practice digging up their own artefacts, a station for them to design their own Incan-inspired textiles, and a station for them to design their own temples based on Incan religion.

The students were an absolute delight, super keen about history and incredibly inquisitive. They were especially interested in Underwater Archaeology as well as finding bones, both of which I had mentioned in the presentation in the beginning about general Archaeology. 

Session Two: Peruvian Archaeology with a P2/P3 Class

We were then invited back to the same school two weeks later, this time working with a neighbouring classroom of P2s/P3s. This was right before Halloween, so they were all bouncing out of their seats excited! We ran the same session about Peruvian Archaeology! They had a fantastic time with the dig pit, asking a ton of questions about what the different artefacts in the pits were and making their own guesses about what they were used for. They all had a blast colouring their textiles and designing temples.

Session Three: General Archaeology with a Guides group

Our third session was held with a Guides group to talk about general Archaeology. This group of guides were absolutely wonderful. They were all so interested in what we did in University, as well as career paths we could take. We had a wonderful large group of volunteers, mostly postgraduate students, and they were incredible! We ran three stations, the dig pit (a classic), a station with actual artefacts for the Guides to touch and discuss, and a station for making their very own Roman Face Pots! The Guides were very interested in the artefacts, guessing what the various Roman pottery pieces and animal bones were. The Roman Face Pot station went quite well! The guides were all super creative with creating their own pots and own styles!

Overall, the session went super well! The Guides were wonderful and even had questions about more macabre aspects of archaeology, such as plaque pits. Two of the guides were discussing with me the ethics and issues surrounding heritage and archaeology. A couple said they would be interested in pursuing archaeology in the future, and we discussed at the end the different courses we are all studying in university and the different career paths you can take in archaeology. I would also like to give a huge thank you to the Guides leaders for their very kind gift of a container of cupcakes, which were greatly appreciated and promptly demolished by us.

Session Four: Edinburgh Archaeology with a Brownies Group

Our last session for the semester was with a Brownies group about Edinburgh archaeology!

We ran three activity stations: one about stratigraphy and artefacts, a station called ‘Two Lies and a Truth’ about Edinburgh Castle and its interesting history, and a station about building a hillfort, like the one at Arthur’s Seat. The Brownies were super enthusiastic! They especially loved building hillforts out of boxes and then staging wars upon one another and knocking down the forts. They were keen on the Edinburgh Castle history, with a lot of questions about Mary Queen of Scots since they were learning about her in school. They loved handling the artefacts as well! 

These brownies were so lovely and inquisitive, and it was a wonderful final session for the semester.

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Thank you so much to all of the teachers and leaders who allowed us to come talk to their students. This semester has gone so well and I’m overjoyed with how involved and passionate our volunteers are. I have to also give a shout out to our wonderful committee who has worked to design all the activities we have run at the sessions, as well as doing committee work! We are excited to be back for another wonderful semester now!

Best wishes,

Kara Bohn (EAOP President 2022/2023)