Volunteering in the HER by Matthew Savagar

I volunteered at Access to Archaeology as part of my placement at GGAT for my degree in archaeology and medieval history at Cardiff University, I spent two weeks of my time here down in the HER cave with Leonora and two other volunteers and had no idea what to expect when I arrived, the whole experience was brilliant and though I chafed at being in an office all day, Leonora made the whole two weeks incredibly fun. In understanding HER, Access to Archaeology was incredibly enlightening to how archaeology works in the real world, in the way reports are written and the planning process and how commercial archaeology functions on a day-to-day basis.

There were many great moments shared between us as well, the horrors of pipelines, my obsession with polygons, arguments with the spiraly binder machine and of course; the mystery of the vanishing church. For anyone intimidated by the IT side of things, don’t be, once its explained and you get into it, it’s very simple and a great way to improve your skills and knowledge in that department, all in all, I’d recommend the programme to anyone interested in it, or just looking for something to volunteer in, I myself am very tempted to volunteer again later in the year.

Matthew Savagar, Cardiff University student, A2A volunteer, lover of polygons, hater of pipelines and arch-nemesis of the spirally binder machine.