Young people have buried a time capsule containing a hard drive, newsletters, photographs and even milk teeth at Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort, near Stockbridge.
Students from Winton Community Academy, based in Andover, took part in a ceremony which was the culmination of a Heritage Lottery funded project at the historic site. They placed the capsule and a granite interpretation stone in the centre of a new earth seat that marks the location of one of the original Iron Age roundhouses.
The time capsule was filled with cultural items such as CDs, DVDs and heritage magazines and a large capacity hard-drive containing work by pupils relating to activities of Winton Community Academy’s Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Society.
Also included was information on the commemoration of the centenary of the First World War, as well as newsletters, photography and performing arts videos. The milk teeth, and some adult teeth, were donated by the students and staff, as DNA extraction from these teeth could be enormously informative in the distant future.
The Heritage Lottery Fund provided £41,000 for Danebury Hill Fort to run a series of projects aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of the Iron Age site through a variety of activities.
During the three-year project, 760 children from 21 schools visited Danebury Hill fort, with 270 children taking part in story making workshops that were made into podcasts.
Volunteers were recruited to take part in the maintenance of the Danebury Hill Fort, and new learning resources were created to be used by schools and the public. In total, 700 people attended either an activity day or guided walks run to encourage members of the public to learn more about the site.
The Heritage Lottery money also enabled an earth seat to be constructed and it will be used as a teaching aid, a place of rest for visitors to enjoy the Danebury atmosphere and a physical lasting legacy of the project.
Hampshire County Council’s Executive Member for Culture, Recreation and Countryside, Councillor Keith Chapman, helped bury the time capsule and place the interpretation stone on Thursday 22nd May.
Cllr Chapman said: “The Heritage Lottery Fund money has enabled us to create a lasting legacy to Danebury’s history and a practical place for visitors to enjoy the atmosphere, for which we are hugely grateful. I had the privilege of helping to bury the time capsule and place the interpretation stone, which marked the end of the funding for this amazing project. However, this is just the beginning of the site being established as a historic landmark within Hampshire.“
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