Neolithic Pottery Workshop and Talk at Clitheroe Castle

Pottery was first made in Britain 6,000 years ago in the Neolithic period.  Join Dr Rick Peterson from the University of Lancashire for a fascinating hands-on workshop and take home your own piece of pottery.  Find out how this new material would have had a radical effect on how people lived their lives.  

The session will start with a short introduction to the period and what the pottery looks like and was used for.  After a chance to handle replicas of distinctive round-based Neolithic carinated bowls, participants will be set a challenge.  Each participant will be given a supply of clay and some instructions to work on the challenge.  How would you make a pot with a rounded bottom?  With help from experienced potters and archaeologists, attendees will spend the workshop making their own bowl.  The team will support the participants as they work and will also provide demonstrations of key techniques.  At the end of the session participants will get to keep the pot that they made.

Dr Peterson teaches on modules across archaeology and cultural anthropology, with a focus on prehistory and archaeological fieldwork.  His primary research interests are the Holocene prehistory of caves and Neolithic pottery.  Rick has directed major excavation projects all over Britain.  Now, he is particularly interested in the agency of artefacts, natural places and the environment.  This is reflected in his recent and current fieldwork projects in the Forest of Bowland and the Yorkshire Dales and his 2019 book Neolithic Cave Burials: agency, structure and environment, which was published by Manchester University Press.

This session is aimed at adults and young people 13 years +.  Booking essential. 

Clitheroe Castle Museum is managed by Lancashire County Council's Museum Service on behalf of Ribble Valley Borough Council.

Entry to the festival hub is free.  
Admission fee applies only to Museum entry.  Adults £5.20, young people and children 18 years and younger free (additional charges apply for craft).  
*Museum admission applies to adults only.