Last week the team of Guerilla Archaeologists took shamanism to the shoppers! As part of the Made in Roath project we set up our activities and information in the Queens Arcade shopping centre in Cardiff much to the surprise of the passerby’s who experienced archaeology when they least expected it.
Young shoppers enjoyed making antler headdresses to take away with them and (of course) loved our isotopic face paints. The GA team met some thoroughly interesting people including a lady who had studied at Cardiff some years ago with the famous Sir Mortimer Wheeler!
A bit of shamanic drumming and costume sporting attracted people into our midst to learn about archaeological shamanism and to have their isotopic signature mapped. Others however thought we were a Cult……with hindsight wearing a robe and a Mesolithic antler headdress in a shopping centre could possibly be misinterpreted!!
Although this was a challenging environment to work in, the setting proved positive and allowed us GA’s to talk to people who we would never usually encounter at festivals and the like, and surprising them with archaeology in an unusual setting.
For two of our enthusiastic visitors who donned up in full shamanic regalia the experience was ‘a most unexpected high point’ in their day.
Guerilla Archaeology 