Our Jigsaw Training Programme 2013 started on a high on Saturday with our first two courses: Flint Identfication, and Artefact Identification: Pottery and Bone. Barry Bishop, lithics specialist, led the morning session which consisted of an illustrated talk outlining how to distinguish between worked and unworked flints, and a whistle-stop tour through all the different knapping technologies and associated products, before moving to a hands-on session looking at some examples.

The afternoon's session on Artefact Identification: Pottery and Bone was a Level One course taught by Chris Faine and Stephen Wadeson, finds specialists at Oxford Archaeology East. Despite being a repeat course from last year, we were overwhelmed with bookings. This was a basic introduction to identifying pottery and bone artefacts: we are running several Level Two courses in Pottery Identification later this year, and hope to run more detailed courses on animal and human bone identification in the future.

Both courses were fully booked (25 attendees at each) and there were waiting lists for both. Praise from the courses:

"This course was excellent. I am suddenly able to pick up a bit of flint and I know exactly what to look for, and most importantly, what I'm looking for (and at). Quite amazing."

"Thanks for a well organised and informative day. Well done you!"