At this time, we have retired the Archaeology Festival. We are looking towards the future for an impactful event that will be meaningful for all who participate.

Thank you to everyone that came out to the 

2019 Iron Hill Museum Archaeology & Heritage Festival!!!!

It was a rainy day, and we had to move a lot of stuff inside, but we still made sure to be open to the public and share a good day of learning new things!

Thank you to everyone that came out to the 

2018 Iron Hill Museum Archaeology & Heritage Festival!!!!

Here is an article from the Newark Post from this year’s festival. There are some great photos of our volunteers and presenters. It was a wonderful day!

Theme: “Growing & Gathering”

Come on out and explore community history, learn about historical foodways, and dig with professional archaeologist. Watch craftspeople do blacksmithing, woodworking, brewing, and flint knapping.

There is no rain date for this family friendly event, but the forecast calls for a cloudy day.

Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for students and children, children under 4 years old are free, Delaware Academy of Science Members are $2, and scouts in uniform are free.

Please see below for the Newark Post/Cecil Whig news article about the 2017 Archaeology Festival!

Old-time craftsmanship on display at Iron Hill festival

Neubauer spent years learning the finer points of blacksmithing and now teaches them to others. On Sunday, he was at the Iron Hill Museum’s Archaeology and Heritage Festival demonstrating his skills and, perhaps, inspiring someone else to take up blacksmithing.

Several hundred people attended Sunday’s festival, held on the grounds of the museum at 1355 Old Baltimore Pike. This year’s theme was “tools of the trade,” and the festival featured artisans from several disciplines showing off their skills and the tools they use.

All the demonstrations were focused on showing visitors how things were done hundreds of years ago by the people that shaped the Iron Hill area. Native Americans were first drawn to the land for its deposits of jasper, a stone used for making arrowheads and other tools. Later, roughly from 1700 to 1900, Welsh and Irish settlers mined the site for iron.

“We like to explain to people the significance of this area,” said Robin Broomall, a museum board member who helped organize the event. “Lots of people live here and have no idea of the history or why the dirt in their backyard is red – because of the iron ore.”

The featured craftsman was Mathew Grubel, who demonstrated how log cabins were made in the 1700s.

He first became interested in the subject while working at Morristown National Historical Park in New Jersey, where George Washington and the Continental Army spent their second winter of the Revolutionary War. Through trial and error, the soldiers learned to build temporary log cabins to keep warm during the cold winter.

Using a variety of axes and other tools, Grubel measured and chopped logs as festival goers looked on.

“Lincoln Logs make it look simple, but it’s a little trickier,” he said.

Dressed in period garb, Bob Fullmer spent the afternoon demonstrating beer-making techniques from the colonial period.

“My passion is equipment and seeing how things changed,” Fullmer, of Media, Pa., said. “Brewing is the same as it was in 10,000 B.C., but our equipment has gotten better and more efficient.”

In the 1700s, beer was often more readily available than clean water, he noted. Beer also provided needed calories, and taverns were an important social gathering place.