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Being Human Festival

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The University of Bradford is hosting a 'Being Human Festival', an interactive showcase of artefacts and modern technologies used to engage with the past

The free event will take place on Saturday 22 November, in Richmond Atrium at the University, 10am – 3pm. No booking is required and everyone is welcome.

The Being Human Festival is part of a national event where leading academics, artists, scientists, writers, poets and others will grapple with cutting edge humanities issues. Events are taking place all over the UK – with Bradford’s Faculty of Life Sciences holding their own this Saturday.

Activities will include:

  • Searching for Human Fossils - Showcasing modern technology used to locate fossil remains in the African desert
  • Indiana Jones Training - Take part in a mock excavation, methodologically searching for bones, artefacts, and other goodies buried in our sandpit
  • The Human Evolution Story - An interactive look at the evolution of humans from 2.6 million years to the present day
  • Putting Together Prehistory - Fixing and refitting broken archaeological material and see the hi-tech methods used to do this today
  • Art, Present and Past - Have a go at creating cave art and jewellery with techniques used by your ancestors
  • Going Potty in the Neolithic - Take a look at and have a go at making pottery from the past
  • From Belly to Skelly - Looking at nutrition, age and gender and the variations of the human skeleton
  • What is Home to you? - How do people around the world view home?
  • Life & Death, Past and Present - Discussing and exploring past and present attitudes towards Life and Death
  • Digitised Diseases - 3D printing and digital visualisation. A chance to interact with technology and replicas of diseased bones from the past
  • Breaking Stone; Making Tools - See an expert flint knapper making stone tools and even have a go yourself!
  • Ritual and Wizardry - How ritual and sorcery featured in past societies - a case from Scotland
  • Ethnographic Film Showing - Select historical ethnographic films showing the documentation of hunter-gatherer societies
  • Reading Faces - Can your posture and face reveal your emotions and your lies?
  • Saving Stan - Hospital Monitoring an artificial hospital patient - take his pulse, see how he reacts to medicine

Follow us on Twitter - @BeingHumanFest #beinghuman