Dates: Thursday 24 April 2025–Friday 20 June 2025, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Venue: DIG

24 April – 20 June 2025 | 10am – 4pm | DIG | Included in admission price | Book now

Step into the world of ancient gladiators and uncover a truly unique encounter at DIG! While gladiators battling lions and bears have long captured the imagination, evidence of these fierce encounters has been limited to historical texts and artistic depictions—until now.

This spring, DIG is proud to present an extraordinary display: skeletal remains believed to bear genuine lion bite marks. Alongside this discovery, witness a stunning facial reconstruction that brings history vividly to life.

Join our Dig Deeper tours—an exclusive, adult-focused experience held at the end of each day. These tours spotlight the gladiator remains and other fascinating artifacts from our collection. Learn from real archaeologists, ask your burning questions about life on a dig, and handle replica artifacts. You’ll also gain hands-on experience in our interactive dig pits, discovering what it’s like to uncover the past.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to come face-to-face with history. Book your visit today!

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Dates: Saturday 24 May 2025–Saturday 31 May 2025, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm
Venue: DIG

24 – 31 May 2025 | 11 am – 3pm | DIG | £3 per person, pay on arrival | DIG website

Inspired by real Roman objects, this drop-in craft allows you to make your own Roman face pot. Fragments of at least 50 of these pots have been found in York, ranging from jars with simple facial features added into the clay, to fully sculpted head-shaped urns, complete with intricate hairstyles. Despite finding so many, archaeologists don’t quite know why they were made, but there are lots of theories!

Come along to learn more about these fascinating finds and let your imagination take over whilst designing your own face pot.

£3.00 per person, pay on arrival.

Join us at DIG during the Eboracum Roman Festival and explore all things Roman! Get up close with real 2000-year-old finds on your DIG tour and explore 40 years of Roman archaeology from across York in our galleries, giving exciting glimpses into life and death in a bustling Roman city. It is also your last chance to see the ‘Soundmarks’ exhibition, where soundscapes and visual art come together and invite you to imagine the possibilities of past worlds, all inspired by Roman archaeological discoveries. You can learn more about Soundmarks here: Soundmarks.

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Dates: Thursday 29 May 2025–Saturday 31 May 2025, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Venue:

Discover more about belief and religion in Roman York in our interactive living history sessions in St. Stephen’s Chapel. There will be an opportunity to try out Roman crafts with historical interpreters from Days Gone By living history company.

This event is organised by York Minster.

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Date: Saturday 31 May 2025, All Day
Venue: Yorkshire Museum

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Date: Saturday 31 May 2025, All Day
Venue: Yorkshire Museum

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Date: Saturday 31 May 2025, All Day
Venue: York Castle Museum

Tales from the Trail: Kirkgate 
Times will be advertised at the museum on the day

Included in general admission 

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Date: Saturday 31 May 2025, 10:30 am - 4:00 pm
Venue: York Castle Museum

Sessions will be throughout the day on Saturday 24th, Thursday 29th and 31st May 2025 | 10:30am-4pm
Included in the general admission tickets 

Find out how butter was made at home in live demonstrations throughout the day.

You might even get the chance to churn some yourself!

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Date: Thursday 5 June 2025, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Venue: York Art Gallery

Harland Miller Gallery Late
Thursday 5 June 2025
6pm – 9pm | £20
Book now

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Date: Sunday 8 June 2025, 10:30 am - 1:30 pm
Venue: York Art Gallery

Txt
Sunday 8 June 2025
10.30am – 1.30pm | £40
Book now | SOLD OUT

A letterpress workshop delivered by Thin Ice Press.

In recent works, especially Hz So Good and R U OK (both 2022), Harland Miller has played with the snappy, abbreviated forms of txt speak or ‘platespeak’ (the language of personalised number plates). In this workshop, we will do the same, stripping words down to their essential components. Participants will learn the basics of letterpress, and will hand set metal type in order to create a snappy txt abbreviation or communication. All participants will go home with a set of unique A5 prints, showcasing the results of their work.

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Date: Friday 13 June 2025, 10:30 am
Venue: Yorkshire Museum

With colleagues at the Yorkshire Museum and York St John University, the MeRit project team has been working with representatives from the local metal-detecting community on a co-curated display of finds relating to medieval lived religion and ritual activity in a landscape context.

Medieval Ritual Landscape (MeRit) is an AHRC-funded project that explores the archaeological evidence for lived religion in medieval England (AD 1000-1600). It is a collaboration between the University of Reading and the British Museum, working with partner organisations in England, Denmark and the Netherlands. Alongside other sources of evidence, key to the project are metal-detected finds recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), examples of which are highlighted in this new (temporary) display.

To celebrate the opening of this display, and animation responses to its themes created by students of York St John, a FREE public event will be held at the Yorkshire Museum on Friday 13 June from 10:30 am. This will include a public lecture by Prof Roberta Gilchrist (MeRit project lead at the University of Reading), presentations of the student animations, and the opportunity to see the new detector-finds display.

Book your place via Eventbrite.

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