Leisure and Cultural Services Department - Antiquties and Monuments Office

Learning zone

"Learning Archaeology through Rubbing" Workshop

As a member of the Young Friends of Heritage, we have to learn more about Hong Kong's heritage. So, the Antiquities and Monuments Office has organized a special workshop namely "Learning Archaeology through Rubbing" for us to learn more about archaeological work and finds.

What is rubbing? It is a method adopted by people for copying the pattern on the surface of archaeological finds. Through rubbing, they can duplicate the words or patterns found on ancient rock carvings or finds on paper, which is easier to preserve and manage. Moreover, rubbing is crucial for archaeologists to study the social life of our ancestors as well.

We have learnt some basic rubbing skills through this workshop, and the entire rubbing process can be divided into the following steps:

1. Firstly, we were divided into different groups, each group of us was given a bag of finds;
2. before we started, we cut the paper into small pieces, which were used to copy the patterns on the finds later;
3. we then put some sticky liquid on the surface of the finds, so that the paper can be stuck on the finds;
4. a brush was then used to press on the pattern on the finds, in this way, the paper was fallen into the concave part of the finds, and the patterns on the finds could be reproduced;
5. a hair dryer was used to dry up the paper;
6. finally, we put some ink on tissue papers and pressed them on the finds, the patterns were then duplicated on the paper.

The entire rubbing process was not complicated, in fact, it was rather interesting. Through this workshop, we not only gained the basic knowledge on archaeology, but also had the chance to get in touch with and know more about archaeological finds, which really widened our horizons!

Victor Lee
St. Joseph's College

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