THE Salisbury Museum is bringing history to life with its 2017 Festival of Archaeology next week.

The event, which takes place on Saturday, July 22 and Sunday 23, promises to be a weekend of family fun, featuring living history, talks from speakers including Kate Adie and Dr Alex Langlands, a live dig with Dr Phil Harding and much more.

On the Sunday, the museum will welcome journalist Kate Adie, who will be in conversation with MOD senior historic advisor, Richard Osgood. This will be a unique opportunity to hear Kate discuss how history is written and her own experience of reporting historic world conflicts and a career reconstructing battle fields and military sites.

The programme of talks takes place over the whole weekend. The programme includes the following speakers:

n Professor Roberta Gilchrist 'Glastonbury Abbey: Archaeology and Legend’

n Dr Alex Langlands ‘The Lost City of Old Sarum’

n Chris Wakefield ‘Must Farm: ‘Britain’s Pompeii’’

n Peter Ginn and Dr Alex Langlands ‘Presenting History’

n Garry Momber ‘From Canoe to Cannon – underwater archaeology south of Salisbury’

n Dr Phil Harding and Lorraine Mepham ‘The Lost Gatehouse’

n Kate Adie with Richard Osgood ‘History Before Her Eyes’

n Francis Pryor ‘Stonehenge: The Story of a Sacred Legend’

The museum grounds will become a showground of living history, with a huge range of hands on activities for all the family. This will include a sandpit dig from Wessex Archaeology, historical clay activities and craft, games and puzzles.

And inside the museum, Professor Sam Smiles, the curator of the British Art: Ancient Landscapes exhibition, will lead free gallery talks on the Saturday 22.

All weekend, there will be free tours of Waterloo Uncovered with members of the project team, who have turned their Napoleonic battlefield archaeology results, into a virtual reality historic event.

The festival is open from 10am – 5pm on both days. Entry is £2 donation and tickets for talks £8, available at salisburymuseum.org.uk.