Ancestral Living

Ancestral Living – 3 day course

Ancestral Living is a packed three days where you will delve more deeply into learning and gaining a better understanding of the more advanced ancestral skills.

What will you doing?

Day 1

Fire – Our ancestors used many different methods of friction fire lighting. Create your own bow drill fire kit understanding and using primitive methods to do so.

Food – Stone Age people wasted very little, using the whole animal for tools, clothing, medicine and food. Learn how to skin and process a whole deer for cooking on an open fire. Understand the method of skinning and hide tanning through this process and how to make good use of all of its parts. We’ll make venison stew to enjoy for our evening meal and learn how to preserve the meat using drying techniques.

Crafts –The skins of the animals our ancestors hunted were used for tents, clothing, containers and footwear. Tanning a hide could be a lengthy process. Work as a group together on a hide to try your hand at creating Buckskin leather using the brain tan method.

Our ancestors didn’t just tan the skin of the game animals they hunted, they tanned fish skins too! Learn the art of Salmon skin tanning to use in a craft project later.

Camp craft – Hygiene was important to our ancestors and could be essential in warding off illness, and infections. Experiment with various plants to discover natural methods of cleaning and personal hygiene; create simple soap, learn about teeth cleaning, clothes washing and hand scrubbing as an essential part of life in the Stone Age.

Evening – Stretch out the evening by making cordage around the fire with plant fibres.  

Day 2

Craft – Stone tools were an essential part of Stone Age life. Try your hand at making a stone point using slate and sandstone and go on to make your own bone knife.

Joining a handle to a knife or scraper or attaching a sharp point to a wooden shaft made stone tools more efficient and easier to use. Discover how to make pine pitch that our ancestors would have used as glue. We’ll use this later for another craft project.

Food – Bare hands cooking! Get back to basics and learn how to cook without using any pots or pans. We’ll use hot rocks, cook on the coals as well as experimenting with creative methods to create delicious meals where you can even eat the saucepan!

Cave art dates back at least 40,000 years. It’s an ancient past time. Delve into the magical world of cave art. Learn how to create art using natural pigments and use your mouth as a spray gun!

Cordage is king! – Fibres twisted together to make string was a pivotal innovation, our ancestors could now make nets, traps, bags, rope, clothing and more! Learn how to make gut and sinew cordage.

Evening – Light up the evening by learning some basic techniques to create light. We’ll make torches and lamps to light up our camp, bringing our cave art creations alive with our primitive illuminations!

Day 3

Craft – Our ancestors were incredibly innovative when it came to stone, using it for cooking, crafts, weapons and tools. We’ll make some simple cutting blades using flint.

Bring all our crafts together! Using our hand made leather, cutting blades, tanned fish skin and gut string cordage, we’ll make a Sami tinder pouch.

So many of modern tools stemmed from a Stone Age beginning. Make your own primitive drill using gut cordage and pine pitch (primitive drill points will be provided) Practice making holes in shells and stones to make a necklace/bracelet etc.

Food and medicine -It wasn’t just the meat that was thought of as valuable, fat played an incredibly important role to our ancestors, they would have relied on fat for survival in lean times. Learn how to render fat and use it to make a simple healing medicinal salve.

Being able to preserve food was essential for Stone Age survival. Learn how to make pemmican, a favorite cave man snack. Using rocks grind up your meat and add your fat and other essential ingredients to make this sustaining ancient trail treat.

Water – Water means life. Discover the best ways to find water and make it safe for consumption.

We will be using both primitive and modern methods and tools throughout.

Our ancestors utilised every part of the animal to their advantage; nothing was ever wasted

Book Now

This course will be running on:

August 20th – 23rd 2021 – Shropshire

Please call us on 07527 265 330 or email: info@wildernesspioneers.co.uk to book your place

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking a course