Bulletin 27 (May 2009) Upcoming Digs

Eastern

Sedgeford

Location: Norfolk. Run by: SHARP – the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project. Dates: 5 July – 14 August. Cost: £125 pw inc food and campsite, £20 for day course, £100 for week course, concessions.

Contact: Brenda Stibbons, 4 Alfred Road, Cromer, Norfolk, NR27 9AN. Tel: 01263 510969, 07786 644980. Email: bookings@sharp.org.uk Web: www.sharp.org.uk

One of the largest, best-appointed, and longest-running projects for volunteers and trainees, SHARP is investigating the entire history of a Norfolk village and rural parish. Major open-area excavations on the Boneyard site of an 8th-10th century Anglo-Saxon cemetery concluded in 2007, and the main excavation site is now that of the associated settlement in the neighbouring Chalkpit Field. Two years of evaluative excavations have revealed good survival of ditches, pits, post-holes, and beam-slots, with abundant deposits of domestic debris, making it likely that this will evolve into a major Middle Saxon settlement excavation offering rich insights into the character and everyday life of the original village. Other work planned this year includes continuing post-excavation analysis of the Boneyard excavations, with work on human remains, animal bones, pottery, and small finds, and preliminary investigation of Sedgeford’s First World War airfield.
Full campsite and catering facilities are available. Participants can enrol as ordinary volunteers or take one or more training courses, including basic excavation, human remains, bones in archaeology, and modern conflict archaeology.


London

Digging Dad’s Army

Location: Shooters Hill, Greenwich. Run by: Digging Dad’s Army: the East and South-East London People’s War Project, 1914-1945. Dates: 13-21 June. Cost: £60 for weekend course, £150 for week course, concessions.

Contact: Andy Brockman, 72 Nithdale Road, London, SE18 3PD. Tel: 0208 316 6358, 07958 543518. Email: andy.archaeology@virgin.net Web: www.gwag.org

Digging Dad’s Army is a new multi-disciplinary, community-based research project centred on a study area in the East and South-East London boroughs of Waltham Forest, Newham, Barking and Dagenham, and Greenwich. Building on existing work on First World War air-war sites, mainly in North-East London, and on Second World War sites on Shooters Hill (Greenwich), DDA will use archives, oral/family history, field reconnaissance, survey, standing-building recording, and excavation to explore the militarised landscapes and popular experience of modern conflict in a densely populated urban area. Work this year will focus on both First and Second World War sites on Shooters Hill. There will be courses covering modern conflict archaeology, basic field skills, and standing-building recording.