In Pictures: Dirty Weekend at Marden Henge

What happens when you take a group people who have never done archaeology before to excavate the biggest Neolithic monument ever discovered in the UK? Marden Henge is an extraordinary site. Halfway between Stonehenge…

Site Diary: Introducing Trench 3

Site Diary: The Story of St Cuthbert’s Bead

Site Diary: The Truth, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Groundtruth

Site Diary: My Very First Dig

Our Crowdfunded Dig At Lindisfarne Is Happening Now!

In Pictures: Liquid History – a Dirty Weekend on the Thames

Down on the foreshore with Steve 'Mud God' Brooker

Site Diary: We Found a Roundhouse!

DigVentures set off on a Dirty Weekend to excavate Poulton – the largest Iron Age lowland settlement west of the Pennines. Our intrepid team of Venturers uncovered a new roundhouse, evidence of wealth, trade…

In Pictures: Poulton Dirty Weekend 2016

This past weekend we returned to Poulton for another incredible Dirty Weekend. We started off in the Pub for a very important meeting… The next morning, the site was as muddy as we remembered… But the…

Cave Art and Ice Age Alphabets

As an archaeologist and caver, I can’t imagine anything more exciting than entering a new cave and finding Palaeolithic art on the walls. Although I have not discovered any yet in the Yorkshire Dales…

Site Diary: A Very Dirty Weekend of Cave Archaeology

This is what it’s like to meet a bunch of strangers in a pub and spend the weekend exploring archaeology in a dark, wet cave together. It’s 8pm at the Helwith Bridge Inn and…

Leiston Abbey: The Archaeological Story So Far

The Sea, the Sky, the Dunes, and God: Visiting Lindisfarne

Lindisfarne is an island so steeped in history and drama that it hardly needs an introduction; it’s where the stunning Lindisfarne Gospels were created and was the wellspring of England’s Christianty. In 793 it…

To the Rescue! A Cave of Strange Skulls and Weird Wall-Markings

When cavers found a pile of bones and some strange wall-markings inside a newly-discovered cave chamber, DigVentures was called out to investigate. Rain and dense fog set the scene. We were standing close to…

Site Diary: What Kind of Hillfort Have We Actually Found?

Where is everybody? Or rather, where WAS everybody in the Iron Age, at Chavella hillfort? Because they certainly don’t seem to have been living where we thought they were! All good things come to…

Site Diary: How to Dig an Iron Age Hillfort, Spanish Style!

What happens on the first day of excavation at an Iron Age hillfort? Beer, bagpipes and bulls were not what we expected! The first day of excavation is always one full of anticipation. You…

Raksha’s Site Diary: Digging Up Roman Lancaster

When you think of Lancaster, you probably think of its medieval castle, Georgian townhouses and (of course!) the burning of the Pendle witches. But as we found out this week, there’s waaaay more to…

Why Looking for Rock Art is Best Done in the Dark

Sarah has been out to record some of the Bronze Age rock art that lines the Atlantic coast of Spain. Here she tells us why working with these panels is an adventure of body,…