Archaeological digs

[VirginVegGrower]

My ex and I had just moved into our farm and the previous farmers weren't into gardening so they'd turned it into more paddock. My ex got a tractor in to turn over the soil so's I could have my garden but didn't get very far. A few inches under the surface was a roman pavement. We just covered it up again, put a load of topsoil on it and pretended we'd never found it.

Oh, and I was at school with Phil Harding from the Time Team!!

Naughty! I can imagine a lot of farmers doing this though.

[smallblueplanet]

Yes. I studied for a Certificate in Archaeology about 15 years ago. If you fancy doing it Piskie, try joining your local Archaeological Society - most colleges and universities will have one - and you can go on digs with them - they have insurance - most important. Yes, it's mainly routine but you can find some spectacular stuff field walking. Again, do it with a group and be sure they are insured.

Wot she said!

I've been digging in the UK and abroad - great fun. And you do get to dig 'the good bits' despite what janeyo's OH says - it's very poor form to take over someone else's 'finds' - the original digger, unless they're really naff at the job, gets to do it.

I dug for a couple of weeks at Woodhenge on the Stonehenge Riverside Project - fascinating stuff, if prehistory is your thing. They were filming it for NatGeo documentary - the one voiced over by Donald Sutherland! Its good and if you knew what I looked like you'd catch a 3 second glipse of me near the end when they're talking about the excarnation platforms.

Stonehenge Decoded | National Geographic Channel

[smallblueplanet]

Lots and lots of info here:

CBA Home | The Council for British Archaeology

[snohare]

If you want an interesting introduction, you could do worse than try one of the National Trust for Scotland's archaeological Thistle Camps. I've been on a few of them, as well as weekend projects done via the local Conservation Volunteer groups, and not only do the archaeologists train you (including use of plane table and theodolite mapping) but they also tend to give lots of fascinating background information, and sometimes a lecture/slide show of an evening.
The work is none too exciting, but on the other hand it is usually in a fabulous location, the banter is good, if the weather is good then you get a tan, and all in all it always changes your perspective on life forever, in a good way. (I have found.)
Once you have peeled away the present to see the distant past and learned a little of what went before, you will never see the present alone again, and it gives a perspective that nothing else could ever provide.