One Week To Go!

The Festival runs from Saturday 18th July to Sunday 2nd August, and promises to be the biggest ever with at least 630 excavations, walks, talks, behind-the-scenes tours and activity days.

The event is being launched by the Culture Minister Barbara Follett MP in York at the site of Hungate, the largest excavation to have taken place in the city for 25 years. Other highlights include the editor of British Archaeology magazine, Mike Pitts, appearing on Antony Gormley’s famous Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Now in its 20th year, the Festival of British Archaeology is coordinated by the Council for British Archaeology. It is celebrated both by national bodies such as the National Trust, English Heritage, and the British Museum, as well as the hundreds of societies, community archaeology groups, museums and universities that champion the history on our doorsteps. There’s nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world.

CBA Director Mike Heyworth said:

Taking a closer look at the lives of our ancestors through the objects and landscapes they have left behind is an experience no one ever forgets. We hope that by taking part people will be encouraged to explore the past further, whether by visiting museums, joining a local archaeology group or by reading more about their favourite period.

The range and variety of events this year is astonishing, from a tour of the WWII pillboxes of Porthcurno in Cornwall to Viking storytelling at Unst in Shetland, and from foraging on the Thames Foreshore with the help of a team of local experts, to joining in with the excavation of a Victorian terraced house in Sheffield.

To help budding archaeologists find their local events, the CBA has launched a brand new website. Visit the Festival blog to keep up with the latest developments during the Festival itself.

Find out what’s happening on your doorstep and discover archaeology!

Notes for editors:

The Festival of British Archaeology is co-ordinated by the Council for British Archaeology, an educational charity founded in 1944 to promote the appreciation and care of the historical environment for the benefit of present and future generations.

The Festival of British Archaeology is the new name for the extremely successful and popular National Archaeology Week, the annual UK-wide event which encourages people to get involved in archaeology through specially organised events and which has been celebrated and supported by hundreds of heritage organisations since its outset in 1990.

The CBA works closely with colleagues in Archaeology Scotland who organise Scottish Archaeology Month each year in September.