Facts and Figures

Celebrating 20 Years

• The Council for British Archaeology has been coordinating this UK-wide celebration of archaeology for 20 years!
• The Festival started as National Archaeology Days in 1990
• National Archaeology Days ran for 13 years, before turning into a weekend event in 2003
• In 2005 National Archaeology Week (NAW) was born. This ran for 4 years.
• The Festival of British Archaeology was created in 2009 as a fortnight long event, to replace the week-long NAW.

Hundreds of Events

• Event organisers organise more and more events each year. From 10 events in 1990, to 760 events in 2010, this annual celebration of archaeology has gone from strength to strength and is now widely recognised as the flagship event for archaeology in the UK.

• The event has increased in size by 128% in the last 5 years.

Popular Participation

• Over 160,000 people take part in the event each year.
• It is estimated that over 2 million people have been involved with this celebration of archaeology since its outset in 1990.
• Around 16,000 hours were given by staff and volunteers running events across the UK in 2008.
• The Festival is an inclusive event with events attracting participants of all ages, from very young children, to senior citizens.
• People from as far away as Australia and the USA enquired about the date of the event in 2008 so that they could ensure that their trip to the UK coincided with NAW!

Famous Friends

• Well known TV archaeologists who enjoy being a part of the annual celebrations include Julian Richards (BBC Meet the Ancestors) and Phil Harding (Channel 4’s Time Team).
• The national press recognises the Festival as an important date in the UK’s annual events calendar
• The Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Independent on Sunday and Daily Express were amongst the papers covering NAW in 2008.
• NAW 2008 made the front cover of The Beano!
• Coverage of NAW 2008 in the printed press alone, reached a potential audience of 18 million!