Durotriges Project ‘Big Dig’ Field School

Work on site will take place daily between 9am - 4:30pm, five days each week (excluding Saturday and Sunday).

We would recommend that you attend for a minimum of one week and to expect to undertake some or all of the following activities:

• Site preparation, top-soil sampling, and trench excavation
• Stratigraphic excavation of deposits and features
• Context and feature recording (including written and photographic descriptions)
• Sampling for environmental materials and specimens for scientific testing
• Illustration: production of measured plans and sections
• Sieving and sorting of soil samples to extract environmental materials and artefacts
• Finds processing: cleaning, marking, logging, documenting and packaging different materials
• Topographic survey for the collection and mapping of spatial data (total station; GPS etc.)
• Geophysical survey for detecting and mapping below-ground features (resistivity and magnetometry

We are not able to provide accommodation for the dig so please arrange your own accommodation via platforms such as booking.com or airbnb.co.uk 

We are encouraging participants to travel to the dig site (especially if you are based in the local area around Dorchester), there is parking available (details available on successful application). We will also be able to offer some volunteers travelling from Bournemouth a space on our designated site. Should you wish to join us on the bus you can indicate this when you register for the event.

Full details of what you need to bring will be provided when your booking has been confirmed. However, you may want to start thinking about the following:

• You will need to dress appropriately for excavation in the UK. Bring 'stout' (i.e. walking boots/steel-toe capped work boots) footwear (not sandals/trainers/flip flops etc.)
• You will need to bring hats, sun cream and rain wear and don't forget food (packed lunches as we are some significant distance from the shops) and (importantly) an adequate supply of water (there is a water supply on site but in order to stave off potential dehydration your own supply is imperative). Tea abd coffee is provided but you will need to bring your own cup.
• Also to allow you to do magnetometry on specific days (you wll be notified well in advance of these),you will need to have shorts or tracksuit type trousers and T-shirt which do not have ferrous buckles, and some sneakers or trainers without steel eyelets - most metal fittings on clothing are alloys and not a problem - you can test them with a small magnet. Don't worry if this is a problem as we can kit you out
• Ensure you have up to date tetanus protection.
• If you have your own trowel - ideally a Work Hardened Steel (WHS) 4 inch pointing trowel (and not a garden trowel), please bring it along. If not we can supply you with one for the duration of the dig.

To book for this incredible experience please visit our Eventbrite booking form or for any enquiries, please email the Field School Team.

Please note you must be aged 16 or over to take part. We recommend that you book for at least one week to get the best, hands-on experience of working on a live excavation alongside experienced archaeologists, our students and others with an interest in archaeology.