Celebrate the Festival of British Archaeology 2010

Submitted by Seren Langley on Fri, 2010-07-16 11:57
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Thousands of budding archaeologists are expected to attend more than 750 digs, walks, talks, family fun and activity days across the UK, discovering Britain’s extraordinary past over the next fortnight!

Paul Bonnington photo Salisbury Museum Knight The CBA’s annual Festival of British Archaeology 2010 is running from Saturday 17th July to Sunday 1st August. It is celebrating its 20th year of ‘Archaeology for All’ and is the biggest ever UK-wide extravaganza of archaeological and heritage events, which are open to everyone and are held to encourage everyone to take more of an active interest in their past!

To find out what is taking place, check out the online events listings!

On Monday 19th July, the British Archaeological Awards ceremony, ‘the Oscars’ of the archaeology world, will be taking place in London with winners announced for awards including ‘Best Archaeological Book’, ‘Best Community Archaeology Project’, ‘Best Archaeological Innovation’ and ‘Best Archaeological Discovery’. Check this website on Monday afternoon for details of the winners!

Director of the Council for British Archaeology, Dr Mike Heyworth says:

It is fantastically encouraging to see that there is an enduring fascination with archaeology across the UK, and the CBA is particularly encouraged to see that the Festival is truly delivering ‘Archaeology for All’ in line with the CBA’s mission.

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 before the Festival of British Archaeology was created in 2009 as a fortnight long event, to replace the week-long NAW.

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) – search for their names in the events listings to find out where they will be this year!

So what are you waiting for? Check the events listings across the UK and see what is taking place near you over the next fortnight and dig into archaeology!