Bookings now being taken for our

2010 season

(April 2010 - August 2010)

Booking early to avoid disappointment

 

 

We are just starting to prepare for our 10^th season at Saveock planning the new trenches we are going to put in and contemplating what surprises Saveock is going to throw at us this season! In view of the international media interest in the site last year it is essential to book early if you want to come on particular weeks.

 

We have the booking form on the education page with information about local student recommended accommodation and a sample of our typical lunch menu. We believe if you are going to learn how to dig you might as well have a good lunch while you are about it! No experience is necessary just an enthusiasm to discover what people did in the past and meet interesting people from all walks of life in the trenches.  

There is a tour of our facilities page, so you can see we are not a porta cabin in a muddy field. We are a well equipped research excavation that believes archaeology should be available to anyone who wants to learn how to dig.

 

 For those of you new to the site for the first time here is a brief synopsis of the earlier phase of the excavation in this sheltered river valley in Mid Cornwall. The site covers a period from the Mesolithic to 17th century Pagan Swan feather pits (more information about these can be found by clicking on the link in the Feather Pits section on the right of this page). In the Mesolithic the main site trench was over a south facing peat bank on the bend of a river that was between two shallow lakes. This entire site has been purposely covered with various different coloured clays in an attempt to make the river bank a suitable place for dwellings. In the area A/2 the first phase of the site, is what we believe to be a Mesolithic dwelling platform covered with dense green clay surrounded by stony yellow clay in which the stakes to support the dwelling were driven. The next phase we believe (and the jury is still out on this) is the use of the constant spring line to make some sort of Neolithic ritual area. We say ritual because we cannot think of any conceivable reason why people would make stone lined drains covered with 30cm of green admix clay. Then manufacture a large rectangular pool lined with white quartz cores, unless it was for some ritual purpose. In season five (2005) we found another rectangular pool next to the original this one only fills with water from a spring in the bank at the back of it in mid Winter.

 

These features are at present unique in Cornish or from what we have researched British archaeology. The only similar feature we have found is the Neolithic clay platform that is underneath the Maeshowe monument on Orkney. A trench put into this platform revealed a stone lined drain almost identical to ours.

 

Jacqui Wood