Community archaeology dig days and test-pit weekends (the CAER / Access Cambridge model)
Harvested 2026-11-01 (skills harvest ~02:27Z). Sources at the foot. Figures marked (snippet) come from search previews I did not open in full.
What it is
A community dig turns residents into participants. People dig 1 m x 1 m test pits in their own gardens or on a public green, or they join a month-long supervised excavation. The audience gets made during the dig: visitors, local press, school groups, and a mailing list of people who now have a personal stake in the site's story.
Evidence (practitioner numbers)
- CAER Heritage Project, Caerau & Ely, Cardiff (Cardiff University + Action in Caerau and Ely + schools, since 2011). Season 3 at Caerau Hillfort (July 2015): more than 200 volunteers worked beside the university team during a month-long dig, and 2,000 visitors came. The finds (a Neolithic causewayed enclosure, a large pottery group, a Roman brooch) made BBC Wales news as "Cardiff is 6,000 years old" (BBC, read).
- CAER later dug test pits in residents' gardens (Cardiff University news, 2020, "socially-distanced dig": a one-square-metre pit per household, results shared back; page 403 here, snippet). It also dug at Trelai Park playing fields, where a Bronze Age burial site was found and coverage reached India and the US. Facebook post (snippet): "over 100 local volunteers, including school-children and students".
- CAER's assets are now a Lottery-funded Hidden Hillfort heritage centre plus trails, films, accredited courses and VR. In other words, the dig was the start of a whole local heritage product line (ACE page, read).
- Access Cambridge Archaeology, Wendens Ambo (Aug 2018, read): 10 test pits over one weekend, 70+ residents of all ages, 3 archaeologists, the village hall as base, Heritage Lottery money. A local society found the pit sites and ran the paperwork. Commemorative water bottles. A pit on the recreation ground drew passers-by: "everyone walking by taking an interest". Teen volunteers collected feedback.
- ACA tag page (snippet): 86% said there was nothing they did not enjoy.
- Lewis 2022 (snippet): around 350 residents dug 80 test pits, with measured social outcomes.
- National Trust "Big Dig" (Changing Chalk, Sussex; snippet): over 10,000 residents, school children and volunteers in coordinated test pits.
How to run one (steps)
- Partner first. Work with a university outreach team, the regional trust (in Wales: Heneb, the Trust for Welsh Archaeology) or a unit like ACA. They bring the archaeologists, recording sheets and finds handling. Never dig without one.
- Permissions. Get each landowner's written OK for each pit. Scheduled monuments need consent; don't touch them. Any finds that may be treasure follow the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS Cymru in Wales).
- Format. Run a weekend of 1 m test pits, 8–12 pits, in gardens and one public green so it can be seen. Brief everyone in the morning, take the group photo, and run a finds table in the hall.
- Content capture. Run a daily dig diary with a photo of every notable find and a "what we know now" map. Each find becomes a post. Capture short vertical clips of the moment something is lifted.
- Funnel. Use a sign-up sheet with email consent at the hall, a QR code to the project page, and a free results booklet or webpage to follow ("the village's map, rewritten"). Results night = second event, second press story.
- Measure. Count participants, visitors, sign-ups, press pieces, and post reach per find. CAER's 200 volunteers to 2,000 visitors is a 10x ratio worth benchmarking against.
How we apply it to Cedwyn
- Status: GATED. It needs the owner's GO, a professional partner, and written permission from every landowner. Never on or near family land or addresses, and never named publicly.
- Content angle now, no digging: the 1994 excavation north of the church is already the source for documentary doors 3, 7 and 9. A "Dig diary 1994" strand would use the site's own catalogue records, one find per post, linking to the matching door at /movie/. That copies the find-a-day rhythm without a spade.
- Research lead (not a site fact): CAER's Neolithic and Bronze Age results lie in the same Ely valley. They are a lead for the "nothing before the Iron Age on this ground" research gap. They must not go into any scene caption until the site catalogue holds a record. Movie rule: the site is the only source.
- Later, if the owner gives the GO:
- Draft (HubSpot task only, never sent) an approach to Heneb or Cardiff's CAER team about a Llandough test-pit weekend on public or consenting land.
- Pair it with a results evening and a bilingual cy/en results page.
- The sign-up sheet feeds Mailchimp.
- Editorial: neutral dated wording, no banned words.
Sources
- bbc.com (read)
- aceplace.org (read)
- cardiff.ac.uk (403; snippet)
- facebook.com (snippet)
- accesscambridgearchaeology.wordpress.com (read)
- tandfonline.com (403; snippet)
- nt.global.ssl.fastly.net (snippet)
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