3rd April 2010, 11:30 AM
This web site might give you some ideas: http://www.ilovethepast.com/
Have you contacted places like Butser? You might be able to find a project along the lines of building a replica roundhouse that's looking for volunteer labour. Do you have a local archaeological society? I think this will be your best bet for some free digging experience and it could offer alternatives like post-ex finds washing and marking, to save the missus's knees! It might also be worth checking out if there are any units running community digs in your area, although the nature of them means that you won't be able to go on ones further afield. Apart from that, you can mainly expect to pay for places on training digs as you've found.
Organisations like universities and charitable trusts tend to run training digs as fund-raising opportunities, as you've found. The up-side of paying, is that you generally get a good level of supervision, you come away with new skills if you want them and you may have the opportunity to do more than just dig e.g. planning, environmental sample processing.
Have you contacted places like Butser? You might be able to find a project along the lines of building a replica roundhouse that's looking for volunteer labour. Do you have a local archaeological society? I think this will be your best bet for some free digging experience and it could offer alternatives like post-ex finds washing and marking, to save the missus's knees! It might also be worth checking out if there are any units running community digs in your area, although the nature of them means that you won't be able to go on ones further afield. Apart from that, you can mainly expect to pay for places on training digs as you've found.
Organisations like universities and charitable trusts tend to run training digs as fund-raising opportunities, as you've found. The up-side of paying, is that you generally get a good level of supervision, you come away with new skills if you want them and you may have the opportunity to do more than just dig e.g. planning, environmental sample processing.