Dig and Sow is an invitation to become involved in a mass region-wide archaeological excavation. It is supported by the Arts Council, with a particular link to the Olympic Games. Each pit that is dug is being ‘sown’ with a silver charm which carries a symbol representing a life experience of each of 205 local people (205 being the number of countries participating in the Olympic Games). The Norfolk Dig and Sow project is to take place in partnership with the Paston Heritage Society.
The excavation of 34 pits, a metre square and a metre deep, across the parish of Paston, will be carefully supervised and overseen by Dr Carenza Lewis (of Time Team fame) and her colleagues at Access Archaeology Cambridge. The pits can be in a garden, or on common or agricultural land. We shall need up to 34 volunteers to provide the pit locations and to be responsible for burying the charm, and a small army of diggers to carefully excavate, collect any findings, backfill and make good the surface.
Test pits will be dug on Sunday 4 March 2012, and the main event, culminating in an exhibition of discoveries, will take place on the 19th May. The March weekend will also see the exhibition of the outcomes of the Reading the Past in our Landscape project which began on 15 October.
The coastal strip that includes the recent internationally significant discoveries at Happisburgh and the important medieval sites of Paston and Bromholm Priory at Bacton is clearly an area of great archaeological interest.
If you can offer a pit location site, or want to help with the digging, please get in touch.