An Open Day to view the archaeological excavation work underway at Hawkcombe Head, near Porlock, next Tuesday [July 27] is being organised by joint directors of the dig Drs Paula Gardiner and Josh Pollard, Lecturers in Archaeology at Bristol University, and National Park Authority archaeologist, Rob Wilson-North.
The ‘Widening Participation’ project is a joint venture between Exmoor National Park Authority and the University of Bristol that seeks to involve
A-level students from the south-west and inner-city Bristol in hands-on archaeology and fuel their interest to study it further at university.
This is the third Exmoor Archaeology Field School and follows the very successful Field Schools held during 2002 and 2003. This year the excavations will continue to investigate the 6,000 year-old flint-working site at Hawkcombe Head near Porlock.
Many students who attended previous Field Schools have now applied for and been offered places to read archaeology at Bristol University.
Dr Paula Gardiner said: “The Field School provides a rare opportunity for students to experience real archaeology at first hand; it is a chance for them to develop practical skills. They are also involved in other techniques such as geophysical survey and landscape survey.”
Exmoor National Park Authority Archaeologist, Rob Wilson-North, said: “The Field School is a welcome partnership between the University of Bristol and the National Park Authority. It provides an opportunity for us to learn more about the earliest evidence of human occupation on Exmoor and also introduces young people to archaeological techniques. Some of these students will go on to be the archaeologists of the future! Hawkcombe Head is a remarkably well preserved flint working site and a better understanding of its nature and extent will enable us to preserve it.”
The Field School is funded by the University of Bristol’s Widening Participation Office and the Exmoor National Park Authority.
This is an opportunity to show the work undertaken so far and there will be a demonstration of flint-tool making by Keith Faxon to show the students how the material would have been worked into tools thousands of years ago.
Dr Mark Horton, Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Bristol, said: “This is an important opportunity to promote archaeology, in conjunction with Exmoor National Park Authority, to bright and committed students from differing backgrounds. We are grateful for the support of the University’s Widening Participation Office, which has funded the field school.”
Hawkcombe Head is the oldest archaeological site found so far on Exmoor, dating from the Late Mesolithic period (7,000-4,000 BC) and is an area that has been frequently visited by late hunter-gatherer groups over many millennia. Flints have been found from the surface in an area of erosion caused by vehicles driving across the moor.
The public are welcome to visit the site on Tuesday 27 July 2004 any time from 11 am to 3 pm. The site can be reached via the road from Porlock to Exford (via the A39 Porlock - Lynmouth road, national grid reference SS 845 458).