Rescue archaeology is carried out in areas threatened by human or natural agencies. We’ve collated some of the best rescue projects that have been highlighted in Current Archaeology over the past year. Below are the nominees for Rescue Project of the Year.
Voting closed 5 February and all the winners of the Current Archaeology Awards will be announced on 24 February as part of Current Archaeology Live! 2024. Click here to find out more about the event.
Click here for links to all the awards categories.
Sponsor of Rescue Project of the Year
Pitch perfect: tackling a previously unknown Roman villa at Dings Crusaders RFC
Cotswold Archaeology, CA 394
Excavations on disused rugby pitches in Stoke Gifford, just north of Bristol, have uncovered the remains of an entire Roman villa estate.
Excavating Weeley Barracks: echoes of the Napoleonic Wars in Essex
Oxford Archaeology, CA 395
Investigations in Essex have revealed traces of a 19th-century military camp built to guard against the threat of a French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars.
Harpole’s hidden gem: excavating early medieval Britain’s most significant female burial
MOLA, CA 395
Archaeological work just outside Northampton has uncovered an internationally significant burial, furnished with a remarkable 7th-century necklace and a number of other high-status grave goods.
The Knowe of Swandro: excavating eroding archaeology in Orkney
Swandro-Orkney Coastal Archaeology Trust/Bradford University, CA 396
This multi-period site on Rousay spans the Neolithic, Iron Age, Pictish, and Norse periods of Orkney’s history, and archaeologists are in a race against time and tide before it is lost to the sea.
The Gloucester: piecing together the story of a royal wreck
The Gloucester Project, CA 398
Underwater investigations of the wreck of HMS Gloucester, which sank off Norfolk over 340 years ago, and ongoing analysis of recovered artefacts have revealed new details about its final voyage.
Ponteland’s prehistoric past: tracing life and death on the edge of the Northumberland Coastal Plain
Archaeological Research Services Ltd, CA 399
A recent excavation of a ring-ditch in Ponteland has uncovered a number of early Bronze Age burials, revealing new details about life in prehistoric Northumberland.
Surprises from the Roman frontier: excavating Hadrian’s Wall in urban Tyneside
Pre-Construct Archaeology, CA 400
Development-led excavations have revealed a previously unknown Hadrian’s Wall turret in Newcastle-upon-Tyne – the first to be discovered in more than 40 years, and the largest to-date.
Excavating Ankerwycke: from priory to pleasure ground
National Trust, Surrey County Archaeological Unit, and Cliveden Conservation, CA 404
Ongoing excavations and conservation work are shedding new light on how a riverside site evolved from a medieval nunnery to a Tudor residence, and finally to a 19th-century pleasure ground.
Voting has now closed
