A bangle fragment decorated with hand-carved Celtic art motifs, a Pictish spearbutt at a hillfort and a wooden shipwreck are just a handful of examples of historical finds in Scotland last year.
With the growing number of historical discoveries, there has been an increase in people wanting to get involved with archaeological projects within their local communities, experts have said.
Scotland’s rich heritage is globally renowned and archaeological projects not only help tell the country’s history but also offer communities a real chance to connect with their past, archaeologist Dr Tom Horne said.
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But with some heritage projects having finite spaces and a growing demand, there are calls for more opportunities for people to get involved.
Dr Horne said that some of the “superstar sites” generate so much interest that when the sign-up sheets go live, or in some cases, there are ticketed digs organised, the spaces are filled instantly.
“It’s like concerts, that’s the nearest analogy I can get to,” Dr Horne said.
“It’s like Oasis tickets, they go online, and they’re sold out within minutes.”
He added: “The public are very switched on to the opportunities that exist to them, but they know that there’s kind of limited numbers for the few opportunities that are there, so we see huge interest.”
Dr Horne (below) explained that volunteers play a “vital role” in discovering and preserving Scotland’s history and that it is important that everyone gets a chance to take part.
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He added they’re there not to just do the “grunt work” but will have the opportunity to learn new skills.
“People aren’t just there to provide numbers and do all the boring bits, they will get a chance to excavate things like a Viking-age ceremonial pathway into the churchyard,” Dr Horne said.
“The outreach elements, are vital, and the volunteers are absolutely integral to that.”
Despite volunteering numbers as a whole dropping across Scotland, the amount of people devoting their free time to heritage projects has remained constant, according to last year’s Scottish Household Survey.
Information hubs like Dig It! are hugely influential in helping to keep people updated with community projects through its Scotland-wide network of heritage organisations, museums and archaeological groups.
For Dr Murray Cook (right), an archaeologist for Stirling Council, the combination of promotion from Dig It! and his own social media channels have helped to see an increase in volunteers for projects over the last few years.
“I get people from across the world wanting to come to Scotland to dig with me, and you get people from across Scotland, from across Britain, who want to come and volunteer, which is amazing,” said Dr Cook.
He added that Scotland’s volunteers for heritage projects are a real untapped resource and there are sites across the country that haven’t been “looked at” for the last 50 years.
Dr Cook believes that the country needs to “mobilise its resources” if it wishes to “understand Scotland better” but highlighted the difficulties of securing the amount of funding needed for it to happen.
“If we turn the whole thing around, engage with volunteers, train up volunteers across Scotland, we could transform how we understand Scotland’s past.”
An example given by Dr Cook of voluntary archaeology having a positive impact in better understanding some of Scotland’s most iconic historical monuments is Stirling’s city walls.
He said it had been 70 years since anybody had researched the walls but in the last two years, volunteers and students have “transformed” the understanding of the historic walls by the archaeological community.
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The walls are now understood to be older than previously thought and were discovered to have an even more important role in Stirling’s 900 years of history.
“If you’ve got a local vibrant community that wants to research it, support them,” Dr Cook said.
He added: “Every community’s got a historic creature, from the smallest hamlet to the biggest city, to the suburbs of each city, everybody’s got something that a community can actually mobilise around.
“Respond to, research it, claim ownership, improve the management as volunteering is this enormous, incredible untapped resource.”
“There’s the saying ‘people make Glasgow’, well, people make Scotland, and Scotland is full of Scots passionate about our past.”
Dr Cook has called for support from both local and national governance to help transform Scotland’s volunteering by looking at what barriers are in place and “removing” them.
Organisations like AOC Archaeology are also aiming to help more volunteers get involved with archaeology through their outreach programmes.
Founded in Edinburgh in 1991, the heritage company now employs more than 100 people across five national offices and provides a range of conservation and archaeological services.
Katie O’Connell, public archaeologist for AOC Archaeology, said helping work with local communities and volunteers is important as “archaeology is for the public at the end of the day”.
“There is no point if you just write a report, and it disappears,” she said.
O’Connell echoed both Drs Horne and Cooks’ sentiment that more and more people are looking to get involved with heritage projects.
She said AOC Archaeology works with a range of people, from communities who have done some research in their area and are interested in doing an excavation of a site, so they provide planning and help them develop skills, to amateur groups with volunteers who have been participating for years and have amassed a wealth of experience.
“It’s really interesting, we learn from them and they learn from us,” she said.
O’Connell added: “The more voices involved in telling the different stories of Scotland’s history, gives us a richer idea of the past, and that’s something that we’re trying to push forward.”