The Community Archaeology Radiocarbon Dating (CARD) fund, sponsored by Archaeological Research Services Ltd and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), would like to warmly encourage applications from community archaeological groups for the 2022 funding round. Each year, the CARD fund provides funding for ten radiocarbon dates from British archaeological sites which are organised by community archaeology groups. The fund has so far provided funding for a total of 63 dates from 41 different projects which have come from archaeological sites throughout the UK.
Which archaeological projects the CARD fund helped in 2021
The 2021 round of funding saw applications from a wide variety of fascinating projects from throughout Britain, some of which are investigating regionally and nationally unique archaeology from all British archaeological periods.
- Burnt mounds which form part of the prehistoric landscape of Upper Teesdale are being dated as part of an Altogether Archaeology project, which will provide fascinating insights into the formation and development of these significant monuments.
- A further prehistoric project on terrace features within the Pennines aims to date exceptionally rare Mesolithic flint scatters.
- The British Iron Age has seen a strong showing which includes the only dated palisaded settlement from the era in the North Pennines and one of the largest Iron Age ditched enclosures in the Moray region of Scotland.
- Another successful project was at Romsey, Hampshire, where the Lower Test Valley Archaeological Study Group (LTVAS) is investigating Anglo-Saxon iron smelting as well as an artificial water-way of such a large scale as to be of national significance.
- A further early medieval project was the multi-layered occupation at Siston, Gloucestershire, where a wide variety of beautiful finds demonstrate prolonged occupation of the site from the very beginning of the medieval period all the way through to beyond the Norman invasion.
- And the Wenden Parva Church Archaeology Project has received additional funding from the CARD Fund with their excellent investigation of the ‘lost’ church of Wenden Parva, Essex, where they are undertaking a rare investigation of the foundation and development of an ‘ordinary’ rural parish church from its foundation (in this case somewhere between the 9th and 13th centuries) through its development and then closure in the 17th century.
Prospective applicants should refer to the CARD Fund website at www.cardfund.org for further details of the application process, as well as how to apply.