Once again, we were privileged to be invited by DigVentures to explore their excavation on The Holy Island of Lindisfarne this September 2023.

This time around, and for the first time, all three team members AND their partners stayed on the island!

DigVentures and their excavation team had unearthed 7 Anglo-Saxon coins as well as lots of burials and a huge/deep ditch which looks to be earlier than the Anglo-Saxon cemetery. 
We got to work on the spoil heaps and trench bases and recovered another 8 styca's and Sceattas so, in total, 15 coins have been found this year.
One of the coins represents the shrine of St Cuthbert after the first Viking attack and is extremely rare.
Some of the other coins are also very rare!

We also checked out the wildlife around the island and noticed quite a few dead sea birds, mainly Razorbills.
The Autumn migration is already underway with geese, waders and starlings, all doing their Autumn thing.

Lindisfarne is quite special, not just for the Dig, but the interactions, comradery and fun we had shared between the six of us.
We even had a short session listening to music through a set of headphones and a headphone amp featuring Anna Lapwood and Bonobo at the Royal Albert Hall. That session was memorable as emotions ran high, resulting in goose bumps and tears.

We are already looking forward to returning next year...

We are fortunate to be allowed continued access to our new permission where we thought that there may be an Anglo-Saxon settlement.

As per the last post we published where 4 Anglo-Saxon coins were recovered, we recovered another 5 coins, one of them being extremely rare.
The coin is a new variety of sceat, being that of King Alchred AD 765 - 774.

Another surprising fact is that we have only recovered a few pieces of pottery, and that is from any period!
No Saxon pottery as yet, but Medieval and a couple of Roman sherds have surfaced.
What is strange is that we've recovered 7 Roman brooches and fragments as well as other Roman metallic items, but very little pottery.

As can be seen from our Flickr site, there are several Medieval metallic artefacts but, again, proportionately less pottery.
Another oddity is the lack of C12th to C15th coinage with only 2 coins coming up, a Richard Ist penny and your good old favourite, a penny of Edward Ist.

We're going to venture back soon to carry on our survey and see if any more interesting artefacts come to light.

​Meanwhile, here's a link to our latest finds <here>

​We'll report back soon.....