Your chance to learn more about Exeter’s rich history

Published: 20 August 2024

Visitors to the city centre are being offered the chance to dig into Exeter’s past and learn more about the archaeology that shapes its story.

Volunteers will get the chance to brush up on their excavation skills in one of several giant dig pits built especially for the event. Each pit is littered with artefacts waiting to be unearthed.

From pot sherds and statues to dinner plates, turkey bones and leather boots, everything that archaeologists have dug up over the years helps piece together the mosaic of Exeter’s history.

The event takes place in the Princesshay shopping centre on 14 September, 11am to 4pm.

It may look like a modern city, but just beneath the surface in Exeter there are stories waiting to be told, from the earth-shattering dramas of Roman Isca Dumnoniorum, Viking invasions and Civil War sieges to the everyday lives of shepherds driving their flock to market, Tudor traders selling their wares and Victorian nobles hosting dinner parties.

Along with the excavation pits, handling tables will be set up to investigate, with puzzles to unravel, information on objects in RAMM’s collection and professional archaeologists on hand to discuss discoveries that constantly add to Exeter’s story.