Archaeologists are hoping to unearth ancient treasures during excavations in a Cumbrian valley (England). Volunteers are needed to join two digs in the Duddon Valley in the south west of the Lake District on 14 and 24 July. Much of the work will focus on the cairn at Seathwaite Tarn - a mound of landmark and burial stones. The Ring Cairns to Reservoirs Project is backed by a £50,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
     Around 60 local people have been trained in archaeological survey techniques. The project will be led by the National Park Authority's senior archaeologist John Hodgson, with help from Oxford Archaeology North, students from Durham University and the Duddon Valley Local History Group. Part of the work will involve pollen analysis to find out what Seathwaite Tarn and the surrounding vegetation could have looked like during the Bronze Age. Chairman John Hoggett, of the local history group, said: "This will be the first excavation of a ring cairn in the Lake District and we are hoping that it will give us clues as to what was happening here thousands of years ago."

Source: BBC News (26 June 2007)