ipplepen excavation appeal

The Archaeology Department at the University of Exeter is working with the British Museum, the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and Devon County Council to explore the making of the Devon landscape at Ipplepen, near Newton Abbot. Several seasons of excavation have started to investigate a complex multi-period site that was occupied during the late prehistoric, Roman, and early medieval periods, and the discovery of a cemetery means that we are able to carry out research into the communities who created Devon’s distinctive countryside.

Project aims

Overall, the aims of the Ipplepen project are:

1. to understand the character of the site at Ipplepen and hence the context of the large and unusual assemblage of metalwork reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme

2. to use Ipplepen as a case study of how late prehistoric, Romano-British and early medieval communities exploited the Devon landscape

3. to understand the origins of today's historic landscpae (the existing patterns of fields, roads and settlements)

support

The excavation costs around £25,000 a year to run and offers some opportunities for members of the local community to take part free-of-charge. While the project receives support from the University of Exeter, National Lottery, British Museum, Devon County Council, and Teignbridge District Council, and has received a generous bequest in the Will of Professor Mick Aston (Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter), we need to raise additional funds to allow us to continue with the excavation, and to hopefully expand the project in order to increase engagement with the local community.

We have therefore set up the Ipplepen Excavation Appeal which is looking for donations large and small. 

where the money will go

All gifts, of any size, are greatly appreciated and collectively can be transformational.

For example:

• £15 could buy a trowel
• £80 could buy a wheelbarrow
• £200 could pay for the hire of a portaloo for a month
• £450 could pay for a supervisor for a week to teach students and local volunteers how to excavate
• £2,200 could pay for the hire of the minibus used to transport participants to and from the campsite each day
• £25,000 could pay for a season's work
• £42,000 could fund a three-year PhD studentship that would allow us to study the wider landscape around Ipplepen

Find us here

To find out more about us, you can visit our website here https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/ipplepen/ or visit our Facebook page: https://en-gb.facebook.com/IpplepenArchaeology/ 

Help us succeed!

• You don't need to give money to help us succeed! Please share this project with anyone you think would support us – on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, by email, telephone, in a chat over the fence or on your blog.
• In fact, share it with everyone you know as we think it's a great idea, and the more people who know about it, the more likely we are to make this work out brilliantly.
• And we know we said you don't need to give money to help us, but we'd love it if you did! Please sponsor us and help make this happen.