Costa dos Castros is an archaeologically unique place – its incredible density of Iron Age hillforts and even earlier Bronze Age rock carvings make it the perfect place to study the evolution of this culture not just in Galicia, but throughout Atlantic Europe.
It’s also pretty unique in terms of its land ownership; it’s all owned collectively. That means the people here make their decisions about how to manage the land together, and that includes their heritage. In 2010, they started to investigate the archaeology on their land. Since then, the project has grown and it is starting to make some incredible new discoveries about the development of Atlantic culture in the Iron Age.
Costa dos Castros Association
The Costa dos Castros Association represents a coming together of four forestry co-operatives (Comunidades de Montes), each of whom collectively owns some of the land on which the archaeology of Costa dos Castros sits. They have united to research, preserve and promote the archaeology together.
DigVentures
DigVentures is a UK-based social enterprise who run the only field school accredited by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists. They specialize in running crowdfunded and crowdsourced archaeology projects, and are experts in training, fieldwork and sharing the results online.
Incipit-CISC
The Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit) is part of the Spanish National Research Council (CISC), and focuses on the study of cultural heritage as a scientific issue, including understanding the roles of socio-economics, memory, identity and conflict on the formation of cultural heritage. The organization will be providing academic support for the project, and help with excavations in the field. Their current chair is also president of the European Archaeology Association.
Digital Dig Team
DigVentures built an app called Digital Dig Team, which the excavation will be using to share every single thing we dig up in real time, as it comes out of the trenches. That means anyone in the world can follow the dig’s progress, and find out what was dug up long after it has come to an end.
And finally… you!
This is citizen science with rocket boosters. By joining the project, you’re helping to create and interpret a sustainable community-based resource for future research. Come and join in!
