About NMR Excavation Index

The Excavation Index (EI) is a guide to the archaeological excavations and interventions carried out in England since the earliest days of scientific archaeology, and an index to the location of the excavation archives and finds. It is part of the National Monuments Record, England's heritage archive. This archive contains over 12,000,000 items covering the archaeology and architecture of England including air photographs, historic and modern photographs, digital indices, and documents.

Compiled and updated since 1978, the EI currently comprises some 76,000 records of archaeological events, the majority encompassing excavations, evaluations and watching briefs since 1960, geophysical surveys and fieldwork funded by English Heritage and its predecessors. The recent addition to the Index of such activities as desk-based assessments and fieldwalking reflects the close partnership developed with the Archaeological Investigations Project of Bournemouth University under the auspices of the OASIS Project funded by the Research Support Libraries Program.

The EI is updated with information from a wide range of published and non-published sources. Trawling of relevant journals, reports and monographs is augmented by direct data exchange with a number of contractors and curators across the country.

The data set currently made available through the ADS remains under development. Period and Type information is not always displayed, and the total record has yet to be loaded. Please contact NMR Public Services if you would like a more recent version of the database checked.

Please contact NMR Public Services Section if you have any queries about the EI records or require further information. All data provided from the Excavation Index is supplied for internal purposes or private research, and the user is not entitled to copy or reproduce information originating from the NMR in the public domain without the written permission of the copyright holder.