Deposit of Archaeological Material

The Museum of Archaeology is the repository for development-led archaeological material excavated in Durham City.

For development-led archaeological material excavated in the rest of County Durham, please contact County Durham Archaeological Archives.

Pre-deposition requirements

Project archaeologists should get in touch during the preparation of the project design/written scheme of investigation (WSI) so that any archive and storage requirements and costs can be factored in.

Once it has been ascertained that there will be the creation of an archive, depositors are required to contact the Museum of Archaeology in advance of deposition so that costs can be provided, and storage arrangements made for the accessioning of the material (EH 1991, IFA 1994). At this point you will be allocated an accession number; this must be used throughout the archive. This number takes the form: DURMA(space)number: DURMA is our unique Museum identifier. The numbers are allocated in the order that requests for accession codes come to us- your project will take the next one on the list e.g. DURMA.2016.123.

Deposition

We accept archaeological archives for Durham City if they conform to our deposition guidelines and meet the necessary standards.

Charges

There is a charge for the deposition of archive material by all commercial contractors. These charges cover the costs of managing the archives to help ensure their long-term preservation and access. We follow charges set by Durham County Council.

Please read through and follow our deposition guidelines. Please contact us before you start excavating and if you have any questions, please get in touch.