Scottish Archaeology Month

Welcome to Scottish Archaeology Month (SAM)!

Taking place every September and building on more than 25 years of success, Scottish Archaeology Month is the biggest annual celebration of Scottish heritage, history and archaeology.  

SAM 2023 has now finished 

We are already planning for SAM 2024 so watch this space!

A bit of background to SAM

This national festival is part of European Heritage Days, a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission that encourages people to interact with their history and archaeology and celebrates shared European cultural links and heritage. 

SAM and Doors Open Days, coordinated by the Scottish Civic Trust, form Scotland’s contribution to European Heritage Days. 

European Heritage Days sets a theme every year which we encourage our event organisers to incorporate into their SAM events. For 2023, the theme was ‘Living Heritage’. Linking past, present and future, this theme encouraged everyone to engage with their cultural living heritage through such mediums as art, traditional crafts, the performing and creative arts, literature, and fashion to name but a few.

SAM’s Ethos

The ethos behind SAM is to get people involved in their local and national archaeology, history and heritage and to make this accessible to all. All events in the SAM programme are either free or low cost and are a mixture of in-person and online events. Our events range from archaeological digs and exhibitions to guided walks, art installations, reenactments and talks and cover the whole of Scotland’s geography from the Outer Hebrides and Western Isles to Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders, and all the areas in between. There should be something for everyone wherever you are based and if you are a visitor to Scotland, you will have a chance to learn more about this country’s past and cultural heritage.

Collaboration

We work with many other heritage organisations to maximise the public’s exposure to archaeology, heritage and history.

As well as working closely with Doors Open Days, this year we have also collaborated with the East Lothian Archaeology and Heritage Fortnight, Highland Archaeology Festival, Art Walk Porty, The Scottish Geology Festival and Scotland’s Community Heritage Conversations and you will find events from all of these in our Programme.

We also collaborate with and support The Council for British Archaeology who host their own Festival of Archaeology in July each year and run the Archaeological Achievement Awards.

Contact us: sam@archaeologyscotland.org.uk
Follow Scottish Archaeology Month on Twitter: @ScotArchMonth

SAM is funded by Historic Environment Scotland.