Mucking excavation

Mucking excavation is an archaeological site spanning 18 hectares and containing remains from the Neolithic period through the Middle Ages, documenting about 3,000 years of human settlement. The unearthed finds are now divided between Thurrock Museum, which displays replicas, and the British Museum, which holds the original artifacts.

Between 1965 and 1978, archaeologist Margaret Jones led extensive excavations at the site, uncovering over 44,000 features including graves, pits, and settlement structures. This intensive fieldwork made the location one of the most significant windows into Anglo-Saxon and early medieval settlement in England.

The excavation revealed two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries with 800 burials, and the objects buried with the dead show how people dressed and honored their deceased in early medieval times. These graves provide insight into daily life and society during this period in England.

The site today is open landscape with no active excavations, and visitors should know that most artifacts are not displayed on location. To view the finds, visitors can visit Thurrock Museum or the British Museum, where the original pieces are housed.

Aerial photographs first revealed the site's archaeological importance through crop marks showing ditched enclosures, pits, and house sites hidden beneath the soil. These soil features visible from above guided archaeologists in planning the extensive excavations that followed.