The latest Indiana Jones movie has had the incidental effect of putting archaeology — of a sort — in the news, and perhaps even stimulating people to find out what it’s really like to go on a dig.

Crystal skulls are in perennially short supply, but more important finds are made every year across Britain.

The magazine Current Archaeology has produced a digs supplement this month, listing the opportunities over the summer: its editor, Lisa Westcott, has been in the field herself, and says: “The dig reminds us why we do what we do, and why we love it. Getting outdoors and into the dirt can fix any number of life’s annoyances.”

Nearly 100 projects are listed in the magazine and on its website, from the North of Scotland to Kent and Cornwall, in Wales and across the Irish Sea in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Some are short-term digs, for a fortnight or so (and most directors like to have volunteers for at least two weeks, because of the learning curve), while others are continuing projects that can take a constantly changing body of workers.

Penny Dransart has been working at Fetternear in Aberdeenshire for a decade, and this July the medieval bishops’ palace will be studied.

In Skye the High Pasture Cave project will run all summer and includes landscape survey as well as excavations, while on Loch Tay an underwater archaeology field school will investigate the crannog settlements in July and August.

In West Wales Harold Mytum continues his long-running study of the Iron Age fort and Romano-British settlement at Castell Henllys, and near Monmouth the sixth season at Trellech, once the largest medieval city in Wales, will include excavation of a manor house and a waterlogged well.

The North of England includes projects at Bamburgh Castle on the coast of Northumberland, Dilston Castle near Hexham, and the nearby Roman fort of Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall where excavation has been in progress for nearly four decades. There is also a wide- ranging survey at Bassenthwaite in the Lake District and another at Brodsworth near Doncaster, while in the South West the environs of Cadbury Castle in Somerest — one of the places claiming to have been Camelot — are being surveyed, as is the area of Wiggold, a hamlet in the Cotswolds.

Some of the projects are free (although on most, volunteers are expected to pay for their meals and sometimes to camp), while many of the field schools such as those at Castell Henllys, at West Halton near Scunthorpe, Silchester near Basingstoke, and Blacklands near Faversham (the last two Roman sites), charge from £100 to £250 a week, including some or all meals and camp accommodation. Some are much more expensive: the American Earthwatch organisation charges $2,846 (£1,400) for two weeks at Chapel House Wood in the Yorkshire Dales.

Most opportunities are for adults, although some note that young people accompanied by a parent will be accepted. Recent child-protection legislation is responsible for these restrictions, while insurance coverage makes some organisations require volunteers to become members in order to participate. One dig, however, proudly proclaims that it is: “exclusively for under 16s: Real Archaeology for School Years 9-11”. This is the Fairfield project at Bridgwater in Somerset, run by the county council. Unfortunately, it is not until October.

Current Archaeology 219: Digs Special Supplement, pp 45-60; www.ilovethepast.com