The Mucking excavation was a major archeological dig that covered an area of 18 hectares (44 acres) near Mucking, in southern Essex, England. The excavations took place between 1965 and 1978, prior to (and during) gravel extraction. At the time it was the largest excavation in Europe and it was the first opportunity to excavate a Saxon settlement site and the associated cemetery simultaneously. It uncovered features from the Neolithic to Medieval, a period of some 3,000 years, although the finds were predominately from the Bronze Age to the Saxon. To date, excavation reports have been published covering the Anglo-Saxon period.