diff --git a/src/fdb5/database/Archiver.cc b/src/fdb5/database/Archiver.cc
index 7b49b9cb4..3b1840546 100644
--- a/src/fdb5/database/Archiver.cc
+++ b/src/fdb5/database/Archiver.cc
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ void Archiver::archive(const Key& key, const void* data, size_t len) {
 
 void Archiver::archive(const Key& key, BaseArchiveVisitor& visitor) {
 
-    std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(flushMutex_);
+    std::lock_guard<std::recursive_mutex> lock(flushMutex_);
     visitor.rule(nullptr);
     
     dbConfig_.schema().expand(key, visitor);
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ void Archiver::archive(const Key& key, BaseArchiveVisitor& visitor) {
 }
 
 void Archiver::flush() {
-    std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(flushMutex_);
+    std::lock_guard<std::recursive_mutex> lock(flushMutex_);
     for (auto i = databases_.begin(); i != databases_.end(); ++i) {
         // flush the store, pass the number of flushed fields to the catalogue
         i->second.catalogue_->flush(i->second.store_->flush());
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ void Archiver::selectDatabase(const Key& dbKey) {
             }
             if (found) {
                 // flushing before evicting from cache
-                std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(flushMutex_);
+                std::lock_guard<std::recursive_mutex> lock(flushMutex_);
 
                 databases_[oldK].catalogue_->flush(databases_[oldK].store_->flush());
                 
diff --git a/src/fdb5/database/Archiver.h b/src/fdb5/database/Archiver.h
index e2e525ac6..8d4b623b2 100644
--- a/src/fdb5/database/Archiver.h
+++ b/src/fdb5/database/Archiver.h
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ class Archiver : public eckit::NonCopyable {
 
     Database* db_;
 
-    std::mutex flushMutex_;
+    std::recursive_mutex flushMutex_;
     std::mutex cacheMutex_;
     const ArchiveCallback& callback_;
 };