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S22 | TIME TEAM AFTER SHOW LIVE SESSION: Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Dig (Patreon Exclusive)

🕑 Added 2023-07-03 15:00:09 +0000 UTC

Comments

Jon Zephanius

Well they definitely went back for the sarcophagus in one of the previous episodes

Kathy Shelton

Hi, Donna. Preservation in the US is practically non-existent. The YouTube videos teaching people how to exacerbate erosion so that they are not technically digging are appalling. We have fields on our farm we can't cultivate because people looking for arrowheads will trample the crops and destroy them.

Ann H

Many thanks Roger. Never seen this before.

Roger Mills

This is what the modern phrase refers to - it's the shape of the buckle https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O170862/snake-belt-belt-unknown/

Roger Mills

Zoom worked very well in comparison than the previous platform I think

Roger Mills

Buy John Gater's book - Revealing the Buried Past: Geophysics for Archaeologists

Frank Pellow

Really enjoyed the session. A lovely touch

Elizabeth Neill

I'm also looking forward to the replay and would love to know when it might be posted. I've been interested in how this excavation expands our knowledge of the pattern of Anglo-Saxon settlement, if it does, and I started to read the Wikipedia entry on the Migration Period and I found some of it hard to follow. Most interesting to me were two things I gathered (I think) from it; that the high number of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Kent suggest settlement, possibly, before 450; and that the excavation of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries showing possible poverty and malnutrition may point to refugees from Europe who sought escape from deteriorating conditions. And I'm curious about how the finds from this cemetery relate to those from Sutton Hoo -- are they from the same period? Or later?

Helen Kohn

Missed the live but looking forward to watching the replay. This 3 day dig was a really nice one to watch. Thanks to you all for all the hard work!

Roz, Jon and Cats

Can I ask a question you've probably answered many times before but - is there a site you feel you didn't do justice to in 3 days? If you could go back, what would you do differently?

Emily Boulting

Yes it was Matt Clark!

Emily Boulting

We are still awaiting the final report but will bring you the news when we get it!

Zoe Propper

That was awesome guys - thank you !

John A MacPherson

A question for Dr. Gator. I love the geophysics interpretations on Time Team. You are able to look at a plot with patterns of white and black marks and pick out potential structures, depth they're at, likely materials used, and other information. I know this skill is something honed over many years of experience, but would you mind providing just a brief overview of what you're looking for and some of the markers you're going through in your mind as you interpret a geophysics survey on the show? This is such a fascinating area!

Ann H

Is there any chance of 3D models of the two other neck pendants next to pendant 2? Both coins or is one perhaps a seal? Balthind/Bealdhild of Chelles seems to have had a pendant seal (Wikipedia).

Ann H

Snake belt ornament? Briefly, how or where does the metal piece fit and what is the belt you are referencing? Totally new, unknown information context for me. Is it a UK thing, recently and in the past?

Stephanie Stewart

QUESTION FOR TIM, any chance of a "Big Dig" type event in the future? They were always so great! And, such fun to rewatch.

Donna Shelton

Is here any possibility of further excavation and analysis of th adjacent field? This seems like such a tantalizing location.

Donna Shelton

Hi, Kathy. I am also a Shelton..:) I share your feelings about our US preservations schemes. It's a very different situation than the UK.

Andy Quick

Thanks very much Time Team for a wonderful episode! I really enjoyed the CGI animation of the Anglo-Saxon ladies' grave AND the surrounding landscape during the last minutes of the episode. Nicely done. Was that Matt Clark's work? A collaboration?

xSalty1

I'm quite interested in this woman's life and where she might have lived as well.

Tunde Brunette

I don't remember seeing the result of the tooth testing. Did you find out where she grew up?

David Alan Jones

The thinness of the soil at the site was used to slag-off "modern ploughing practices". But, given the depth of soil accretion at the test-pits in the town, what is the relative importance of that given that the soil accretion must have come from somewhere?

Karen Hardy

Thank you for another great show. Wondered if you might go back to spend more time in the other field and looking at the spring? Seems like there might be more there to discover?

David Alan Jones

Given the difficulty in locating the past excavation, here and on other digs, are there any modern protocols for leaving on-site signature items to help with either the location-of or identification-of such important details? Perhaps something easily find-able via geo-phys.

Leah Kotok

In the episode they say that they're sending out one of the lady's teeth for isotope analysis. Has that come back yet? Did we learn anything from it?

Mika

Having watched a lot of Time Team episodes over the years, I recall the usual case for Anglo-Saxon finds being one or two small pottery shards over the 3 days. To Helen (or anyone): have techniques for finding Anglo-Saxon sites improved so much over the past 20-30 years that this kind of thing is now more usual, or was this one a "motherlode"?

Melissa Rybb

So excited for this!! Wonderful, wonderful dig. FOR HELEN: Once, on a TT episode, you remarked on differences between Angle and Saxon burials. Was The Lady Angle or Saxon? East Anglia - Norfolk and Suffolk - we more Angle than Saxon? (And where are the Jutes in all of this) I've been puzzling over this for decades. (Please make this a giant answer)

Zoe Propper

I did. That was really good.

Jon Zephanius

Yeah seconded, I've always wondered what the workflow is like on TT--I'm imagining Gus and previously Tony scrawling some notes on an envelope on the fly to serve as their next piece to camera after some amazing discovery was made. I think it's only right that some spotlight is given to the unsung heroes who made all these episodes past and present.

Frank Pellow

thanks for organising this. i really enjoyed the new episodes. It felt like a dig that could happily slot into the previous series.

Robert Boudreau

I happened to notice Emily in one of the overhead shots, and a question came to mind. I'd like to ask her how, as director, she keeps up with everything going on? Typically one thinks of a director as someone managing the action in a scene, seeing that it all goes to a set idea or plan. That's obviously not possible at an archaeological dig, so how do you "direct"? How do you keep tabs on something that's so spread out with so many people and things happening?

Elaine P

Darn, I'll still be working! But will be sure to watch the recording. I found the CGI rendering of the burial quote effective, and continue to be amazed at what Naomi can extract from the soil and identify. Knowing the plants in the grave somehow made it so much more relatable. This was a fabulous episode, well done everyone. It's always a wonder to see how the different disciplines come together to reveal what a site was about. I so want to retire in the UK and have a garden to dig up!

Graham Dombkins

It was noted many times just how hard the ground was on this dig. How do you change your dig practices to deal with this condition? Especially if you know that you are dealing with a site with such ephemeral finds as Saxon digs always are.

Cheryl Kurucz

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Mario Papworth

A brilliant 3 day programme just exceptional well done all of you.

David Cadogan-Cowper

Grateful that you will record and provide a link to those unable to attend directly. Although I would like to be there for it the time does not work too well for someone in the Antipodes. :-)

Time Team

Hi Zoe, did you see our masterclass on Anglo-Saxon glass bead making? https://www.patreon.com/posts/masterclass-bead-73296073

Charr Skirvin

I agree that we need more info about the Roman site in the second field. This was an excellent dig. I like that you're including the townspeople and their test pits.

Peter Martin

Having watched the final episode of the Winfarthing dig it wasn't at all clear what was found in the second field. It seems that a final trench walk through was needed.

Le Scoob

excited for this

Conan Mills

Another great series of episodes. There was a lot to cover in these shows. As an archaeologist myself, I know that not all of the answers are apparent during the excavation. Gus briefly touched on the environmental information contained in the Winfarthing Lady's burial. How much did the post excavation lab work play a role in untying what was going on here? With as much information as you all had, and maybe didn't have due to modern agriculture practices, how difficult was it to properly tell the story of this site?

Mick Holden

Looking forward to the Q&A!

Martin Packer

Question: In the multiple grave trench there were areas of orange. What might this colour signify?

Kathy Shelton

I don't know that I will be able to attend live, but I wanted to express to Dr. Geake how much I appreciated her emotional reaction to the detectorist's find. It adequately expressed the very real emotions you can feel when handling some human made thing, so very old and so very personal. And I would like to ask her, as someone who has worked on a farm all my life, what do you think can be done to both identify and protect important sites while still providing useful income to a farming business? I find artifacts every spring, and as someone in love with history I am acutely aware of the destruction the plow and tiller are causing. My two precious pieces of pottery found in fields attest to the destruction of agriculture. Yet I am also aware that every site has construction and destruction as part of it's history. How can we balance the necessity for progress with the desire to preserve and protect historical sites? Are there any criteria you can suggest for developing a way to rate sites for preservation? I wish the United States had a scheme for artifacts modeled after the Portable Antiquities Scheme, but that would be a terribly uphill battle. Though perhaps organizing community digs like this would help to raise some kind of awareness. Lastly, thanks to all the Time Team team! I feel that this is one of the most value for my money things I have in my budget, and I love that the results are available for anyone to watch.

Zoe Propper

Looking forward to it. I would love to know of a good resource to read more on angle-saxon and early medieval design and jewellery. I think that the art, metalwork, beadwork etc are so beautiful and would like to see more examples and understand the elements of the designs and how they were made. Preferably as a book (I am a book-a-holic) but online as well would be OK.

Tommi Jauhiainen

Thanks team; fantastic three days! Here are some questions and concerns of mine. The dig seemed to catch only a glimpse of all the possible burials at the cemetery site. From the episode, I got the feeling that the current cultivating activity was continuously damaging the remaining archaeology. Are the heritage organizations taking any protective measures, or is the site still of too little importance on the grand scale of things? Do you think it would be worth protecting as a heritage site?