Good morning, we are working through Thirty-One Days of the Time Team for October and this time the Time Team is going racing. As you know, horse racing was a favorite activity of the Late Queen Elizabeth II and there are plenty of videos on YouTube of her at the races. The run time for this episode is 46:55
The site is at Newmark and it is known as the birthplace of horse racing. The Time Team is in search of the earliest archeological traces of horse racing. Horse racing was the sport of kings and the Time Team not only hopes to take in some racing but also discover some serious archeology. They hope that they will find the world’s first racehorse stables in the world. What will the Time Team uncover in three days? The Time Team is already creating a racket by cutting up asphalt to get to the site. The site is home to the horse stables and the palace of Charles II. The stables and palaces were massive complexes, the stables being the size of the palace. This palace and stables were the focus of royal Newmarket and its proximity to London made it the perfect royal retreat. Newmarket continues to focus on horse racing and is home to the National Museum of Horse Racing. John and the geophysics teams work on the site. The initial results show modern pipes, however, if one goes deeper there is evidence of something there. Jackie McKinley is in charge of the site and will be the one making decisions on where to dig. Phil’s trench is going over where the front entrance of the stables was. Immediately there was a small amount of archeology found in the trench. So was this wall part of the original stables? Mary Anne starts researching the origins of Newmarket. King James I stopped in Newmarket and decided that Newmarket was an excellent place for sporting endeavors. Charles II agreed but he was an excellent horseman and took place in the races. Did he win a lot? The jury is still out as to whether or not these wins were genuine or fake. Mary-Anne continues her research at the National Horse Racing Museum in Newmarket. King Charles II invested in his stables and his horses were under excellent care. There may have been earlier stables on the site. Phil continues to work on the trench, and even more, archeology is found on the site. The brick is high quality. The brick quality seems to hint at a posh building. On the other side of the stables would have been a posh palace. There is one surviving building from the palace. This survivor hints at the grandeur of the palace. It also showed that King Charles II was committed to staying in Newmarket. Day Two kicks off with Tony exploring the Newmarket greens. For centuries, stable lads would exercise their horses on this green. It was the reason why Newmarket became a hub for racing. With Charles II also spending time in Newmarket, horse racing took off and rules were developed. Charles II had a full-scale grand palace in Newmarket. Jackie and John are debating over the placement of a second trench. Jackie wants to put it in the car park on site, however, John hints that there is no archeology underneath that car park. The second trench is put in and immediately comes into contact with concrete. Will they be able to get a second trench in? What will the trench reveal? Tony makes his way to the National Horse Racing Museum to take part in a historical experiment. Here he meets up with Mary-Anne and Alfie Woodward, a retired jockey. The pair take Tony to a mechanical horse for him to ride and learn to be a jockey. Tony is in for a serious workout on this mechanical horse. So what will the Time Team find over three days? Will they find more concrete or will they find the stables of King Charles II? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more. This would be an episode to show for a fun and frivolous day in history and not part of the history curriculum.
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Good morning, this time on The Thirty-One Days of the Time Team learn about Romans recycling. The run time for this episode is 46:59.
Over the years metal detectorists have discovered a variety of metal artifacts from the Roman, Iron Age, and Saxon periods in a field that is between two villages. The finds are in Lincolnshire and the locals believe there was a posh building in the area. Lincoln was a great center for Roman Britain, however, there are no records of Wickenby being a center of Roman occupation. So why are there so many finds? The Time Team has three days to find out. The initial geophysics results that there is a great deal of archelogy even though there are no records of a Roman settlement nearby. What was really happening in these fields during Roman times? Francis Pryor believes they are sitting on a major series of Roman settlements. John Gater wants to do more geophysics on the site. Tony Robinson has his suspicions. Phil Harding talks about the geophysics showing that there was settlement going on and that by digging they are furthering the story. Trench One goes in, over an area where a large concentration of finds was discovered. It does not take long before the first finds emerge. Geophysics work on the site as well. So why does Wickenby hosts so many Roman finds, especially medal finds? It was not on the road to Lincoln and its location would have been more appropriate for a farmstead. However, the finds give a hint that the settlement was wealthy and active. Tony goes around town and talks about the different columns that were found in the area. The locals believe that these belonged to a posh house. Phil shows off the initial finds that were found in the first trench. He believes that this hints that there was a settlement at Wickenby. However, there was molten lead found on the site which would hint that there was something being melted on the site. This is the opposite of a farm settlement. John Gater seems to have discovered a large anomaly also known as a blob that hints at the industrial nature of the site. Guy de la Bedoyere then talks about the Roman industry of metalworking and recycling. Trench two goes in over the blob. Guy and Helen look over the brooch finds. Helen disagrees that it was a metal scrap metal center. There were plenty of brooches discovered over the site. Helen points out to the brooches were finished and were not manufactured on the site. It is only Day One and there is already a disagreement on the team. As trench two goes in, Phil makes a find in the trench. There is evidence of a ditch and charcoal. The evidence of burning seems to hint that Guy is right about this site being for metal recycling. In fact, in a previous dig, there was a metal bowl found on the site. In the village, the evidence gathering continues. Are the columns that were found in the village part of a Roman building on site? The answer may surprise you. Back at the first trench, more Roman evidence emerges as well as evidence of an earlier settlement. Francis believes that this evidence points to an Iron Age Settlement. Trench one is shut down and a third trench is put in based on John Gater’s geophysics results. He found evidence of a circular building, perhaps it was an Iron Age roundhouse. What John is showing, goes beyond a typical Roman Britain farmstead. On Day Two the Time Team will investigate a spring and a potential roundhouse. Tony catches up with Guy and Francis to talk about the site and its potential. What will the Time Team learn about this site? Is this site the home of something industrial? Why were there so many brooches found at the site? What about the evidence of the Iron Age Settlement? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more! The artifacts that were found at the site were very intriguing, especially since there were so many of them. It was also interesting to hear the Time Team talk about what the site was. This would be a good episode for a history class and for independent study students. Good morning, the Time Team is taking their skills across the Atlantic and into America as part of our 31 Days of the Time Team. This is a Time Team special called: Dinosaur Hunt: A Time Team Special. The run time for this episode is 49:18.
Tony Robinson and Phil Harding travel to Montana to help dig for dinosaurs. The pair accompany both professional and private “dinosaur hunters.” Montana was full of dinosaurs. What do these Dinosaur hunters do? How do they dig up dinosaurs? Over the next three weeks, Tony and Phil hope to learn more about the digs and perhaps dig a few dinosaurs themselves. They will go to three different digs and learn about what goes on at those digs. This will be a whole new experience for Phil and Tony. Tony and Phil take a road trip through Montana to reach their first digs. The pair talk about their expectations about the digs and dinosaurs. The first site is sponsored by the Museum of the Rockies. Its location is secret to prevent bone thieves. It is nicknamed the Bahamas. They catch up with the site chief, Dave Varricchio, and he shows them the latest find. The find is under plaster jackets to protect it. Tony and Phil look at the toe of the dinosaur. Phil questions whether or not the bones are together or jumbled up. Dave tells him that the bones are jumbled up and Phil gets a small smile and said that Tony was talking about finding a complete skeleton. Tony learns about the digging process and is surprised by the use of chisels and hammers. The paleontologists shave off as much of the rock as they can to protect the bones and then they are covered in plaster. The dinosaur bones are delicate and will need extra care to clean up. Phil then asks his burning question: can he help on the dig? You can hear him being sheepish when he asks the question. Frankie Jackson guides him and how to dig up a dinosaur. Phil starts working on the area under Frankie’s guidance. Tony then talks about the different techniques used between the rock site and the dirt site. Phil discovers his first dinosaur bone and is happy with the find. It is the oldest thing Phil has ever dug. It took him an hour to find the bone, while Tony has walking around the site finding bones. Tony is shocked to find so many dinosaur bones at once. Tony discovered that digging up dinosaur bones is a slow business. On day two Phil and Tony take their dinosaur explorations to a second site. They go to a tourist town and this town is at the heart of the Montana dinosaur belt. They go and sign up to participate in a dig. Phil and Tony will take the day to dig. They will work on an area that was just exposed. Tony is determined to find a bone before Phil. Tony highlights the controversy about this second site and talks about the commercialization of digging up dinosaur bones. Sometimes bones are sold on the market around Montana. Phil and Tony learn more about the sale of bones on the internet and do some research. Phil comments that the sale of dinosaur bones and he said that it made him sick. Then they take an eight-hour drive to the eastern side of Montana and go to a third dig. Here they will meet up with John Horner, one of the most successful dinosaur hunters in Montana. This dig is located in Hell Creek, Montana, and is home to one of the largest dinosaur excavations in the world. What will the Tony and Phil Roadshow find in this area? Will Phil get over his fear of snakes? Tune into the rest of the episode to find out. This is one totally different Time Team. The Tony and Phil Roadshow was enjoyable to watch and it was fun to watch the pair learning new techniques. It was funny to see Tony so exasperated with how slow the digging went as well. This would be a good episode to show to an earth science class because of the focus on paleontology. Good morning, we are working through the Thirty-One Days of Time Team and this time the Time Team is investigating a gravestone in Castor, Cambridgeshire. The run time is 47:54.
St. Kyneburgha Church is one of the most beautiful churches in England. What lies in the graveyard has archeologists salivating. There may be the remains of Roman structures. What is this building? Over the years, gravediggers have made many discoveries. The Time Team is going to dig a part of the graveyard where there are no bodies. Is there a building on this site? Will Tony manage to find his way down off the roof? Over the years there have been discoveries made in the churchyard. Every time a grave was dug, another find was made. Castor is five miles west of Peterborough. It is on the River Nene and near a major Roman Road. Geophysics works on a narrow strip of land for a survey. A second survey is done in a nearby schoolyard. Helen Geake catches up with local historians about a man obsessed with local archelogy. Edmund Artist was a man with many talents and discovered he loved archeology. He became a one-man Time Team. He dug the area and illustrated what he found with beautiful drawings. Artist surveyed the area and came up with a map as to where the Roman buildings are, so the Time Team is going to test his theory. Tony catches up with Stewart Ainsworth to look at the map that Artist drew and what the modern city looks like. In some places, what Artist originally found was reactivated, which is proving to be confusing to Ainsworth. Stewart Ainsworth wants to remake a map and mark the locations of known archeology. Roman walls are still visible along the lanes. Trench one goes in, however, John Gater is confused about the results he is getting from the geophysics. Phil immediately pulls out a piece of tile from the trench. Mosaic flooring is also come up from the trench. As the digger continues to work, more discoveries are found. John Gater quickly realizes what he did wrong, he had the “Roman filter on.” A sudden storm blows up soaking the archeologists. However, even in the rain, the Time Team discoveries keep coming. Trench one is turning out to be a gold mind. The finds include Saxon pottery, Roman Pottery, and mosaic pieces. So the site could include Saxon buildings. Normally the Time Team does not find Saxon finds. Trench two goes into the old rectory garden and trench three goes into the corner of the school field. A Roman bathhouse was discovered in the school field. Tony is getting the feeling that there is something special about Castor. Helen catches up with a local historian in regard to the finds that were discovered in Castor. Pots and pieces of wall plaster were discovered. The painted plaster seems to hint at a beautiful building. Geophysics goes into the north graveyard and in the afternoon the results come back. John catches up with one of the people doing the geophysics and there seems to be something in the ground. Earlier archeologists and finds seem to hint that there was a building in the north graveyard. What is geophysics detecting? The finds keep coming from the first two trenches: Roman finds, Roman Tiles and pottery are being found in the trench. Matt, one of the archeologists talks about the trench has backfill. The rain keeps coming. The search goes on for the Roman Baths. Tracey, the archeologist working on the field trench, is confused as to what she is finding. At the end of day one, the Time Team is meeting at the back of the church. The archeologists are talking about the potential for the biggest Roman building on the site. Was this a headquarters for the military? John reviews the geophysics results and is not seeing the building. The Time Team has permission to dig in the churchyard for one day to see if they can find the building. What else will the Time Team find out about the site? Tune into the rest of the episode to find out. This was an interesting episode to watch and would be a good episode for research purposes. This would be a good episode to show for a fun history day. Good morning, we are working on the Thirty-One Days of the Time Team for October. Today, we are going back to series nine and the Time Team is throwing it back to 2001. They are returning to a dig that they did in 2001 for a “Live Time Team.” The run time for this Time Team is 47:55.
Time Team returns to a dig that was previously excavated in 2001. This original dig opened a new window onto the Dark Ages. A brass Byzantine bucket was found at the site during the original dig and was the third one found in Great Britain. The story of Saxon burial rites was told in this original dig. That bucket inspires this new dig, what can this bucket tell us about history? Why was this bucket found miles away from where it was made? Mick and Tony walk the field where the bucket was found. This area was a Saxon graveyard. Tony comments on the flatness of the field and feels like the will be boring. Mick talks about the landscape and what was found on the site in the past. The Saxons recycled Stone Age barrows for their burials. The Time Team will excavate one of the mounds to see the context where the bucket was found. They will also put in test pits where spearheads were found. Trenches are open carefully as the topsoil is rock hard. Another trench goes into to see if there was a Saxon structure on the site. John Gater works on Geophysics on the sites and gets the metal detectors on the site as well. A group of metal detectorists head to the site and will mark what they find with wooden stakes. This information will be combined with the geophysics results. Steve Bolger was the metal detectorist who found the bucket. Once he dug it out, he turned it over to a museum. Sally Worrell examined the bucket and she continues to encourage metal detectorists to turn over the finds. A fourth trench goes in to determine the size of the Saxon Cemetery. Steve helps Carenza with her trench to see what metal is found there. He marks areas where metal is found with paint. It was where the bucket was found. She is finding flint from the Bronze Age. The amount of flint that is found seems to hint that someone was sitting there making flint. In another trench, the Time Team is finding human remains. Stewart Ainsworth wants to look at the landscape to determine why people were buried at the site. Phil is going mad in trench four, making a long trench to find the size of the cemetery. He is finding flint and ditches. Mick wants to shut the trench down, but Phil insists on expanding the trench to find more information. Tony and Mick then go and catch up with Carenza, and she makes the first Saxon find: a spearhead. It is their lone significant find of day one. On Day Two, Tony examines a grave site that contained two people. Were these two people buried on the same day? Were they related? One of the people in the grave was a woman. Found in the grave were a spear and a shield, seemingly hinting at warrior women in Britain. Perhaps these finds hint at a tradition of warrior women in Britain. The metal finds are in the conservation lab where they are cleaned, x-rayed, and examined. The spear that was found on day one is examined and after its cleaned, it is proven to be of Saxon origin. Even more metal finds are found and brought to the lab. A shield boss is found and it is the one piece of the shield that survives. Spears and swords could potentially be found in burials. If a person was of high status, a sword could be found in a burial. If a person was of real high status there could be a bucket found in the grave. What will the Time Team continue to discover about the Saxon cemetery? Will they find more buckets in the cemetery? Continue to watch the rest of this episode to find out more? At times this episode felt a little bit disjointed, so I would pass on this Time Team episode. This would be more appropriate for clips and research purposes because of the history of trading in Britain. Good morning, we are continuing to do our Thirty-One Days of Time Team for October 2023! The time Team Classics YouTube Channel has slowly been adding older episodes. Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 are completely uploaded to that channel and I have done blogs on those series. I am waiting on series 4 to get uploaded. The Time Team Wiki page has been updated with the names of those episodes. That said, let us get into an episode from Series 18. This episode is called “Cannons and Castles.” The run time for this episode of the Time Team is 47:28.
Time Team normally goes to places where things once stood. This time, they are going to Jersey and exploring a castle that is still standing. It is Jersey’s oldest castle and is built on a steep granite block. I guarded the entrance to Jersey and defended the Channel Islands, it was never supposed to be easy to get in. This castle defended the Channel Islands and has been studied before. However, there are a few secrets that have yet to be revealed, so Time Team is on the case and has three days to discover those secrets. With its steep slopes, geophysics will have the challenge to work on the site. In fact, no one has ever geophysics a site that steep. Tony heads on up to the castle’s tower and looks around the location. This castle is the closest castle to France. It would have played a part in history. Tony and Helen talk with historian Warwick Rodwell. He had been studying the castle for thirty years and still feels that there is more of the story to explore. He points out the areas that have never been explored before and points out areas of lumps and bumps. While geophysics works, Phil walks around the castle and finds some exposed walls. He puts trench one on this exposed wall to see if the wall came from the 13th Century. In the meantime, Mick, John, and Tony talk about the castle and the hazards geophysics is finding with working on the site. Tony wonders why Mick is so interested in the site because he does not have an interest in the castle. Mick points out there may be evidence of an earlier time, a time before the castle was built. He believes that it is highly likely that the Time Team will discover something from an earlier time. After lunch, Tony catches up with John in regards to the geophysics results. There are some results, however, there were issues with granite preventing good results. John wants to put in a second trench to see if there are defensive ditches and a potential building. Helen then talks with Tony about the first mention of the castle. She shows the documents that highlight the history of the castle. Jersey would have been on the edge of the English empire and therefore would have been the perfect place for a castle. Stewart walks around the castle. The landscape is challenging but he is finding something. In fact, he may have found an original tower. In the meantime, Phil is struggling to find dating evidence. He has no dating evidence for the wall. Phil found a waterpipe left over from the German occupation. Trench Two is not yielding evidence from the 13th Century either. Stewart may have found another defensive ditch, so the site is walked over with radar. Trench Three goes in on Stewart’s orders. Additionally, he finds something and he goes rock climbing. This site has been up and down for the Time Team. Tony thinks that the Time Team has done ditch crazy on this site. Trench Four goes in over another ditch and they were finding evidence from World War II. Phil turns up with a piece of flint, which predates the early castle site. Tony is so over it all. So will the Time Team find evidence of the 13th Century Castle? What will Stewart and his daredevil antics turn up? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more. This would be a Time Team episode to skip showing in a classroom. Sure it was humorous at some times but there are better episodes to show in the classroom. Good morning, we are going to head on over to Sussex for our Thirty-One Days of Time Team and an episode from series thirteen. The run time for this episode is 48:02.
The Time Team is on the trail of a Neolithic settlement in Sussex Downs. The settlement was discovered in 1923 by local archeologist John Pull. Pull said he found a larger site nearby but no one has managed to find it. What he found would be considered one of the few Stone Age settlements in Britain. However, when he made the discovery, he was sneered at by the public and archaeologists alike. The site was eventually bulldozed and his finds were lost. Pull was murdered. Now Time Team is going to reassess his work. Thousands of years of prehistoric activity have left their mark on the landscape. However, the Time Team has come to a site that has nothing to see. The site had been bulldozed and landscaped over the year. When John Pull investigated, he found burial deposits, pits, and home sites. Tony questions whether or not there were houses on the site. He catches up with Phil Harding and Francis Pryor. They look over a map that John Pull made; however, the map was not to scale. Stewart and Henry, the landscape archeologists are looking at the landscape and trying to make sense of the notes left behind. John Gater also helps with the determination. Once they crack the code of where the houses are, Geophysics goes out and works on the site. The initial results are promising. Trench one goes in over one of the features. This feature was possibly discovered by John Pull in the 1920s. Trench two goes in over a possible ringed ditch. John Pull was passionate about prehistoric archeology. Tony catches up with John’s daughter and biographer about his passion for archeology. There were plenty of finds stored in Hull’s house. How did Pull hold down a job and was an archeologist? He was largely self-educated and working class. The archeologists’ establishment did not like him and they waged a campaign against him. He was accused of looting, his findings hijacked, and his findings were dismissed. Pull continued to explore and dig. Perhaps his work and legacy need to be reexamined. However, the Time Team is having difficulty finding the houses Pull found. If they were to be found, the Time Team would have expected to find loose soil from where the soil was backed filled. All that is being found is chalk in the ground. The landscape would have been pockmarked with pit mines. The Time Team is having no luck in their two trenches. Any archelogy that was there during Pull’s time probably was bulldozed over and destroyed. The two trenches are abandoned. Phil comes up with a new plan. He wants to open up a long trench over a potential house site. This third trench goes in. However as it goes in, the Time Team is left with the thought that perhaps Pull was wrong. Stewart goes over Hull’s notes again and tries to find the location where a supposed settlement was found. He looks over photos and the maps. There were photos of the site from before the bulldozer. Back in the fourth trench, Francis seems to find evidence of Pull’s excavation. He finds a ditch on the Pull site as well. The circular disk is fifteen meters around and it would have surrounded a flat barrow. Barrows are mounds or ditches that surround a burial. This flat barrow would have acted as a focal point. The long trench is proving to be empty. Day One is proving to be a disappointment. Phil is gushing over the one find: a flint scraper. It was the only find that the Time Team has. It would have been evidence of settlement, even though the rock find is small. What will the Time Team find on day two? Will they find evidence of a large Stone Age settlement? Will they be able to reexamine Pull’s legacy? Or will the Time Team walk away disappointed? Tune into the rest of the episode to find out. This would be an episode for research purposes only. Good morning, we are continuing with the Thirty-One Days of Time Team. This time the Time Team is exploring the hall of a Saxon King. The run time for this Time Team is 46:50.
Tony Robinson introduces the episode in the “flattest field” the Time Team has investigated and that the Time Team is eagerly waiting to excavate the site. The aerial photos of the site show the presence of something man-made. In the 1920s, an amazing discovery was made: the first Saxon settlement in England. The Time Team has been given permission to dig another field that shows crop marks. Perhaps the Time Team is going to dig a rare find: a Saxon Hall. What will the Time Team find in three days? Tony catches up with Helene Hamerow, who invited the Time Team to excavate the site. She talks about the history of the site and what was done previously. The Time Team will dig in a field that has never been dug before. Expectations are high, and so is the excitement. Geophysics heads out to the field to work on the site. Mick and Helen then catch up with Tony. Tony wonders why geophysics is working on the site. Mick points to the aerial photographs of the site and hints that lines are showing something. Helen Geake will be in the charge of the dig because she is an Anglo-Saxon expert. She is thrilled with looking at the site. She points out features in the photo such as a burrow. Helen decides to put the first trench in and Mick feels good that he was not the making decision. The first trench will go over the burrow. Is this burrow a burial mound? Did a Saxon put a hall over this burial man? The excitement is palpable with the Time Team. However, this excitement is tampered with by the fact that this field is a protected site, so the Time Team is limited to how much they could dig. Phil and Helen supervise the first trench going in. John Gater then goes over the results with Phil, Helen, Mick, and Tony. A second trench will go in over a small Saxon house. Eventually, a third trench goes in. Finds are starting to come up and a few pieces of Saxon pottery are coming up. The pottery is a reassuring discovery for Tony. This would show that the area was inhabited. The finds keep coming and the site is looking promising. Sam Newton talks about what Saxon Hall would have looked like. A Saxon Hall would have been a barn-like structure. It would have been high gabled and carved with great doors. It would have been big and echoey. The Saxon Hall would have been used for feasting. The first trench is expanded, and Helen and Tony talk about what is found. There is a prehistorical ditch found on the site and Phil points out additional strains on the earth. Additionally, there were post holes found on the site. It seems like there was a complex of building on the site. There is archeology all over the place. The crop marks are delivering. Perhaps, the field is showing two different periods of occupation. On day two, there is another trench put in on the other side of the field. This trench will help further explain the history of the site. Were the buildings contemporary with each other? Perhaps we are talking about a royal Saxon site? If it was a royal site, why did it become a royal site? Trench one continues to be expanded to expose the remains of a larger building. Phil discovers the remains of the waddle and daub construction techniques that the Saxons would have used. The Time Team will have to gather dating evidence to further tell the story of the site. What will the Time Team discover about the site? Will the Time Team find a Saxon Hall, the first of its kind in England? Will they find multiple halls? Is this a Saxon site fit for a king? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out. The pace of the episode was fast and it seemed that the Time Team put in trench after trench. It felt like three days were not enough to explore this site. This one would be a good episode for an independent study student and for research purposes. Good morning, we are back to doing Thirty-One Days of the Time Team for October. This time we are going to explore a Roman fort and the complex around it. The run time is 47:17.
Tony Robinson introduces the episode by holding a Roman Brick. This brick has names scratched on it and this brick could be the names of the soldiers that were stationed at Fort Vinovia. Today, Vinovia is Binchester. The Time Team will be excavating the Roman Vicus, the settlement that supported the fort. It is the first time the Time Team is excavating a Vicus. What will the Time Team find? What can the finds tell us about Roman fort life? Vinovia, aka Binchester lies on Dere Street. Dere Street was a major Roman road and it would have been lined with Roman forts. This road ran up to Hadrian’s Wall. One of these forts was located at Vinovia. The antiquarians had excavated the fort site before and developed a map of the site, however, they did not look at the Roman Vicus. Tony is disappointed that they will be excavating what was previously excavated. However, Phil points out that it is important to re-excavate those sites to confirm the findings of previous excavations. Another challenge that the Time Team will face is that the site of the Roman fort is a scheduled monument, so the Time Team will be limited to one trench. However, the site of the vicus is outside the site so they will be able to put in more trenches. Geophysics starts one of the biggest surveys they ever did on Time Team. Stewart Ainsworth goes over aerial photographs with John Gater, Phil Harding, and Tony. There is a hint to a large area of archeology. Phil is excited about the archeological possibilities. John then points out a square feature on the geophysics results. Phil suggests that there is a temple on the site. The first trench goes in, and immediately there is a piece of pottery found. Phil works on the trench and the historian looks over the geophysics. Tony catches up with Guy de la Bedoyere to go over the geophysics results. Guy suggests instead of a temple, that the square on the site is a mausoleum. He says the feature reminds him of mausoleums on the Appian Way. Another trench goes in under the watchful eye of John and Phil. In the first trench over the original dig, the Time Team are not finding the buildings they thought they would find. The Third Trench is showing the evidence of two ditches and there is evidence of occupation. Late on day one, even though there are plenty of finds there is no evidence of the houses and shops of the vicus. So geophysics continues to work on their survey. In the mausoleum trench, there is evidence of a vessel, perhaps there is a cremation burial. This burial would confirm Guy’s theory that there was a mausoleum on site. Additionally, John and his geophysics seem to have hit on a second fort, which would further advance the history of the site. As day one ends, it looks like the Time Team will be in for a busy day two. Tony catches up with Mick, Phil, Guy, and John to talk about the potential earlier fort. John goes over the results again and suggests that there was an earlier fort on the site. This fort was made from timber. Guy agrees with John’s assessment. Tony then reviews what the Time Team has done so far: two possible cremation burials, a possible mausoleum, and excavating the old antiquarian trench. Will the Time Team have time to dig this new fort location? Mick suggests that the trench should be extended and this will help keep the Time Team keep on track. Phil believes the team can do it. Tony is filled with hope, as long as they do not make any more discoveries. So what will the Time Team continue to discover about this fort and vicus? Are they on the verge of discovering something of national importance? Is the mausoleum is a mausoleum? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out. This episode started up slowly and then slowly started building up. It was funny to see Tony in such despair over the new discoveries. As a result of the new discoveries, this would be a good episode to show for a history fun day. Good morning, we are going to continue with our Thirty-One days of the Time Team for October, and let us throw it back to an episode from series 13 and the history of the Industrial Revolution in Manchester. The run time for this episode is 48:47.
Underneath a car park in Manchester lies the remains of a mill. Manchester was a powerhouse in the cotton industry and it was a city that had a lot of mills. In 1780, the first cotton mill in Manchester was built and was built by Richard Arkwright. It housed the first steam engines. It is now buried under a car park. The Time Team has three days to discover and recover one of Britain’s most important historic sites. Will the Time Team find the mill? Tony catches up with Francis Pryor, Phil Harding, and a local historian. There was a layer of cobblestones found on the site and these stones come from a layer that would have been the mill yard. There was plenty of documentation and maps that show the mill, however, they are unreliable. Mike Nevell, the local historians talk about how the site developed and that there may be multiple buildings on the site. These different buildings would demonstrate the different phases of development. Mike is optimistic about finding the mill. Phil is thrilled with the dig, Tony points out that Phil likes prehistory. Phil replies that this site is the prehistory of the Industrial Revolution. Trench One goes in and it is hoped that at least one side of the mill. A mill built in the Victorian Era was destroyed during the Blitz and the site has not been rebuilt. As the asphalt is removed, Phil discovers a wall. The trench is expanded and more of the wall is revealed. Tony catches up with Mike and talks about the history of Manchester while looking at a map from the 1700s. The Mill would have had an impact on the country. The mill would have been a boom for Manchester and would have shocked the people who saw it. People across the country came to Manchester to see the mill as if it was a tourist attraction. This mill was the start of the Industrial Revolution. Richard Arkwright, who built the man, was the father of the factory system in Britain. He was a socially awkward man but grew wealthy through business. Back at the car park, Phil strongly believes that he has found a mill wall. Francis is skeptical that what was found is a wall. Phil says he will find the proof that he found the wall of the mill. Trench two goes in over the middle of the mill. The Time Team is going to find where the mill was powered. However, as they dig, they are finding fire-scarred bricks. The mills were vulnerable to fire. Additionally, there were broken clay pipes found on the site. The workers would have been puffing on those pipes while they worked. There were plenty of fires that happened in the mills at Manchester. These mills would have burned down and would have been rebuilt. The mills caused the population in Manchester to explode. This population explosion leads to horrible living conditions in Manchester. Karl Marx would have visited his mate Fredrich Engels in Manchester. Here they would discuss the working and living conditions for the workers. Tony catches up with Helen Geake about Marx’s writing. Stewart is on the job as well, working on a survey on the site. He is working with Helen to look into the living conditions of the workers. The Time Team starts recording their findings. They have discovered a door and a wall from the original mill that was built by Arkwright. Additionally there are sites for the mill engine. Will Phil prove that he is right about the wall? What else will the Time Team find out about the mill? Tune into this episode to find out more. This was an interesting Time Team. The archaeology was fantastic for the site and it gave a glimpse into the history of the Industrial Revolution. This would be a second good episode to show while teaching the history of the Industrial Revolution. |
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