Good morning, the Thirty-One days of Time Team continue with a search for the real-life Flintstones.
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Time Team is hot on the trail a place where there is evidence of human settlement dating back to the Stone Age.  Stone Age England was a very different place.  It was covered in lush greenery.  Lions, rhinos, and elephants wandered around.  The Dig is in a clay pit that dates back from the Victorian period.  In the pit, there is an area where Stone Age tools were found.  It is a site that dates back to 400,000 years ago and the Time Team is working with the British Museum.

Phil and Nick Ashton have started the dig and are finding good evidence of people making flints and tools along with a rule.  This site is rare for the Time Team.  Tony asks if they will find human remains on the site and Phil says they will not.  One of the Time Team’s tasks will be to find the plants that the Stone Age people lived with.  Tony then learns that environmental archeologists use vole teeth to date a site.

Carenza is at a site five miles away from the initial trench and the Time Team will excavate another area where there were Stone Age Remains found.  It was an archeological area that has not been excavated lately.  They will have to clear some foliage first before the second trench goes in.

In the first trench, a piece of hand ax is found, and Phil is ecstatic with the find.  They slowly dig around the dirt to free it and it comes out of the ground.  The hand ax was the single most important tool for the Stone Age Man.  Geophysics will be working to find an ancient river that ran through the landscape.  It will take time to build a picture of the landscape.  Finding the river will help archeologists look for additional Stone Age sites.  Stewart is field walking the area and looking for archeology on the surface.

Day One ends on a rainy note, the trench is covered to prevent a mud hole and the archeology continues.  The work to find plant material continues despite the rain.  In fact, a mussel shell was found while digging and would hint at something being preserved.  Clay is put into buckets and hydrogen peroxide is added to dissolve the clay leaving behind organic material.

Day Two kicks off with Phil working to make a stone tool.  He tries to try it out by chopping down a tree. Geophysics continues with their search for the ancient river.  It will take yards and yards of cord and avoiding man-made features to find this ancient river.  In Carenza’s trench, they are finding some interesting finds.  Carneza calls for Tony to bring an intact ax head and Phil.  The environmental trench is struggling to break down the clay to determine what organic material was around during the time of the Stone Age.  Victor paints a scene of life at the riverbank.  What was life for these people?  Tony meets up with a computer graphic artist to see what the people looked like.  What will the Time Team find?  Will they find that elusive whole hand ax?  Will they find the remains of an ancient river channel?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more about the Stone Age people of Britain.

This would be something interesting to show a landscape class because of the environmental archaeology involved with the Time Team’s search.  It would be a good episode to help teach about experimental archeology as well.

We are continuing with our Thirty-One Days of Time Team and we are throwing it back to the past with an episode from Season 3 and a prehistoric Fogou.

Tony is roaming a tunnel under a garden, what was it doing there?  Who built it?  What was it used for?  The Tunnel is a feature in the center of a garden.  The Garden belongs to Jo and Tony meets up with him and Robin.  They talk about the feature and a map of the garden.  This map was drawn up by an antiquarian.  The trio walks around the site.  There seems to hint at another tunnel.  What will the Time Team discover about this feature?

Can the Time Team find the other tunnel?  Can they find the site of the Iron Age settlement associated with the fogou?  The site is now home to the 19th Century.  The Time Team will not be able to dig at the fogou itself because it is a protected site.  Jo had dowsers on the property and they said that there was a second tunnel.  Mick is skeptical and will wait for the geophysics results.

The geophysics results hint at something curving that joins up with the fogou.  What was the purpose of the fogou, that remains a mystery?  Were they a place of refuge?  A tunnel to escape warring armies?  Or were they just used for storage?  Mick and Tony explore the fogou and examine the tunnel carefully.  There were ten fogous discovered in Cornwall and they were near rivers.  There were more fogous discovered in Brittany and they are even more numerous in numbers.  In Ireland, there were 1,000 fogous discovered.

However, the big question looming over Time Team, will they find more of a fogou.  Trench One goes in and immediately a water pipe is discovered.  Mick and Phil give the geophysics team a hard time about discovering a pipe.  Tony catches up with Mick and Phil.  He brings out a map that the water dowsers drew.  The water dowser hints at a different location for the tunnel extension.  Mick is skeptical about water dousing.  Phil recommends that the water dowser goes over the land again.  Tony tries out water dousing.  Mick agrees to put in a “new age trench” in the ground.

Victor works on a drawing of the enclosed settlement and Robin, Jo, Carenza, and a local archeologist work with him on the drawing.  The Time Team is hoping to find evidence of settlement.  The dowsers’ trench is coming up empty as well.  Mick makes the call to put in another test trench to see if any additional evidence can be discovered.  The Time Team plans on looking at the landscape to see where they can look for the fogou extension. Is the extension under the house?

At night, the Time Team gets together for a sum up and the only trench that seems to show promise is Carenza’s trench which was dug over the wall of a potential enclosure.  It was the one area of the property that was not disturbed when the house was built.  So her trench is an extension and an Iron Age pot piece is discovered.  Will this pot hint at an Iron Age settlement?  What would a settlement look like during this period?  What would the people have done? 

Will Time Team find additional hints of settlement?  Is another fogou on the verge of being discovered?  Will Mick get over his feelings against water dowsing?  Will Phil be turned into a tin miner?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out.
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As frustrating as it was at the start of the episode, the Time Team turned it around and managed to find additional evidence about the history of the fogou.  The section on Tin Making was fascinating and Phil was delighted with his efforts in making tin.  This would be a good episode to show for a fun day.

A Thirteenth-Century of portrait of Christ was found in an outhouse in a village founded by the Templars.  Time Team aims to find out more about the village they discovered and more about the Templars themselves.  A modern-day Knights Templar member invited the Time Team to learn more about his house.   Tony Robinson meets up with Mick Robinson to determine the area where the Time Team will dig.
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The Templars started as a monastery with walls and a gatehouse.  The home where they settled has undergone many renovations over the years.  A historic buildings expert joins up with the Time Team.  The home is in an intriguing “L” shape.  However, it is behind the house on a farm that the Time Team will be investigating.  There was a ditch in a field and may have been a boundary of the monastery.  Mick quickly draws was the monastery site would have looked like and talks about other Templar sites.  He discusses how similar this site compares to other sites.

Time Team starts in on a first trench in the north farm field that seems to hint at a boundary ditch.  Will the Time Team find dating evidence in the ditch?  Tony and Mick catch up with Phil to find out.  There seems to be a hint of a wall in the ditch.  The Time Team has also discovered floor tiles.  So has the Time Team firmly established that this was part of a final boundary?

Robin and Carenza are in the archives and may have found a chapel on the site.  Was it a Medieval Chapel?  The Templars had a chapel in 1309 and even a chapel was mentioned in the Doomsday Book.  So will the Time Team find a Medieval Chapel on the site?

Back at the house, there is an ancient beam discovered.  It is a fireplace mantel and may have been part of the original home for the Templars.  The Time Team brings in a dendrochronologist on site.  Tony is skeptical that the results will be produced in time.  The dendrochronologist assures Tony that the results will be produced in time.

Robin and Tony meet up and talk about the Knights Templar.  The village where the Knight Templar had only three “fighting monks” at once.  Eventually, the village was taken over by the Knights Hospitaller. 

Carenza and Phil continue to investigate the possibility of a chapel on the site.  There was a photograph of a potential chapel that was believed to be from the Middle Ages.  Upon further investigation, there is a doorstep in a wall that seems to hint at the potential of the current wall being a former chapel.   A second trench is being dug at the potential chapel site.

At the end of the night, the Time Team gets together to do a catch-up.  The geophysics results are still incomplete.  So Mick determines that the two trenches will be expanded.  Tony then asks to see when a dendrochronology date will become available.  The dendrochronologist comes in and gives them the date for one of the beams and the tree was chopped down no later than 1610.  So the beam they found was not Templar.  Despite this, there was plenty of other evidence that the site is Templar.

So what will be found in the farmer’s strawberry patch?  What other evidence will be uncovered to tell the story of the Knights Templar in England?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more about the Knights Templar!

This throwback episode was a cool episode to watch, especially seeing how many different experts came together to tell the story of the Knights Templar house and village.  The Village of the Templars would be an episode to show for a fun day in history.

A Thirteenth-Century of portrait of Christ was found in an outhouse in a village founded by the Templars.  Time Team aims to find out more about the village they discovered and more about the Templars themselves.  A modern-day Knights Templar member invited the Time Team to learn more about his house.   Tony Robinson meets up with Mick Robinson to determine the area where the Time Team will dig.

The Templars started as a monastery with walls and a gatehouse.  The home where they settled has undergone many renovations over the years.  A historic buildings expert joins up with the Time Team.  The home is in an intriguing “L” shape.  However, it is behind the house on a farm that the Time Team will be investigating.  There was a ditch in a field and may have been a boundary of the monastery.  Mick quickly draws was the monastery site would have looked like and talks about other Templar sites.  He discusses how similar this site compares to other sites.

Time Team starts in on a first trench in the north farm field that seems to hint at a boundary ditch.  Will the Time Team find dating evidence in the ditch?  Tony and Mick catch up with Phil to find out.  There seems to be a hint of a wall in the ditch.  The Time Team has also discovered floor tiles.  So has the Time Team firmly established that this was part of a final boundary?

Robin and Carenza are in the archives and may have found a chapel on the site.  Was it a Medieval Chapel?  The Templars had a chapel in 1309 and even a chapel was mentioned in the Doomsday Book.  So will the Time Team find a Medieval Chapel on the site?

Back at the house, there is an ancient beam discovered.  It is a fireplace mantel and may have been part of the original home for the Templars.  The Time Team brings in a dendrochronologist on site.  Tony is skeptical that the results will be produced in time.  The dendrochronologist assures Tony that the results will be produced in time.

Robin and Tony meet up and talk about the Knights Templar.  The village where the Knight Templar had only three “fighting monks” at once.  Eventually, the village was taken over by the Knights Hospitaller. 
Carenza and Phil continue to investigate the possibility of a chapel on the site.  There was a photograph of a potential chapel that was believed to be from the Middle Ages.  Upon further investigation, there is a doorstep in a wall that seems to hint at the potential of the current wall being a former chapel.   A second trench is being dug at the potential chapel site.

At the end of the night, the Time Team gets together to do a catch-up.  The geophysics results are still incomplete.  So Mick determines that the two trenches will be expanded.  Tony then asks to see when a dendrochronology date will become available.  The dendrochronologist comes in and gives them the date for one of the beams and the tree was chopped down no later than 1610.  So the beam they found was not Templar.  Despite this, there was plenty of other evidence that the site is Templar.

So what will be found in the farmer’s strawberry patch?  What other evidence will be uncovered to tell the story of the Knights Templar in England?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more about the Knights Templar!

This throwback episode was a cool episode to watch, especially seeing how many different experts came together to tell the story of the Knights Templar house and village.  The Village of the Templars would be an episode to show for a fun day in history.

Good morning, we are continuing with the Fall Edition of Thirty-One Days of Time Team with Lords of the Isles.  This is the first episode of season two of the Time Team.  Tony still has his hair, and Phil was in danger of losing his hat!

There was a set of ruins that dominated a kingdom in Scotland for decades.  The Time Team will brave the rain to explore a Scottish Island.  The National Museum of Scotland has partnered with the Time Team to excavate the site.  The Time Team needs to help with this dig because the National Museum will run out of money to fund the dig.  Once the money runs out, there will be no more digs.  What will the Time Team learn about the Lords of the Isles?

Work has immediately started on the dig.  The site contains the mainland, a larger island, and a smaller isle.  The Time Team will look on the island, around the island, and on the mainland.  The Time Team will also look at a mound on the mainland.  This mound is noticeable in the landscape.  Was mound something ceremonial to the Lords of the Isles?  Were their chieftains’ declared chieftains on this mound?

Tony catches up with the National Museum archeologists on site.  There were four years of excavations and have produced hundreds of finds.  The objects found help illustrate how the Lords of the Isles lived.  Scuba divers are looking at the waters around the isles.  They are having a challenge with the peat in the water.  Despite this, the visibility is good for the underwater team.

Next, Tony catches up with Robin to learn more about the phrase “the Lords of Isles.”  Robin tells the story of a petty king who looked at an Island.  He drove the Vikings out of the Island established a kingdom.  They were never called the Lords of the Isles until the 14th Century.  Even then the title was assumed out of the blue.

The waterlogged soil is proving to be a challenge; however, this does not deter Phil from digging.  The Time Team is looking at the guardhouse and the cemetery.  As part of the excavation, the Time Team will reconstruct linen armor.

Mick checks up on Phil in the guardhouse trench.  He walked with Donald MacFayden who is in charge of the MacFayden Trust.  Phil discusses the excavation.  There was a nicely preserved building on the site.  Eventually, the Time Team comes together and does a catch-up of what they are finding.  There have not been many finds and the rain is not helping them.  A second trench goes in at the top of the mound.  Immediately there are finds at the top of the mound.  Does this signify an ancient site?

Day two kicks off at the second trench.  It is windy but some good finds are being discovered.  The site may have been a Mesolithic site.  The second trench will be extended further.  The geophysics team and Stewart Ainsworth work to map out the area.  Was this mound originally an Island?  All is working well.  The newest finds are found in an ancient rubbish dump.  Mick was supposed to help with the underwater archeology, but Tony suits up and participates in the dig.

Mick and Tony go up in a helicopter and look at the landscape.  Mick talks about the beach and the jetties that are in the landscape.  They talk about how well-used the landscape was and how a king or a prince would feel like the landscape would legitimize his rule.
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What will the Time Team continue to discover about the Lords of the Isles?  Will the weather change?  Tune into this episode to find out more.  This would be a good episode to show for a fun Friday history class.

Our Fall Thirty-One Days of Time Team continues with a mystery shipwreck.  Tony Robinson tells the story of a teenage boy who discovered a cannon in the water.  Since then, the teen has grown up and organized a dig of the ship.  Time Team has been brought in to assist with the dig.  What was the mystery wreck?  Was it part of the Spanish Armada?  Will there be enough of the ship remaining for the Time Team to explore?
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This is the first time that the Time Team will participate in water archelogy and there will be plenty to learn.  Will water archeology be different from land archaeology?  The answer is no.  Many of the same principles apply from land archeology apply to water archeology.  The number one thing that is very much the same between both forms of archelogy is that it will take time.  Another time factor for the team is the arrival of the site director from Libya. 

The teen who discovered the site twenty years ago speaks with Tony Robinson about the find.  The teen had grown up and works on the site.  Simon Burton was swimming off the coast when he saw the cannon.  He learned that the cannon was made of bronze and continued to dive the site.  The site was eventually declared protected and licensed.  So, they have a site director now and he guides the work on the site.  The Time Team cannot dive into the site until the site director comes back from Libya. 

There were another five guns and other items found at the site.  Robin Bush and Mick Aston head to the town museum to see if this ship was part of the Spanish Armada.  A copper pot, firepot, a merchant seal, and other cannons were found. Robin looks at the coat of arms on the cannon and Mick suggests that they look into the background of the cannon.  The identity of the wreck could be tied to the coat of arms on the cannon. 

Robin and Mick talk about the certainty of the Armada connection.  There was nothing in the local folklore about the cannon.  Robin and Mick lean towards the ship being a trading vessel.  So, is the ship a merchant galley or a warship? 

Stewart Ainsworth looks at the landscape to see if there was a nearby port.  The French had raided the town burning it to the ground.  However, according to folk legend, buildings may have survived.

The survey results are in and those results are not good.  Nothing shows up in the results.  They were expecting to find pieces of timber in the sand.  The results are disappointing for the Time Team and Simon Burton.  Perhaps the timbers were waterlogged, and thus would not show up in the results?  The results would have helped them put in the trenches.

Day two begins at the breakfast table.  The Time Team goes out to the wreck site and Tony dives on the wreck.   However, since there were some storms last year, the site director and Simon dive on the site to make sure their markers are still there.  After some sorting and repositioning their markers, Tony goes diving.  While Tony dives, Mick learns how to shoot a cannon.

After the markers are positioned and Tony comes up to the surface, the sand sucking starts.  While that is happening, Stewart Ainsworth goes over the landscape results.  At midday, Mick fires the cannon.  In the afternoon, beginner diver Phil Harding takes his turn on the wreck.  At the end of day two, there are no signs of the wreck.  Will the Time Team find the wreck?  Tune into this episode to find out.

This would be a good episode to show for a “Fun Friday.”

In this final Thirty-One days of Time Team, we will be throwing it back to an older episode of the series.  Tony Robinson has long hair!  Today, the Time Team is hunting for a Mammoth. 
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Time Team is a landfill and underneath all the rubbish there is a village where Stone Age Britons lived.  There have been remains of Mammoths in the ground.  Will the Time Team find the remains of mammoths?  What will the remains of the mammoths tell the Time Team about Stone Age Britain?  The Time Team is in a gravel pit and will try to find out more about the history of Oxford.

Phil Harding talks about how the gravel pit is typical of paleolithic sites and talks about how the gravel pit was formed.  A channel was carved into the Oxford landscape.  However, nobody discovered the channel edges.  Intact surfaces from the prehistoric environment are rare and so the Time Team will use geophysics to distinguish the natural environment.  This is the first time geophysics will be used this way.

John Gater talks about the challenges of working in those conditions.  Gater hopes that the rain will hold off.  If it rains, geophysics may not work in this landscape.  The Time Team is hopeful that geophysics will work.  An air tent is set up in the field to help house the technology used.

A trench goes in and immediately they find bones.  Excavating in the gravel pits has been a challenge because of the bones.  It takes three days to excavate proper bones.  This will cause some delays for the Time Team.  Keeping Phil Harding on track will be a challenge.  In trench one, they are discovering the remains of a tree.  This may be where the river bank was.

On the south end of the pit, the Time Team is looking for the channel and where the river cut a channel.  Christine Buckingham is in charge of the site.  She believes that the river moved over decades.  Will the Time Team be able to find the edges of the river?

Mick Ashton gets in on the dig and discovers a mammoth tooth on the site.  It shows that the mammoth was eating lush green vegetation.  The animal was about 30 years old and would have stood to 10 feet tall.  It even adapted to the British environment.  The mammoth is a distraction from finding the river.  Mick talks about the challenges of trying to save archeology and trying to determine the environment.  Is destroying some known finds provide additional information worth it?  So will archeology be destroyed to determine the environment?

Mick and Tony go up in the air to see the landscape from above.  Mick talks with Tony about the history of the area and why the Time Team is focusing on the geology of the area.  Did the landscape support human habitation?  If it did, how many people live in the area?

The next day, a large trench will be dug.  It will go over the mammoth tusks.  Unfortunately, the weather has changed.  It has rained for five hours and turned the sand into the mud.  One trench will be covered and a second one will be dug.  Unfortunately for geophysics will face an uphill challenge trying to discover the edges of the channel.  In the second trench, another channel was discovered.  Is this a hint of a series of river channels?  Tune into Time Team to find out!

This particular episode of the Time Team would be excellent for a geology class and good for a history class.  Hunting for Mammoths is unusual because the Time Team focused more on geology.

Good morning, Thirty-One Days of the Time Team continues with the Birthplace of the Confessor.  This time, the pressure is on the Time Team, as the whole village gets in on the dig.  Town pride and Time Team clash in this episode.
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Islip has a claim to fame.  It is said that it was the birthplace of Edward the Confessor.  The Time Team needs to find the chapel that was built in his honor as well as the palace where he grew up.  The problem is that the town has never been dug before.  It will be a tall order for the Time Team and they have three days to solve this mystery.  Is Islip the birthplace of Edward the Confessor?

Edward the Confessor is famous for keeping the country safe during his reign and for Westminster Abbey.  He gained the name “Confessor” after his death.  In the meantime, Mick Ashton is talking with the villagers who invited the Time Team to dig in their village.  Tony is skeptical because there were no Saxon finds in the village.  This is the first time there was a dig in the village. 

Stewart Ainsworth and Helen Geake are working together to figure out where the chapel was built.  Ainsworth talks about the challenges map makers had back in the back day.  Mapmaking was not a precise science because the makers and surveyors were relying on local knowledge.  John Gater works on the chapel site.   The chapel area was not an easy area to survey or use geophysics.  The chapel site is in a lumber yard so there will be delays.  The Time Team helps unload some wood.

The chapel could be anywhere.  It could even be in the yard of the pub or a local garden.  The owner permits the Time Team to dig some test pits.  The house may hold a clue as to where the chapel was.  The house was called Confessor’s gate.  The wall is less than 100 years old, however, there was a head stuck into the wall.  Did the locals recycle something found and stuck it in the wall?  It is just another mystery that Time Team will need to solve.

The Confessor’s gate site may hold some better clues for the Time Team.  The plans of the land show something akin to a chapel.  One of the test pits will be extended to see if there is something to the house plans.  Time Team will have two possible chapel sites to examine.  Day one has mixed results.  The site in the lumber yard is proving to be disappointing.  A new map discovery is providing the Time Team with new guidance on where to dig for the chapel.  One site is in a church graveyard, so they will need some special permission to dig in the graveyard.

Tony explores more of the history of Edward the Confessor.  Edward the Confessor left no heirs which lead to the Conquest.  In 1161 he was made a saint.  When he died he left the palace in Islip to a monastery.  The monastery then built the chapel to recognize the birth site of Edward the Confessor.  Is there anything that remains of the chapel or the Saxon palace? 

Will the Time Team find the chapel of Edward the Confessor?  Will the Time Team find Saxon pottery to keep the villagers happy?  Tune in to the episode to find out more.

This was an enjoyable episode to watch throughout.  It was interesting to learn more about Edward the Confessor.  Islip was proud to be part of Edward the Confessor’s story.  Additionally, the Time Team brought in a variety of sources to determine the location of the chapel.  This would be a good episode to show when English history is discussed.

Two more days and then Thirty-One Days of the Time Team will be done.  It makes me sad to be winding down with the Thirty-One Days of the Time Team.  IT was a nice little challenge to do for March and I’m glad that the Time Team came back to YouTube.  In today’s episode, we will learn about King George III and his lost palace.
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Kew Gardens is the setting for the Time Team.  This was the site of the home of King George III called the white house palace.  It was a favorite of King George III.  The White House Palace was where King George III spent his later, made years locked up.  What did it look like?  Where was it located in the gardens?  Time Team has three days to find out more about the palace.

The White House palace was a spectacular home for King George.  A sundial seems to mark the spot where the palace was.  However, it does not tell the Time Team what it looked like.  Was it a house that had a façade or was it built from scratch?  Geophysics works on the site.  However, the results are confusing.  There seems to be a four-meter wide wall.  That does not sound right to the Time Team.  So why was there a four-meter-wide feature on the geophysics results?

Trench one goes in.  The Time Team carefully takes the top layers of turf off the lawn.  There was a Tudor Mansion on the site.  Was it knocked down to build a new home?  Or did the architect just put a new face on the house?  So far, all Phil is finding is gravel.

Stewart is looking at the records for the old palace.  There was a survey done that revealed a plan of the palace.  The plans highlight the location of the rooms.   “Geophysics seems to be doing fine without the plan,” Tony quips.  A second trench is put in the ground.  Time Team is hoping that they end up in the White House.  Phil Works with a turf cutter to help remove the turf.

The White House was where King George III stayed during his fits of madness.  It was a time of change for Britain.  England stood alone against France.  The Industrial Revolution was occurring.  Great Britain was growing wealthy. 

Phil is excavating trench one.  There is plenty of gravel but no archeology.  Nick the site manager wants to close out the trench and move Phil on to another Trench.  Phil insists on staying.  However, everyone is growing worried.  Was the building completely rubbed out of the landscape when it was taken down?  Trench Two puts those fears to rest when there is brickwork is discovered.  Back at trench one, there is evidence of a cellar, and Phil’s instincts are proven right.

Going into day two, things are going well for the Time Team.  However, while John Gater reviews the geophysics results alongside the blueprints of the palace.  None of it is making sense to John.  Another trench will be needed to find the back of the palace.  There is a problem: there is a gas pipe running through the lawn.  This will prevent the Time Team from digging where they need to to find the back of the palace.

Trench one is yielding some more brick as well as a glass stem for a wine glass from the Georgian period.  What else will Time Team find out about the White House?  What will this dig tell us about King George III?  Tune into this episode to find out more.

This episode would be a good episode to show while learning about King George III.  This was the place where George III spent his last years.

Good morning!  We are going to continue with the Thirty-One Days of Time Team.  This time we are on the Island of Loee in Cornwall exploring a Hermit Island. 
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Monks, ghosts, treasure maps, shipwrecks, and dramatic coasts are the highlights of Cornwall.  However, it was off the Cornish coast where the first rumblings of Christianity in Britain were heard.  The Time Team will face a new challenge with this dig.  The tides only allow the team to spend five hours digging on the island.  They are on the search for two chapels, one on the island and one built into the hilltop.

Legend has it, Joseph of Arimathea brought Jesus to the island and while he was doing business with Cornish tin miners, Jesus would play on the coast.  This legend would have brought pilgrimages to the island.  Early archeologists believed the site to come from the Celtic period.  Mick disagrees with that assessment so the Time Team will have to find dating evidence for the chapels. 

Geophysics works on the site alongside Stewart Ainsworth.  Even on the surface, there seem to be indications of a building.  Phil puts in the first trench before the geophysics team is done. The first chapel on the site is dedicated to St. Michael.  Tony does some investigating into the history of the Chapel and why it would be dedicated to St. Michael.  This Chapel was tied to the Glastonbury Abbey.

Time Team is also investigating a site on the mainland.  They are looking for a second chapel.  An archeologist in the 1930’s had done some investigating before.  However, World War II cut short his excavation.  There were a few theories about mainland sight.  Did the monks at Glastonbury add to an existing chapel?  Or did they build a new one from scratch?  The Time Team will pick up from where this earlier archeologist left behind.

The archeology for both sites will be a bit complicated.  Chapel sites normally do not leave behind the dating evidence normally found on household sites.  The Time Team has found a burial on the island site.  The individual was quite big.  When Glastonbury Abbey purchased the island there was an existing chapel on the site.  After the site was purchased, two monks were sent over to start a new pilgrimage site.

These two monks would have faced a challenge.  The island is often buffeted by winds that could cut the island off from the mainland.  A couple of Time Team members volunteered to stay on the island to continue the dig.  The tides are going out, and so the other Time Team members will have to leave the island.  The volunteers continue with the dig.

In the meantime, the dig continues on the mainland.  The Time Team is finding stairs, walls, and floor.  The builders seemed to have deliberately terraced the chapel and it made it at the same level as the chapel on the island.  The Time Team wants to find the Nave and wants to discover if a chancel was built later.  Some features indicate that there was an earlier structure on the site.  There seem to be post holes in the ground for an earlier, wooden chapel.  Time Team is still searching for dating evidence.

The logistics of the site provided an interesting challenge for the Time Team.  The tides limited the amount of time the Time Team could spend on the island.  Even the Royal Navy got involved with this dig looking for rocks and wrecks.  The story of the chapel was fascinating and furthered the story of Cornwall.  This would be an episode for independent study students and a filler for a substitute teacher.

Good morning!  We are doing a throwback for today’s Time Team.  Today the Time Team are exploring a manmade island in the middle of a lake.  This episode is older and from an early season.  They are still working out the kinks.  Tony Robinson has hair in this episode!

A king wanted to demonstrate his power and he built an island in the middle of the lake.  Then he put a palace on the island.  The Time Team puts together a game plan to explore the island.  The island had been excavated before and so the team has a good head start on the excavation.  The Time Team will also be creating a replica of a log boat that was found.

This island was the first of its type discovered outside of Scotland and Ireland.  One of the locals wrote a letter to Time Team wanting to know more about the island.  The island and the surrounding area are going to be examined by geophysics.  Tony and Robin talk about the island and wonder who would have made the island.  Robin explains that these types of manmade islands are typical to Ireland, but not to Wales.  Robin further explains more about the island as well as what it was used for.

The Time Team starts with a small trench near the riding school.  Mick and Tony go up in a helicopter to examine the landscape from the air.  Mick discusses what they are looking at it and why it would be a good place to examine it.  Tony questions him about what they would find.  Mick replies answers they would be looking for defense structures and if they are lucky they will find structures.

Mick and Tony then fly over the island.  Tony was surprised to see that it was so small.  Mick suggests that the island was bigger.  He also talks about different scales would be too different people.  Where right now, the Island seems small, but back in the Dark Ages the island would have been impressive.  Phil and a team of recreators start working on a boat.  They use a large log to recreate the boat.  The team will work together in shifts to finish the boat in time.  They are using modern tools to help speed up the process.

Victor Ambrus, the illustrator uses the remains of the palisades to create an illustration of what the palisades would have looked like.  The timber is well preserved.  The Time Team will have to do a silt search around the island.  The field the geophysics team examined is showing no evidence of settlement.  It is not a very good start for Time Team.  They will then examine the other field.  Mick had seen some interesting crop marks in the field.

Tony kicks off the next day discussing the Dark Ages.  He talks about the history of the island why there is nothing the remains of the palisade.  One version says it all hinges on the assassination of an abbot.  Alfred the Great’s daughter sent troops to avenge the death.  Other versions say that Alfred the Great’s daughter wanted to dominate the Welsh Kingdom and sent in troops anyway.  The Time Team then goes and examines the land around the lake.  The Lake was bigger in the past. 

Mick and Carenza walk the field and pick up artifacts to examine.  They find one piece of flint.  It shows evidence of activity and settlement in the region.  Will the Time Team find additional evidence of settlement?  Will the boat that they made float?  Or will is it sink like the Titanic?  You can continue to learn more by watching this episode on YouTube.

This episode would be a good episode to show an independent study student.