Good morning, we are nearly there with our Thirty-One days of the Time Team, and this time we are heading to Governor’s Green in Portsmouth.
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Portsmouth’s History as a seaport stretches into medieval times.  The Time Team will look for the history of Portsmouth, especially a hospital that was on the site.  The patch of green has seen a lot of action over the years.  A Tudor Mansion was built on the site.  During World War II bombs were dropped on the site.  Will the Time Team be able to discover the medieval history of the site?  Will they be able to discover this history without the bomb squad?

Portsmouth has the best deep port in England and is important to the defense of Britain.  Henry VIII fortified the harbor.  The site sits in one of the last remaining fortifications.  Tony catches up with the local historian to talk about the old medieval hospital and the history of the site.  The Chapel was built in 1212, eventually becoming part of a Tudor mansion.  Then the armed forces used the chapel for their services until World War II came and the chapel was bombed.  This is the first time that the site will be dug.

A history of the area was published in the Victorian era and included a list of the buildings on the site.  Can the Time Team trust this source?  While geophysics does its thing on the site, Stewart and a geography professor are looking at maps of the site, overlaying the Tudor Maps with modern maps of Portsmouth to determine how accurate they are.  A map from 1584 shows a detailed map of the hospital.  Armed with this map, Stewart will plot the location of the old medieval road to determine where the hospital was.  How accurate are these old maps?  These maps are almost too good to be true for the Time Team.

Tony then talks with Helen Geake and Carole Rawcliffe talk about the history of the hospital.  The hospital was dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors.  The hospital was built by the Bishop of Winchester.  He was the most powerful man in England, and while King John was away in 1214, he ruled England.  The Bishop of Winchester established the hospital to look after the poor and the sick.  Carole is thrilled with the possibility of learning more about the history of the site because a loft of the records about it was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The site potentially has the oldest stone buildings in Portsmouth.  After John Gater gets his results back and a large trench one goes in.  However, it immediately reveals a large modern concrete surface.  They will have to get beneath the concrete to find more evidence.  Trench two also goes in and there is evidence of a medieval building. 

Mick and Carole talk with Tony about the chapel building.  In Medieval Times the chapel would have been used for the hospital.  The people would have been able to watch mass and be taken care of by laypeople.  The impression would have been you were in a church where people were laying on the side.  The dig is off to a good start!  What will the Time Team discover about the chapel and the hospital?  Will the bomb squad have to be called in?  Tune into this episode to find out more about this chapel and hospital!

There is a fun little thing about this episode: Victor Ambrus the artist sneaked a drawing of Phil, Tony, and Mick in his artwork.  This would be an episode to show for a history fun day and for research.

Thirty One Days of Time Team Continues with an exploration of Treguk Castle.  What will the Time Team discover about this castle?
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Tregruk Castle is one of the biggest castles in Britain.  It is also the most mysterious castle in Britain. Why was this castle so big?  There are no buildings in the castle.  It is found in the Welsh marshes and was built to keep the Welsh in check.  The owner of the castle wants to learn more about the castle.  He had worked on clearing the forest in the castle and it changed the atmosphere of the site.  What will the Time Team find out about the castle?

The inner bit of the castle is devoid of buildings.  What was going on at the castle?  Why was the castle devoid of buildings?  There should have been bakehouses, private quarters, even a great hall in the castle wall.  Geophysics will have a problem with the tree roots.  However, Mick has trench one and trench two put in at the gatehouse.  Mick points out that the gatehouse is a good place to start off the dig because people drop things in gatehouses.

Tony catches up with Mick in the garderobe, where people went to the bathroom.  This will be another place to dig for the Time Team.  People drop things down the toilet.  This will provide dating evidence for when the castle was occupied.  Another trench goes in at the garderobe.  Helen Geake catches up with a Welsh Historian to discuss the castle and the family who built this castle.

Phil discovers a clay pipe in the trench and he is one happy archeologist.  This is dateable evidence for the Time Team.  Phil believes that this hints at a later floor level and that the earlier floor was above that level.  When the owners removed the drawbridge, then the hole was dug to allow people into the castle.  In the meantime, Stewart studies the landscape and learns more about how the castle was defended.

Tony then catches up with the site director to lay out what the castle would have looked like.  The space that needed to be filled was massive.  John Gater and his crew continue to geophysics and survey the site to determine the full scale of the interior of the castle.  However, John is running into problems with the tree roots.  Stewart reports back to Mick and the castle owner talks about the earthworks he discovered that could date back to the English Civil War.  Was this castle used during the English Civil War?  How much more of the castle was changed during the English Civil War?

Phil continues to discover more modifications to the gatehouse.  On the other side of the gatehouse, the Time Team is starting to make finds.

At the end of day one, a trench goes into the castle.  This trench is to test the geophysics of the site.  Tony is relieved to be making progress on the site.  Mick talks about the gatehouse and how it may not be the main entrance to the castle.  Its placement is unusual for Mick because it would have been difficult to bring in supplies.

Who built this castle?  Why was this castle built?  Who lived in this castle?  Why did the buildings disappear?  What was going on inside the castle?  Has the Time Team bitten off more than they can chew?  Tune into this episode to find out more about the mysterious Tregruk Castle.

This episode would be an excellent one to show in a middle school history class when the students are studying castles as well as a high school history class.

Good morning, we will continue with our Thirty-One Days of the Time Team continues with a trip to Hooke Court.  The building is now used as a school.
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The Time Team is investigating a school that was built in the Middle Ages.  It is currently used as a school and the teachers would love to tell their students about their school.  Time Team has three days to find out more about their school.  The Hooke Court School was built on a ridge of high ground and would have been good for occupation.  The Time Team has an excellent area to work with.  What will the Time Team find out about the school? 

Geophysics is working on the site immediately.  Tony learns more about the school archives.  There is plenty of names and evidence available that tells bits and pieces of the school.  However, none of this information is really concrete.  Was this building built during the Civil War?  An architectural historian does not believe so.  He sees traces of a Medieval building.  There are different styles of windows which further tells the story of Hooke School.  Perhaps this building was part of a Medieval manor house and was part of a surviving bit.

However, there could be 500 years of building in the ground.  The Doomsday Book records that there was a manor house on the site.  The Time Team talks with the retired deputy headmaster of the school.  He shows the Time Team photos of a demolished wing of the school.  The old wing of the school was part of the medieval manor house.  When the house was demolished, the remains were carted away.  The building was two floors and would not be considered a medieval hall.  Trench One goes to find out more about the medieval building that once stood there. 

The geophysics results come back and are showing some good results for the Time Team.  John Gater is thrilled with the results and carefully explains the results.  There is good evidence of walls and even a fireplace is shown in the results.  Legend tells the story that there was a fire during the English Civil War that destroyed much of the building.

It only takes seconds before the first finds are found.  There are pieces of roof found with nails remaining in them.  Tony catches up with Jonathan a historian who takes a look at the archives.  He talks about the owner of the houses and about the English Civil War.  Phil continues to make finds in Trench One, fining roof tiles, fine glasswork, and pottery dating back to the English Civil War.  Time Team is starting strong with the dig.  They found evidence of the building as well as evidence of a moat.

A second trench goes in and immediately a wall is discovered.  This wall is very different from what was originally found.  It is even different from what Phil has found.  So the trenches will have to be extended to see if these are two different buildings.  The Time Team will have to carefully unpick the different phases of building on the site.  What will Day Two and Day Three bring for the Time Team?  Will the Time Team locate the great hall?  What will the students learn about their school?  Tune into this episode of the Time Team to find out more!

This was a cool episode to watch and it was cool to see the students be involved with the dig.  They were even helping with geophysics on the site.  So this would be a good episode to show in class especially when the English Civil War is being covered.

Good morning!  Thirty-One Days of Time Team continues with a look at the history of Ffrith, Wales.  Time Team looks at mysterious bathhouse that might not be a bathhouse.

Back in the 1960s some local archeologists dug some trenches and discovered a series of walls, pot, and Roman coins.  Ffrith was the center of Roman occupation in Wales and for decades Roman finds have been discovered.  Did these archeologists find a Roman Bathhouse?  The Locals want the Time Team to dig the site again to see what is.  Is it a Roman bath?  Why is it there?  Time Team has three days to find out.

The Time Team will dig in the previous trenches.  Tony asks if it is good archeology to re-excavate the original trenches to see what was found.  The first step for the Time Team is to map out potential walls based on the original dig.  To the homeowner’s relief, there will be no digging under the greenhouse.  Trench one goes in in the back garden and a second trench will go in an area behind the fence next door.  The results indicate that there are hints of a curved wall underneath.

The second trench immediately reveals results: there is a stone wall.  The fence between the two gardens is taken down.  Mick and Tony meet up with John Gater and they look at older geophysics results.  The Time Team is turning their attention to a playing field.  It was a scheduled monument because of the Roman finds on the site.  The authorities have permitted them to dig it.  Geophysics will resurvey the area.

The earlier finds have been fantastic.  Some tiles were used to heat bathhouses and pottery found.  Time Team will look at these earlier finds to see what they can tell the Time Team.  Tony takes a look at some pieces from Roman armor and beads.  There were also wall plaster and hairpins found.  These are tantalizing hints at what the building was.

On day one the skies open up and rain starts.  The dig continues, while the other Time Team members look at archival materials and draw up pan interpretation as to what the bathhouse looks like.  Trench number three goes in, and stones are found.  What were these stones?  The stones are unshaped.  Will the third trench yield any finds, continue to watch this episode to find out.

Mick and Tony go back to Trench One and Trench Two for a catch-up.  There were bits of stone and modern rubbish.  Phil is on top of the curved wall, and he shows a picture of the site in the 1960s.  The trench will be expanded, and this expansion should yield some new finds.  Was this site Roman?  Tony catches up with Historian David Mason to learn more about the Roman occupation of Ffrith.

Time Team does a catch-up in the pub.  The lack of finds is worrying Tony.  In the larger trench in the field, there will be an inspection trench dug to see if it is worth digging.  Tony then asks to fill about the curved wall.  Phil teases Tony about it not being a curved wall.  Is the wall straight, curved, or squiggly?  Tune into the rest of the Time Team to find more about the wall.  Is the Time Team going to discover a bathhouse?  Or are they just going to discover a fenced-in field?
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This was a funnier Time Team because of how everyone at the start was mistaken about the site is a bathhouse.  Phil was hysterical teasing Tony throughout the episode.  This would be one episode to show in a history classroom for a fun day.

We are continuing with our fall edition of Thirty-One Days of Time Team with a flashback to season two.
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Why is there a pagan figure buried in a church?  Time Team is on the case!  They are in the heart of the Wiltshire countryside and the Time Team is here to solve a riddle.  There were no known Roman Rules in the area, except for this figure in a church.  Victor Ambrus sketches it while Tony reads an explanation for the statue.  Why is this statue on the wall?  Was this the site of an earlier pagan settlement?  You do not want to miss this episode of the Time Team.

The Time Team begins taking core samples of the ground surrounding the church and will do geophysics of the site.  Will there be walls found on the site?  Did the Romans build something on an earlier site?  Was this site considered a holy site to the pagan people?  Was this a sacred spring?  There could be years of ritual history buried in the pond? 

The Time Team heads to the archives.  Carenza discovers that there was a possible Roman site in the village and immediately tells Tony the good news.  Maybe the Time Team will have to search to a field outside the village.  In the field, there were Roman tiles discovered.  Will the Time Team be on the verge of discovering a temple?  Tony catches up with Robin and Victor to explore the possibilities of what this temple looked like.

One local farm discovered Roman remains while plowing.  He meets up with Carenza to field walk.  He would like to know more in order to not damage any additional finds.  Carenza is convinced that there is something in the field and rushes to get the geophysics team.  They have to finish up with the church before they go to the field.  Tony and Robin catch up and examine maps of the field over the decades.  Robin wants to come up with a master plan of the area to hand over to future generations.  The geophysics team starts working in the field.

Mick and Tony then meet up with an expert in Roman Statues to see what the statue was that is embedded in a church wall.  Did this statue come from a temple?  Or was this statue found in a household?  Does this seem to change things for the Time Team?  The Geophysics results on the field are showing promise.  There was something in the field.  So, the Time Team view the evidence that was found by the farmers.  Masonry, wall plaster, roofing tiles, and coins were discovered in the field.

The geophysics team will work late into the night to map the field.  The Time Team gathers and discusses what was found.  Mick believes that there is a villa on the site.  Day Two kicks off with the geophysics results.  This is the moment of truth for the Time Team and the results are good.  There is evidence of ditches and squares hinting at a massive complex underneath.  It is clear that something is in the field.  More results are coming in and it looks like there was a potential villa on the site.  It would the first villa found in the area.  The Time Team now faces some challenges before they start to dig.  Will Time Team find a villa in the ground?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out!

This would be an excellent episode to show for a history class.  There was a good debate on whether or not they should dig the site because of the geophysics results which could lead to some good discussions about archeology. 

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.”