Time Team Day 28 - Return to Turkdean

Good morning!  We are going back to Turkdean in this episode.  I had shared the Turkdean site in an earlier post before I decided to do Thirty-One Days of the Time Team.  The Time Team came back to the site a year later to continue their excavation. 
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The Time Team is back at Turkdean.  When they originally visited Turkdean, they found a range of buildings.  However, geophysics threw everyone for a loop and found more buildings on the site.  Eighteen months later, the Time Team is back to excavate this new site on Turkdean.  The ground showed a network of rooms that were strung together.  Trench after trench got bigger and bigger during the original dig.  What will the Time Team find out about the new site?

The finds at Turkdean were amazing during the original dig.  The Time Team came back one later to continue their excavation at Turkdean.  The geophysics discovered a new site on the villa site but Time Team could not dig it the last time.  This time they are back and ready to dig the new site.  There seems to be a building on the site and an industrial site in the area as well.

John Gater did some additional geophysics of the site and had some new results to share with the team.  What is going on at this site?  Mick decides to put in two trenches.  One trench goes into a building area and the second goes into the industrial site.  Last year, they discovered walls within inches of the surface.  What will happen this year?  Trench One goes in and immediately walls are discovered.

Tony catches up with Mark, one of the historians on the site.  Last year Mark talked about this site being a ritual site, where pilgrims would come to worship.  There were hints of springs on the site that carried water down to the larger villa complex.  If Mark is right, then the site is more complex than initially thought.  IT could be composed of industrial buildings as well as little shrines. 

A Roman coin is discovered in the new area which helps date the site.  This coin proves that this second site was around when the villa was around.  In Trench One a nice wall is discovered.  Mick is so excited that he has a shovel in hand.  This building was used for the storage of grains or animals.  Five Roman coins were discovered on the site as well and the coin expert nearly looses their coin.  This coin was a commemorative coin that celebrated the establishment of Constantinople as the capital of the Roman Empire.

John Gater heads back to a site that could possibly be a kiln.  The results are confusing so trench number three goes into the site.  Tony catches up with a Roman Historian to learn more about why the villa would have been built on the site.  Who would have built such a villa?  Last year the Time Team discovered some people living high in that area.  So, Tony talks with a Roman reenactor.  He was dressed as a wealthy Roman.  Carenza joins up with the pair also dressed as a Roman woman.

Phil continues to work on the barn site; however, his finds are pointing to something other than a barn.  He is finding mosaic pieces and pottery shards.  The material discovered is proving to be domestic in nature, something that would not be found in a barn.  So, is the site is a barn?  Or is it something else?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

This would be one episode I would show in a classroom.  In fact, I would recommend you show the first episode of Turkdean and then follow it up with this episode.  This would provide good discussion material on the differences between the dig a year apart.