Time Team Day 30 - Bawsey St. James, Norfolk

Good morning, we are continuing to wrap up October of the Time Team with an episode from season six.  The Time Team finds itself in Bawesey St. James, Norfolk.
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The Time Team is investigating a deserted church.  However, locals are finding metal dating back to the Iron Age.  Was this site a settlement?  The Time Team is broadcasting the dig live.  The site they are investigating is huge and has never been properly investigated.  A large number of finds have been found by the locals hinting at a large settlement.  So what was this site?  What will happen during the live show? 

Aerial photographs show that something is going on with the site.  The finds have come from a variety of periods: from the Iron Age to the Norman Age.  There was one excavation at the remains of the Norman Church during the 1930s but there were no records kept.  Trench One goes in on a boundary that shows up in the aerial photograph.  If there was dating evidence, Carenza will find it.

Neil opens up trench two at the church.  The church has a large tower which hints at its importance.  In fact, there were some high-status finds found earlier that may hint at a monastery on the site.  Stewart is out and about looking at the landscape.  Geophysics is also at work and had to adjust their equipment to read through the sandy soil.  There is an army of field walkers and metal detectorists on the site.

Mick and Tony talk about Mick’s attitude towards metal detectorists.  Mick loathed them because they would rob history.  However, it is a small number of metal detectorists do this.  Normally, they work with historians and archeologists to provide them with additional finds and information about the site.  The field walkers find their first find: a silver Saxon coin.  The coin would not have been worth much and would have been the equivalent of a penny.  A second coin from the Anglo-Saxon period is found, this coin would have been more valuable.  Both coins are very rare finds and place at the site during the Saxon period.

Carenza is making good progress on trench one.  There is a ditch on the site and Carenza feels like it comes from the Iron Age.  Trench Two yields a body.  Is this a Christian burial on the site?  On the other side of Trench Two, there is something interesting on the ground.  The Time Team also recreated a Saxon village on the site and will be recreating a piece of Saxon jewelry.

Geophysics throws the Time Team another target.  It looks like there was an entrance to the church area or a harbor.  The site is sitting above a marsh.  Trench three goes in.  Is it some sort of entranceway?  Phil is supervising this weekend because of an injury.  Will Phil keep himself from digging in the trench?  The skull was found in medieval and was buried during that period.  In fact, they are finding a glazed medieval floor.  A shattered piece of tile is found with the creators’ name on it.  Trench two is shut down and the archeologists put their skills elsewhere.  Trench Four goes in because it is becoming clear there was activity on the site.

What was this site?  Why were there so many finds? What was going on at the site?  How many more trenches will be opened up?  Will the Time Team find the rest of the boundary?  Tune into the rest of this Time Team to find out more!

This one would be a Time Team for research purposes and not to show in the classroom.