Time Team Day 31 - The Giant's Grave

Good morning!  Today is the last day of the Thirty-One Days of the Time Team.  This time I am going to be doing an episode from series ten.  This episode comes from the Unearth History – Archeology YouTube Channel.  Today the Time Team is heading to the Shetland Islands to learn more about the Vikings.  This episode is called the Giant’s Grave.  The run time for this episode is 48:37.

On the island of Fetlar, a remote Shetland Island, there is a local legend surrounding the “Giant’s Grave.”  The Time Team dives into this legend.  As they investigate, the Time Team discovers Viking Pottery in a local garden.  This leads to a potentially legendary discovery that may change the history of Fetlar.  What was this discovery?  Is there a Viking Boat burial in this area?  What else will the Time Team find in three days?

Fetlar is the easternmost of the Shetland Islands.  There are two sites on this site: a local garden and the Giant’s Grave.  Val Turner talks about what is known about the Vikings in the Shetland Islands.  However, there was little evidence that the Vikings were in Fetlar.  Trench one goes into the garden of Nick Boxall, he was the one who made the initial discovery about the Vikings.  He had been digging a vegetable patch when he made the discovery.  Playground equipment is removed and Tony says that they will take Nick at his word and they take apart the garden.

Geophysics works in the garden.  In the meantime, attention is turned to the giant’s grave.  Boat burials are very rare so the Time Team will take its time to do this dig.  Two small trenches are opened in the mound.  However, Mick is not convinced that this is a boat burial.  Tony points out that the mound is not shaped like the boat graves in Scandinavia.  Tony and Mick look over the rivets that were discovered earlier.  These rivets could have come off a shipwreck.  So the Time Team will have to allay his fears.  Trench One is turning up empty however in Trench Two, Phil is getting excited.  Phil is finding more rivets.  There are some rivets attached to the wood.  However, it does not prove that this is a Viking boat burial.  Do these rivets have an order or are they scattered like they were tossed away?  The discovered rivets are plotted on a computer to see if they are in a line.  Will Mick’s pessimism turn out to be justified?

Tony then talks about the Vikings' arrival and why they would come to Shetland.  The land would have been desolate at the time.  It would have been bleak.  What would have been the attraction for the Vikings?

Back in Nick’s Garden, there is plenty of noise to be found.  However, the trench the Time Team put in was huge.  There was a large burnt patch in the middle of the trench.  Was this a longhouse with a hearth in the center of the house?  There was a Viking pot found on the site.  There were additional Viking finds, made from the local soapstone.  Phil tries to carve the local soapstone with mixed results.  Eventually, the trench is extended further in hopes of locating a wall.

Mick goes and catches up with Phil on the boat trench and they have a good debate on what is being revealed about this trench.  Eventually Mick has Phil expand the trench and Mick goes off to the back garden where there is stonework discovered.  There is a lot of progress made by the Time Team on Day One.  Will the Time Team find a boat burial on this island?  Will the Time Team be able to keep Mick’s pessimism at bay?  What will the Time Team find in the garden trench?  What will the Time Team learn about the Vikings in Shetland?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

I love Uncle Mick’s pessimism throughout the episode about the boat burial.  Phil was also particularly funny during this episode too and I liked to see him in his element carving up the soapstone.  This would be a good episode to show to a history class.