Fans of Time Team Archaeology

19/12/2023

Oldest known ship burial predates the Vikings.

Rivets found at the site hint that the burial mound once housed a pre-Viking ship.

18/12/2023

Archaeology stories a bit thin on the ground this time of year so a funny for you!

16/12/2023

Here’s one from the archives I wonder what Cassie was saying to Phil?

Thanks to Simon Fuller for the photo.

13/12/2023

New Digging for Britain series coming soon to the UK January 2nd.

An imperial Roman bathhouse, lost treasures of medieval pilgrims and a mountain fortress.

12/12/2023

New find could change what we know about the fall of the Roman Empire.

New finds in central Italy suggest ordinary Roman towns were still 'thriving' in the 3rd century - when the Empire's power was crumbling.

11/12/2023

I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing Mr Geo Phys himself John Gater a very happy birthday. Treat yourself to a pint 🍺 John 😉

10/12/2023

An interesring article on the popularity of community archaeology digs in the UK.

Volunteers wielding trowels in Greenwich are among many exploring sites as community digs boom across the UK

09/12/2023

Here’s a lovely photo for no other reason than it’s very festive it’s Stokesay Castle in Shropshire open at weekends during December.

06/12/2023

A 15-year excavation has revealed the sophistication of 5th to 7th Century England, says historian.

02/12/2023

The Uncovering Roman Carlisle project is recognised for training work and for involving the public.

30/11/2023

Volunteer conservationists were able to find various artifacts from three different locations in Germany. Read to learn more.

30/11/2023

29/11/2023

Historic England is proud to be a partner of the Historic England category which celebrates our unique and incredible historic environment.

26/11/2023

Don’t miss out! Tomorrow at 11 am BBC Teach will broadcast a from Vindolanda Trust with Raksha Dave and Ben Shires. Pupils will turn detective and follow clues to uncover the identities of people who once lived at the famous port. 🔎
More info 👉 https://bbc.in/3tx4uWx

22/11/2023

Farmland near Sutton Hoo was once settlement of East Anglian kings

20/11/2023

A penny was "a lot of money", as a labourer earned about one to two pennies a day, an expert says.

19/11/2023

Incredible tale of Melville House where, over a 30-year period, pupils uncovered treasures of antiquity

18/11/2023

In a Cornish Field, Carl Thorpe, John Gater, Dani Wotton and metal detectorist! Taken 2011.

18/11/2023

Experts have found the monastery where Scotland's earliest surviving Gaelic writing came to life.

16/11/2023

A series of discoveries is revealing that Europe's first inhabitants settled in a remote and rugged corner of Granada some 1.4 million years ago.

15/11/2023

Discoveries suggest St Pancras workhouse that may have inspired work of Charles Dickens was intended to be place of comfort

07/11/2023

Bronze coins dating from fourth century are in exceptional state of preservation, Italy’s culture ministry says

06/11/2023

The treasure has attracted multiple claims of ownership, but the Colombian president has said the recovery of the shipwreck is a "priority" before the end of his term in office.

04/11/2023

Richard Osgood and Mr Harding book signing at the CBA Wessex conference today!!

04/11/2023

Podcast done by Time Team’s excellent Lawrence and Derek with presenter extraordinaire Gus!

Today is the day! We have just hit go on the first of our new series of interviews for Season 6! To kick us off our first chat is with Gus Casely-Hayford, Director of the V&A East, and all round incredible person. We gain an insight into the motivation and application that has lead him to have such an incredible career in ruins. Stay tuned for more! https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-3ydcm-14eb3ff (thanks to for use of this photo)

03/11/2023

Back garden archaeology!

An ancient Roman road that is 2,000 years old has been found in a garden in Stirling

02/11/2023

An ‘exceptional’ sarcophagus dating back to the second century was found buried in the French city of Reim.

01/11/2023

Detectorist Phil Craddock found the rare silver treasure at Courteenhall in Northamptonshire.

30/10/2023

1 million views in a month wow that’s fantastic and if you haven’t watched it yet what are you waiting for? 😂

25/10/2023

“Oow arrr, what ya got there then?” Name that trench, clue it’s Roman and East Anglia!

24/10/2023

Archaeologists say pottery and stone tools have also been found at the site in Orkney.

21/10/2023

Tony on his Time Team return.

AFTER a “real good spring cleaning,” Time Team has returned, as has its beloved host, Sir Tony Robinson. For two decades, archaeological fans of all ages tuned in to the Channel 4 stapl…

19/10/2023

Coin found in farmer's field has re-written part of Britain's history.

A metal detectorist struck gold.

17/10/2023

One from the archives Time Team’s John Allan and Paul Blinkhorn assessing the finds Dunster 2015.

16/10/2023

These 5,000-year-old jars of wine found in the tomb of Queen Meret-Neith in Egypt have certainly had time to age

15/10/2023

Archaeologists conducting excavations in the town of Salon in Finland have uncovered a cemetery containing Crusader Era burials.

11/10/2023

Can you name the dig below?

Too difficult here’s another clue!

Thanks to my good friend Simon Fuller for the photo’s he’s the one sat by Phil in the photo.

09/10/2023

The coins were believed to have belonged to clan chief Alasdair Ruadh ‘Maclain’ MacDonald, who was a victim of Glencoe Massacre.

06/10/2023

Digging Band of Brothers

Here we go again, another unexpected call to arms! I’m sat at home and get a call, it’s my very good friend Penny Lock who says “are you sitting down”, as it happens I am. “Would you be interested in digging on a Time Team special involving Operation Nightingale”. Of course if the boss (the Mrs) gives me permission.

And bless her cotton socks, she said yes, so off to Wiltshire we went. We popped on to site which was surrounded by tents and the camper fans some of the team were stopping in, not us though, my camping days are over, we had accommodation booked. I met Richard Osgood of Operation Nightingale for the first time who was very welcoming and friendly and gave us an introduction to the site. It was great to see some of the other team members there too. Because the dig was over 9 days, not everyone could commit to that including me, so team members would be dropping in and out of the dig doing what they could.

Wednesday morning our first day digging. Chatting with Richard he introduced me to Kenny an ex army veteran who took part in the Operation Nightingale Time Team episode at Barrow Clump and has since gone on to become a professional archaeologist and a lovely chap to boot! He’ll make a great digging buddy, so I asked him to join me. We got assigned to the back garden of a bungalow, home to Iris and her husband. John Dymond curator of the local Museum introduced us to Iris it was her 89th birthday and she was pleased as punch to have Time Team digging in her back garden. Iris kept us supplied with tea and coffee it was quite warm so this was very welvome. Once we’d decided where to dig we broke ground and removed the turf. We had a few finds in the top two conrexts but nothing too exciting. The time flew by, various people popped in to see how we were getting and before we knew it was it was 4.30. We packed away the tools and headed over to the ‘show and tell’ that Richard Osgood did with the rest of the team everyday. There were British military veterans (vet’s), American vet’s and serving British and American military personnel as well as Time Team and Operation Nightingale. The evidence of Nissen huts were beginning to appear and lots of finds indicating a military presence on the site. I discovered things were a bit more relaxed with Richard in charge he had 9 days of digging as opposed to the manic 3 day Time Team digs I’m used too! The ethos of Op Nightingale is archaeology, well being and enjoyment which was great. We spent the evening with some of the team in the pub drinking, laughing and exchanging stories. A good first day.

Thursday

Back on site and John Dymond was on site again he told us he was friends with Phil Harding and he’d been to school with him many years ago. That was a nice link to Time Team it’s a small world. We headed off to our garden and a warm welcome from Iris and a nice ‘cuppa’ to keep us going. The finds were petering out to nothing. Kenny and I assumed we were down on the natural and I went to see if we should close the test pit down but when I got back Kenny said “can you see the faint outline of a feature” and yes I could see it. We decided to put a sondage in to see what we could find. Eventually we found a very rusty pipe associated with the pump house situated nearby and what looked like what was left of a large metal tin. Could be an old tin of paint. Once it was recorded and we did a piece to camera with John Gater who came over for a chat before he left the dig and headed home. He asked what colour the paint in the tin was? Rust colour I said lol, needless to say, it didn’t make the Final Cut! This test pit was now finished so it was closed down. Kenny packed away his tent, he was off to London to stand in the crowds and witness the coronation! I on the other hand, went to help Penny, with her test pit. I met Ken Cisson a larger than life US Army Veteran. He’d been brought over by Operation Nightgale to take part in the dig. I whacked out a couple of ‘spits’ with the mattock, we needed to get a move on. We were getting a lot of what we thought was charcoal, evidence maybe, of a fire. There was a semi circle of ‘charcoal’ in section too,
but time was flying by. It was time for another ‘show and tell’ and some great finds were coming out. A wheel, military ‘dog tags’, knives, all sorts really excellent stuff. The dig was progressing well. We went back to our pub in the village, washed and showered, then went to the Blue Boar Pub for dinner, exceptionally good it was too.

Friday

This was to be our last day. As I looked out of my bedroom window I sighed as it was typical Time Team weather, rain! After another wonderful full English breakfast at the Crown we headed over to site. We got to Penny’s test pit and the garden’s owners had put up a large gazebo which also covered our test pit- so rain wouldn’t stop play, hurrah! As we continued on with the test pit we found that the ‘charcoal’ was in-fact what was called tar paper. Which had been used in the Nissen huts as water proofing, great news, this was evidence of the camp. But we had a problem, under the tar paper there was a house brick in the side of the trench and were there any others? So after consulting Richard Osgood we decided to extend the test pit a little as long as the householders were ok with it. We dug out another 30cm. As we got further down a large piece of tar paper emerged so I gently worked around it and under it. Then around the house brick and a bottle started to emerge. We stopped digging and phoned Steve Shearn, cameraman to come and film proceedings. So we dug on, it couldn’t possibly be intact could it, it could, wow. We thought it was a beer bottle as it looked very dark in colour but that was because of the soil we could see through it. It turned out not only to be intact but it had liquid in it and the stopper was in the end- miraculous! A medicine bottle which proved the location of the First Aid/ recreation hut. What a fantastic feeling to find that bottle which then featured in that day’s episode of dig watch, just brilliant and in the Time Team special. So time was marching on and we needed to get the back garden ship shape, for the owners, as they were having a Coronation party the next day. One last show and tell, then off to the pub. We did and end of day scene pub sat outside the Blue Boar which was good fun. In the evening we went to the local working men’s club to help give them a financial boost with our custom. There were loads of us in there, it was nice to have a drink and a chat with more of the people on the dig, locals too.

Another brilliant Time Team was over for us at least. The dig was to go on for several more days yet. But before we went Mrs Dymond showed us around the Aldbourne Museum. It was small but packed with fascinating artefacts relating to the War and other historical periods associated with the village.

An account of the 506th and 101st arrival in the village from the Aldbourne Heritage Centre.

The ship docked on the 15th of September at Liverpool, and travelled south by train the next day to Ogbourne St. George, then they were carried for a way by truck, and marched the last mile and a half, by torchlight – it was already dark and Blackout was in force. It was a frosty night. Account found through Aldbourne Heritage Centre https://aldbourneheritage.org.uk/village-history/band-brothers-506th-parachute-infantry-regiment-101st-airborne

Ivan Clowsley