Accessible Archeology (Time Team)

Member Name: Karon

Product:	Time Team
Date:	22/01/01 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fascinating

Disadvantages: three days not always long enough

I have watched Time Team right from the beginning. It as excellent programme, allowing the difficult and somtimes labourious process of aracheology to be accessible and interesting to the general public. All of the experts are enthusiastic, knowledgable and also easy to understand, but it is Tony Robinson who really makes the programme work with his questions and quick conversion of archeologist jargon into plain english.

Time Team travels the width and breadth of the British isles (and beyond) searching out interesting sites from the Neolithic period through to the 2nd World War. they have three days to complete their task and then must leave the site whether the excavation is complete or not.

perhaps the most memorable Time team aired last night ( 21/01/01) when the teeam went to investigate what appeared to be an extremely rich site in Wales. There were Norman Towers, Neolithic Burial sites, Standing Stones and evidence of a celtic Head Cult and a Holy Spring. Something though was wrong, and Time Team's suspicions were aroused - with so many historical sites in one small area of farmland, why had it never been recorded previously?

They set to work as normal, working to their principles and gradually piece by piece began to dismantle the whole history of the site. The "Neolithic" burial site had its stones not dug in deep enough and modern pottery was in the stone holes. The "Norman" Tower had crucial stones laid upside down and 19th century mortar used to hold the walls together. The STanding stone was loose and would not have withstood thousands of years of weather.

Then the Team discovered a La Tene sword in the mud. La Tene is a specific period in Celtic History when highly decorated and stylised products were made - La Tene the names comes from a highly significant site in Switzerland where a large number of objects including swords were discovered. The Team were instantly suspicious as no
sword of this type had ever been found in Wales. They were even more sceptical when a piece of barbed wire ran *underneath* the sword. They checked out the barbed wire - it was produced in the last 20 years and ran under some pipes for water for the house which had been laid in 1992 - so the sword had been in the ground in Wales for less than 8 years.

Tony Robinson was left facing the land owners asking some difficult questions as to why such valuable artefacts were reburied and potentially left to rot. A satisfactory answer was never given, but it was supposed that it may have been illegal trade in archeology and the criminals (whoever they were) wanted Time team to authenticate the goods.

Whoever did it, knew enough about history ann artefacts to know what was worth money, and yet knew nothing about making the site look authentic. Very curious. And very fascinating.

If you have never seen Time team I would highly recommend it, and particularly this episode. You'll be talking about it for weeks!

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