Digging with the Time Team

What is archaeology alongside a film crew like? Matthew Symonds found out.

 There is something different about a Time Team dig. Excavations normally have an air of calm, with people quietly troweling, sectioning features or wrestling with drawing frames. The hustle and bustle comes at tea time, when diggers compete for the best biscuits and plot their evening’s entertainment. Not so with Time Team. Visitors are announced with a burst of walkie-talkie static, before being ushered onto a scene of intense activity. A fleet of buggies, land rovers and minibuses ferry archaeologists, crew and cameras around, while JCB drivers await the order to strip the topsoil from a new trench. Up above, cameras mounted on cranes capture arcing shots of the trenches. And yet the archaeology underway at the eye of this storm is instantly recognisable.

I first came across Time Team as an impressionable 15 year old, when the series made me realise that archaeology was not just something you read about in books. It was something you could go out and do. It also captured the excitement of a subject where success depends on research and preparation going hand in hand with good fortune. The Time Team approach to archaeology certainly struck a chord, and the programme has been going strong since 1994. Last summer I was invited to spend a day digging with them at Kenfig, in Southern Wales. This was to be the last episode recorded in season 19, and despite approaching the end of a long shoot the team were in good spirits, and still enthusing about the previous site where they had to zip-wire onto an island.

 Kings of the Castle

Kenfig is a Medieval site in the Vale of Glamorgan. In the 1140s this was border territory, and a castle was founded on a low knoll overlooking the Cynfig River. This English enclave at Kenfig proved an affront to the Welsh, who repeatedly sacked the stronghold in the 12^th, 13^th and 14^th centuries. Despite this chequered track record, a town flourished in a defended enclosure beside the castle, spilling out beyond its fortifications. Ultimately it was not the Welsh but sand that did for the Medieval settlement. The dunes gradually overran the defences, until by 1665 only a single cottage remained. A detailed project design summarised all earlier work at this site, and explained how the research aims of the Time Team excavations fit into regional research frameworks.

Arriving on site for the second of the trademark three days I was met by Tim Taylor, Series Producer and unseen mastermind of Time Team. Despite not appearing on screen he is central to the show’s success, developing the original format and guiding events on the ground. Proud of the extent to which Time Team has permeated popular culture, Tim noted that large numbers of undergraduate students credit the show as their inspiration to study archaeology. He also pointed out that the team is essentially a survey unit, backing up John Gater’s magnificent geophysical surveys (see CA 252) with trial excavation.

And then it was on to the trial excavation. I was put in a trench with Raksha Dave, where geophysics predicted a road and building frontage. Previous experience has taught me that seemingly promising deserted Medieval villages can prove disappointing. This was different. The sand lifted away cleanly to reveal a hard metalled surface and rubble wall. Once the cameras were gone ranging poles and a planning board appeared as Naomi Hall from Wessex Archaeology tackled the recording work. Meanwhile, overhead more and more spectators were silhouetted against the skyline of a dune overlooking the site. Looking like a Zulu pastiche, they were armed with rugs and picnics and determined to enjoy the spectacle, no matter what the Welsh weather threw at them.

Lunch brought an opportunity to chat with the rest of the team, and a refreshing change from the cheese sandwiches that are usually an excavator’s lot. Matt Williams and Alex Langlands engaged in good-natured rivalry about who would win their afternoon showdown, when they were competing to fire flaming arrows. Afterwards a full meeting brought everyone up to date about progress across the site. A coin that had just been discovered in Phil Harding’s trench caused particular excitement. The assembled experts were quizzed on its likely significance, and a strategy developed on the spot.

The day ended with a trip to the incident room in a replica Medieval hall over the Prince of Wales pub. Here the regulars reflected on progress before the cameras. Partly scripted and partly adlibbed the director went for five takes, and it was fascinating to watch the scene evolve. As Tony Robinson found new ways to inject humour, the landlord of the Prince of Wales kept the Time Team tankards charged. ‘The archaeology is great’, Raksha chipped in as her contribution to the end of day scene. Yes it is.

Time Team: Series 19

1. Dig by Wire — 22 Jan, Gateholm, Pembrokeshire
2. A Village Affair — 29 Jan, Bitterley,Shropshire
3. The Drowned Town — 5 Feb, Dunwich,Suffolk
4. The First King of Racing — 12 Feb,Newmarket,Suffolk
5. Chapel of Secrets — 19 Feb, Beadnell, Co.Durham
6. A Copper Bottomed Dig -26 Feb,Swansea
7. The Only Earl is Essex — 4 March, Earls Colne, Essex
8. Secrets of the Dunes — 11 March, Kenfig, Bridgend
9. Rome’s Wild West — 18 March, Caerleon,Newport
10.  How to Lose a Castle — 25 March, Crewkerne,Somerset
11. King John’s LostPalace— 1^st April, Clipstone, Nottinghamshire
12. Time Team Guide to Burial — 8^th April, compilation
13. Time Team Greatest Discoveries — 15 April, compilation