8:54 I just love the fact that you have a young punk/all-redhaired Alice Roberts digging away with everybody else, now professor and famed television presenter, then still a PhD student ~ so cool the show has run for so long, that you can see future (present) experts in the field working their way up through the ranks... ⛏⏩🎓 🤓👍
When Tony was naming the diggers at the start of the episode and said “Alice” and pointed to the redhead, I wondered whether it was Alice Roberts, who would host her own series in the future. By the end, I know it was.
16:10 is Time Team highlight reel material… “FLINT!? I’ll ave a loook atsum flint!!” Makes me smile each time I rewind and watch Phil jump up from his 3 kneeling pads and gallop over to it… No shade intended bc I’m an archaeologist so I feel the knee pain, and my right arm/shoulder is twice as muscular (and regularly sore) than the left haha
In one of the other digs a metal detectorist (sp?) found a large gold coin, Phil didn't even flinch. But a piece of *flint*!? It's shovels down in a heartbeat!😄
TONY: How on EARTH rodents could possibly get into a stone-lined tomb buried a meter deep in soil remains to be seen.... EVERY PET RAT ON EARTH: Hold my yoggies.
Good thinking, but I don't believe there were any graves with burning, and even if there had been the evidence would have been disturbed by the graves . It would be hard to prove your hypothesis.
Interesting! Swedish Lapland here. Apparently here we stored the dead bodies during the deep freeze period until the ground had thawed, making it possible to do the digging. If one died in November it could be May or even June until the burial. If they lived very far from church, and most of them did live in the middle of no where, they usually kept it in the fire wood storage shed of the home. I know this because I used to have my office in an antique building, before used as stables and yes, also body storage for the whole community. My dear colleagues never tired of reminding me of this as I often worked late evenings by myself.
FANTASTIC ARCHEOLOGY I taught Archeology, and Ancient History in U.S. college. All of the other internet programs of history could learn so much from Tony & his team. Speculation is essential in Archeology. But Tony keeps saying "it is theory". PERFECT, by far the best on U-tube, from a professor of Archeology & Ancient history.
It depends on what part of the country. Generally, Northeastern people tended to live in dispersed smaller settlements, that wouldn’t necessarily leave a lot behind.
I love how Phil is as excited about finds as you would about eating something tasty. Like you tell him there’s a piece of flint and he jumps up like it’s free pizza
High energy, highly entertaining archeology. A team of experts dig with ferocity for truth and good nature for each other. Likable hosts/presenters and many mysteries in this well made historical, British series. As a new subscriber, I'm enjoying some Time Team binge-watching. LL 🇨🇦 🙋🏻♀️👍🏻
There is such a fine line between preserving the past and building for the future. Far to often the past never has a chance. I applaud the efforts of archaeologists to discover and try to preserve the heritage of all of mankind.
YET YOU WOULD THINK SUCH AN IMPORTANT FIND WITH SO MUCH MORE STILL THEY COULD DO WOULD DESERVE MORE THAN 3 DAYS BY THE OTHERS NOT TIMETIME WHO ARE OBVIOUSLY JUST PARTIMERS?
I was so worried that after three days they would NOT be able to get all and what remains they could get out before developers came and plowed over all of it... But they still, with all the time they spent on talking, to get them all out.. Great Job, and to Phil... Amazing!
It's scary to find out that after 4000 years plus of being untouched, that a development company can just come in and destroy it all in a few days. Something very wrong in that.
I was thinking about that and it occurred to me that with all the history there is in the British Isles, that if they tried to preserve everything, they'd never be able to build anything at all. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting archaeology there and people alive today need somewhere to live. It's still sad though.
I know, but when you live in a country with so much history you don't know where to draw the line. Spain has the same problem if not worse. I have family that lives in Toledo and everytime they restore a building or dig a trench something is found and everything is stopped. All that is found is property of the state and there is so much there just isn't money to escavate , restore and maintain what is found. Like you say, you cannot sacrifice the living for the past. It isnt easy to decide what to do.
What's scary too is the graves just because they're 4000 years old doesn't make it still okay to desecrate them they could have easily left them alone and made it a memorial garden park for the neighborhood preserving the past while allowing the future to be built
I guess you have too many people living on too small an area, had anyone found ancient ruins where buildings were going to be put up, here in Norway, that building project would have been killed so fast you wouldn't have understood what happened.
Where I live the archeological foundings block the site for at lesst 6 months. If the scientists are done sooner, that's good, but it's very easy to block projects for years if the site is reach in archeo materials.
Exactly my thought. We all would have been mesmerized and proud of it as we are of all the historic sights we have to current date in Scandinavia. Never in a million years a sight like this would have been given permission to exploit. To there defence i really don't believe they got just tree days, Time Team maybee, but not the archaeological survey.
What a wonderful episode, one of many. I like the prehistoric and Bronze Age episodes best because of the mystery that always remains. Thank you for sharing.
I'd just like to say, that i am continuously impressed by the skills of the front-end loader driver. I didn't realise there was a scientific grade of Driver. I do now.
"Phil needs to wrap up his skull before the stone is shifted." 🥺 Really strange the things that come out of people's mouths in a show like this. 😉 🤭 LL
In Dutch and German they’re called the same. In Germanic languages, the word (cist, Kist(e)) has been borrowed at an early stage from Latin, which borrowed the word kiste (chest, basket) from Greek. It probably has a PIE root, but could also have been passed down from a Semitic language. I just love etymology :)
@@hansc8433 I share your love of etymology. The "kist" used for "chest" goes way back in early English too. In archeology kist means a box made of 6 slabs of stone--four sides a top and a bottom..
I'm wondering if the middle aged man was perhaps someone with a child-like personality? Perhaps making it a burial site for essentially children? Just a thought. I also like the idea that someone else in the comments suggested, the Children might be the grave goods themselves. Another possibility to explain the few grave goods, is maybe the families did not have much to leave with the bodies. If the middle aged man was actually a man with stunted cognitive growth then it might explain the lack of items, maybe he really didn't have much or anything to be left with, especially not something long lasting?
I was just thinking about the stone with the groove; What about a stone used to smooth and grind down somewhat round things into round things, say a stick to make an arrow shaft. It would be carried in a pouch on your body because it would be hard to find another of the right shape and size.
I'll add to the group of comments that express astonishment at the power of the UK's building companies. I guess Brits are running out of room and that's that - the houses are going up! I can tell you that in Southern California, if there's even a WHIFF of tribal significance attached to the land - let alone burial grounds! - the local developer will scurry elsewhere ... but of course, they won't be surprised anyway because they'd have spent millions on archaeological and environmental studies to be reviewed by the State.
With stones on top of the graves was the area more moist back in the day? In Louisiana, where water tables are not far down, they put cement coverings or rocks on them to keep the caskets from coming up.
I just realized, after enjoying these videos for a few months now, that I haven't subscribed to this wonderful channel. Well that's a done deal! Thanks and cheers to the Time Team!!!
Daniel Scherer The Earth is OLD and full of history. The place you are currently living in has history underneath it. So, should YOU be deprived of living space because of previous history? Give me a break.
@@r.blakehole932 I mean, to be fair right now the US has some 17 million vacant homes so building more isn't needed. The UK has alot less I'll admit, but at 216,000 homes vacant they still aren't hurting for living space, in fact 70% of Brits live inside urban areas (cities) so building even more homes in the countryside seem's' like a waste
It would be interesting to see if they were closely related. If the man was a Grandfather to the children, it could make sense. Perhaps he was there to protect and take care of the children in the afterlife? The people who made these graves obviously had a big enough community to carry these heavy stones. It's a wonderful gravesite.
These sites are all over Scotland, and it would be financially impossible to excavate all of them randomly. Unfortunately, the decision to investigate comes about when a site is threatened. In Florida, a developer just pays off the right people and continues with building wherever they want, regardless of human burials, endangered species or ruining the coastline. Even if they get caught (rarely), they just pay the fines and keep working, like we need another condo or golf course. At least Scotland gives them some time to look for bodies.
@@Objective-Observer They said that the land was going to be developed, and made it sound as if the bulldozers were going to roll on the 4th day. But of course in the epilogue it's clear that there were follow-up excavations, so that wasn't the case.
@@ariochiv well dirty word, I thought I posted my answer, and alas... Over the years, Time Team explained that ALL building projects must have an archeological assessment before they even get planning permission. and NO, if something truly amazing is found, they cannot break ground until the discovery is properly investigated, recorded, and any valuable artifacts removed for study and storage. Keep watching, you will find the episode where Time Team came to the rescue of an individual land owner who wanted to remove some derelict homes/modern shacks, and then add on to the one he was living in. The local counsel discovered the homes were originally built on top of a Celtic burial ground. The building permission process took years; the expense bankrupted him, destroyed his marriage, and he was hoping the Time Team could at least determine the extent of the burial ground, so he could remove rubbish and just sell the land. Why yes, he couldn't even sell the land until the Archeological assessment had finished the entire site. Yes, it was Time Team to the rescue.
@John Signs There is a huge difference between the US history and that of England. The cliche is: you can't put a shovel into English soil without finding some important archeology. They found an English King buried under a parking lot, only a couple of years ago. I watch the YT channels for several Engilsh Mudlarkers- people who walk the river shorlines at low tide and look for historic items. Even with that, they must have a license, and any major historic object they find, must be recorded with an archeological authority. They have beaches still littered with Roman Pottery. 2000 year old pottery scattered all over the beach, and often enough, they find bronze age pottery, on the beach. We don't have that much 'modern' history [2000 years old or less]; and our ancient history is almost eroded to the point it is all but gone, or it's fossilized prehistoric creatures. That is the one distinction America has over England: our ancestors had not destroyed all the fosslilzed bones of the dinosaurs, and we have more of them. The indigenous tribes of North America were mostly nomads; they built no lasting structures; they left no trace upon the land. One good thunderstorm in Tornado Alley and their structures were destroyed, With them built of wood, mud and grass, those don't survive, so there is no 'site' to protect. In England, an arrowhead is pre-historic; here in the States, that same arrow head could be from a few hundred to a few thousand years old, because the American societies stagnated. Those few tribes that did build permanent structures, their remaining sites are protected. To this day, there is no evidence to detail why those permanent sites were abandoned. This isn't a matter of Americans don't care about history; we don't have the wealth of history that needs to be protected.
They just toss the “rubbish” stones in the spoil heap. Those stones were last touched by a bronze aged person. They were selected and placed in a purposeful way. Ugh, I want one. 😂
It doesn't present any archaeological value. Especially in modern context where these are dime a dozen. It's the contents of the grave (and the recorded knowledge, which isn't shown in the show much outside the occasional grid square array you can see in some episodes) that are of value.
I'm glad I found tine team randomly about a month or so ago. Amazing binge worthy content to dig up and discover. Plus, it's a real pleasure not to watch staged interactions and/or discoveries. Legit.
@@tomthx5804 A psycho who happens to have a Ph.D. in paleo-pathology as well as being a biological anthropologist, and a biologist. She is also a talented TV presenter and her documetaries are well worth watching. And what do you look like?
@Jimmy L Needham I don’t think you can use the term “stereotype” when you are talking about one man and one character, that was played by that one man.
The small grooved stone looks like something you'd use to smooth the edge of tanned leather. Also, the larger stones with a cup-like depression carved in look like oil lamps: you'd put oil or tallow and a wick of some kind in the depression and it would burn like a candle. Possibly when the body was laid to rest, the lamp was lit during the interment. Just some thoughts.
Yes! I recognised her! Those red braids made her look like a character from a child tv show in the 1970's: "Fifi Brindacier" ( or Pippi Långstrump) from a Swedish children's book!
Naw, the reason that one guy got such a huge stone grave marker was that he was such a bastard that people were worried that he would get kicked out of the afterlife and wake up again so they enclosed him in stone, left no tools with him and placed a great big heavy stone on top. :)
I would like to imagine a family plot, with tragic early deaths of children lovingly laid to rest by a father and mother who later wanted to be buried among their children. It seems archeologists don’t immediately assume children were as cherished then as now. The boy with the jet bead may have been the first born son. How devastating to lose so many children. And young children even today pick up interesting bits of stone and shell and carry them around... native American people had medicine pouches with odd totems...bits of bone,feathers, stones, etc. in them. Perhaps Bronze Age people did the same. Or Perhaps it was like burying them with their favorite teddy. As for the cuts on that small bit of bone, maybe they were killed by an animal, or maybe the remains were chewed by the same rodents that ate the skull. It’s weird to assume people de fleshed their dead children. Pure gruesome speculation based on one unique observation in one grave on one tiny bit of bone. I’m no archeologist, so maybe they saw something else that made them jump to such a bizarre conclusion. Weird.
Defleshing isn't a gruesome speculation. There's plenty of evidence that people around the world did it at various times. Think about embalming. Is it any less gruesome? It's important to not let modern prejudices interfere w archaeology when there's evidence. It doesn't mean they didn't care. It would have been an honorable burial practice, showing respect for the dead. You remove the parts that putrify and decay, keeping the hard bones that are more "eternal." In some belief systems, the belief is that the soul isn't free until the earthly flesh is gone, whether over time, by exposure, defleshing, etc.
Yes. I was thinking a family plot too but with so many kids I had the idea that the whole family died at the same time. Papa and his children. And perhaps Mama survived for a while longer. Accident? War? Disease? LL 🤷🏻♀️
at 19:50 or so... he says its "rock art" because they keep finding them. it ah... looks pretty much exactly like what i would use to start a fire, or to hold one end of a supported spindle
This is marvelous. So much. The people working on this are the cream of the crop in this field - It was exciting, informative - seat of the pants suspenseful. It did not disappoint. Although the rats played havoc in the graves, they didn't drag the bones away. It's sad to think that beautiful land and burial site overlooking the ocean is just expensive real estate..that is really a shame. i would be interested in finding out what other information they glean from that dig.
Interesting that no rat bones survived in the adult Kist to help support the suppositions. I guess the rat nibbling probably took place many centuries previously too.
@@alisonemslie-smith1217 I just read it's where we get the word 'cistern,' which we use in USA to mean a large underground water tank, but originally was just a chest for water.
My brother in law found a large man made weapon from Kickapoo Creek In Illinois. It really is a marvel ... think it is about 500 to 1000 years old.... I inherited it and love to see the antiquity.
“ The largest bronze age cemetery ever found in Scotland” and we’ve got three days before it’s completely destroyed and lost to history. Just in case you didn’t already hate landlords enough.
QUESTION: How many years is it when a grave is opened and things removed that it goes from being considered grave robbing to an archeological dig. Is there an official number? LL
Who is writing these titles? A six year old? Spellcheck? Hello? This is an intelligent program made by scholars and archaeologists, at least have the decency to spell the title correctly!
100 years from now... archeologist will be out raged that they stripped all the graves out of the ground. The same way these guys look down on the ones 100 years ago...
19:30 - I keep imagining some dude being bored, smashing rocks together while waiting for harvest or something. And then, in the future, archeologists find them and be like "Oh, must've been art!"
Tony said "before the archaeology is lost forever." Not really. It will be lost to us because of the new housing development, but in a thousand years archaeologists will be telling their students "and here you can see the foundation of a 20th century house that has been built almost directly over this bronze age location. They must have sought similar locations in which to build their dwellings..."
While you have a point, there are such things as service lines when building; sewers, water, power cables. So where a sewer goes in the archeology will be lost.
@@polaide8036 And where they don't go the archeology will still be preserved, yes? Just like some bronze age buildings can overlap and sometimes cut through stone age settlements, right?
OMG, the closed captioning can be, and very often is such a riot! At 13:52, Phil says; "..that's just some sort of organic residue below the stone" and the cc translated it into; "..that's just some sort gonna crested Yahoo below the stone"!😆😆😆 My good news is with this episode I've finally deciphered the "kissed graves", which are actually "cist graves" (not that it was ever spelled properly), which is a term I was unfamiliar with. That has puzzled me through several episodes, and no, Google was not my friend. I did find this episode riveting! I think all of the others I've seen so far are also riveting, though.
If you think this one was good, look for an old Irish TV chat program with Billy Connolly. The captioning is hilarious (more so if you can understand what Billy is saying...)!
Seriously...the lack of grave goods for the central child and outlying bodies should be expected. The actual "grave goods" this story portrays is that the people surrounding the child ARE the grave goods.
Absolutely fascinating. We do have to remember however that much of what is deduced in these finds is speculation. We can never know exactly what happened to these people and why this site is where it is.
The stone found with the groove in it. I believe it was once a bead as well, and passed down over a long, long line of inheritance. Over that time, it had broken in twain, and the amount of polishing showed how it was smoothed out and kept in a pouch as suggested in the show itself. Signifying it was believed to carry power and was mystical from the beginnings of the family's spoken history.
