Agreed--especially all that boring rock climbing stuff. I didn't click on a rock climbing video, I clicked on an archaeology video. What a waste of time; I skipped over most of that.
you do realize the reason why they're showing the climbing is to point out the sheer inanity of the location and who in their mad mind would consider living there.
Here in Norway, you can still see and find houses, farms/homestead at remote places one would never build at today. Especially up hill, and near cliffs, like in fjords and valleys. Also I’m pretty sure the climate as well as the area was and looked very different than what it is today.
I am planning on going to Norway so I can go on a cliff where Ragnar sat it’s one of the cliffs with the water so you could see them coming home with there ships lol. I’m definitely excited to explore there grave sites and rocks and stuff.
@@IkedaSerra At 15:49, you can see on the watch that the day they started the exploration was October 8 and was a Wednesday. The latest year this occurred was in 2014. I’m going to assume that this was done on that year.
The fact that none of these supposed scientists seem to understand that the Kame was not originally that isolated, but made so by the process of the surf eroding the surrounding cliffs really brings the credibility of this entire thing into serious question.
It seems incredibly STUPID for these people to have attempted this in October under these weather conditions. Who can afford to throw away so much money on a dubious project?
I've watched a few episodes now. 1. They always arrive in October or when it's cold. 2. We get to watch them dig and speculate. 3. They never find anything. 4. They leave. Was this show popular in the UK or has it ended up on RU-vid for a reason?
Yeah. Their planning seems to go "Let's pick the absolutely worst time of the year - and make sure we don't have enough time to accomplish a damn thing."
Disagree, they collected data that is still being analyzed. You make good points and I am disappointed too. Maybe it will yield little but it will add to our knowledge. As they said, if you need instant gratification maybe archaeology isn't for you.
It seems like a helicopter drop on a less inclimate weather day would have been less treacherous. This is an amazing feat by brilliant people with nerves of steel!
🤣🤣🤣No, that's not how this land has moved, looking at the images you can very clearly understand the types of erosion and what the land is doing here. That's fine wouldn't have developed from it Sliding Away 😉🤔
@@frofrofrofro900 absolutely I get that, but to me, that's mostly ALL they concentrated on. WOuld have liked more actual archaeology, and less monkeying around and creating fake time limits. that's all.
Idiotic History: ...we've arrived in October not the best time for archaeology. Me: Of course you did. Idiotic History: We got nothing accomplished. Me: You never do. 🙄
It's better not to, unless absolutely required. Everyone would have to inventory every single item brought with them to avoid leaving anything that would contaminate the site. Just imagine the confusion if they excavated a modern bottle cap.
@@hogwashmcturnip8930 I never said I was a great archaeologist, I said that I've found myself in the middle of more than one uncharted Mayan ruin. The thing is that you'll never know the truth of my statements without either learning to speak Tzutujil or going to Guatemala yourself. Someone like you is more likely to continue living the life of a dullard though. Never doing anything noteworthy, and trying to convince yourself that nobody else has either.
@@kaisersose5549 I'm going to actually call BS on you or just expose the fact that you're a total douchebag because I personally have had an amazing and very adventurous career and never do I speak about it in such a way that you just did and as someone who's been obsessed with archaeology since I was five and reading as an advanced level at that age I can tell you that you're probably not an archaeologist nor have you ever worked out of a helicopter if you think carting shit back and forth on that knife edge is easier than loading up a helicopter properly.. because I'm not full of shit you can easily go to my page and see some of the videos I've made public of me flying around doing geophysical surveys in the Arctic with a magnetometer
3 days of excavation might work for Time team who have a massive amount of people but here we had 4 people digging... Not to mention that they did this in late autumn, camped on the mainland so they had to waste hours getting on and off and they didn't use a metal detector to find possible artifacts. If this indeed is vikings, they left very few things behind. Just look at L'Anse aux Meadows where they only left a handful of artifacts. And I see no evidence for the monastery theory at all, it would have made sense if it was Pictish but for the vikings it seems likelier that it was picked for how easy it was to defend from attackers. We Scandinavians dig between April and September for a good reason. I have the feeling these people picked it because it was more "extreme". Doing it during summer and actually put the tents on the Kame itself would mean you could dig for results quickly. Ground penetrating radar is a great tool but if your main goal is to find a dateable artifact a metal detector is better. A lost coin is a likely find but most metal artifacts would probably help.
??? Those smooth undulating grasslands look very hard and solid to me,, The Faults you're seeing are ancient and not active that being said the faults themselves are weak points so you will see one piece of land that looks flat with another piece of land next to it that looks vertical or on a 45-degree, but there hasn't been any geological forces moving these rocks for approximately 60 million years. Just see levels going up and down ice grinding them down, and the weak points disappearing before the solid ones so the fault between vertical and another more Dynamic piece of land will disappear before either of the lands giving the appearance that one has slipped away and falling, but if you were to stand at that point and watch time flow backwards all you would see is gravity and a few different kinds of water doing a whole bunch of different things that angle piece has been an angle since just after the time of the dinosaurs 😉
When I seen it, I immediately told to myself "oh, it's a viking settlement!" (similar to what found in Groenland). Up north in Scotland, a soil too poor to grow anything, no trees...only vikings was crazy enough to live in such remote place, depending only on the sea and imported goods. The lowest point of the kame is too exposed to the elements (big waves and wind) to allow boat landings (without crushing them on the rocks, personally I woundn't dare), they most likely used the protected perfect sandy beach its side... a pathway to there most likely been eroded over time. That place seems a very good place to stop, not to live there, but right between Iceland and Scandinavia.
there was most likely a forge... if being you, I'd look for it first (coal, slag, tools, ore etc) with a metal detector. Could have been more fruitful than doing trenches.
@@La.máquina.de.los.sueños Most sensible answer yet! Of course that is what they were doing! They maybe had few people,, even wives and kids there all the time, but mostly they would use the sea. Even if that causeway was better, what was on the mainland? They didn't even try to find out! To me it is a staging post. A few hardy souls there all the time, with a few livestock, and what they get from the sea and can grow. If it grows. The crews come and go and they bring supplies.. They have a little R and R and move on. Conditions that would horrify us were normal for them
@@hogwashmcturnip8930 what's intriguing me is that vikings wasn't used (as far as I remember) to build such big outpost/staging post/village (23 buildings + most likely more on the mainland, + few others who fell in the sea... so probably 100+ persons) in such wastelands (even if more tempered 1000 years ago, its soil is thin and the place always been exposed to the harsh climate of the North Sea). Such important place MUST figure somewhere in the Norse sagas. In comparison, the "Anse aux meadows" in Newfoundland only represent about 8 buildings (could host 30 to 160 persons) and is at the source of the Vinland legends.
@@La.máquina.de.los.sueños That is intriguing ,thank you. I had wondered myself. So what were they doing there and what has happened since? Have you found anything in the Sagas? I will admit I am useless, being more Celtic inspired Take me past Beowulf and Norse 'mythology' and I am lost .So where do we start looking?
It almost seemed a waste of time. Proper planning would've had all supplies and equipment on site before the archaeologists, who should've stayed on site. Micro archeology isn't the proper approach for a site like this. They got no answers to any questions. Too bad.
Totally with you. But apparenttly I am sexist for suggesting this had little t do with archaeology and everything to o with other stuff! Funny how that makes Me sexist! Anyway, there is no reason why this dig could not have been done in clement weather, with equipment and archaeologists flown in by helicopter. As for the site itself, is it not possible that it was a Viking service station? They are rowing about raiding stuff, they need a pit stop! They bring the food in, the people, ,possibly wives and families, give them some R & R... They may not have needed a major link to land as long as there was a decent one from the sea. No one said what was on land, if anything. The whole thing is a mess. No research, no looking at the mainland to see what could have been there, just 3 academic bimbos and a Welsh bloke who won't risk his own neck until they have proved it is OK.
@@maxpoggerman7396 Hahaha. I get some stupid comments on You Tube, but that one is Pure Class! Especially coming from 'Pinky Pie' Lol. Here is a little bit of advice for you. Get some Life Experience and wisdom before making silly comments about fictitious names on a computer screen? So many twits who make assumptions. For All You know, I could be one of those Bimbos! yet you still feel the need to mouth off. Shows a singular lack of anything much.
Come ON! What is with this "Team"? Especially the dude in the black coat at the 20 minute mark....that guy belongs in ground level flat in the middle of the city, selling insurance. This whole thing is literally incredible. For one thing, they think monks lived there as it stands now, in which case, spending ONE night there, voluntarily, in a tent, with a thousand bucks worth of gear on, in October, should not constitute life being unfair. It should signify utter lack of planning and wussbagedness. Secondly, that they think monks lived there, as it stands, is absolute bollocks.
Heavens, for supposedly smart people, this seems unnecessarily hazardous. Some simple planning, choosing the right time of year and perhaps the addition of a helicopter would have made sense, not to mention the addition of many hours of additional archeological endeavor, made available by those things.
There's never a guaranteed good time, the coastal winds can be awful at any time. And a helicopter is bloody expensive and would struggle to land in the wind anyway
Viking layover camp!!! You guys are forgetting all about isostatic rebound everything you're standing on was a lot closer to the water a few hundred years ago. This would have been a perfect little rest area on the edge of the British Isles anything they needed they would already have with them in the boat and the goats could graze on the island, you guys are looking at this with an endgame agenda and very modern Eyes. The extra few Huts that are down the slope are probably just up from the contemporary waterline Edit it literally took you the entire show to assess what I did with in 5 minutes of looking at this
ThIs is the 2nd of these I have seen, and they have both been totally pointless. They need to make their mind up whether they are an extreme adventures programme or serious archaeology. By the time they have finished faffing about they have no time or equipment.to get any decent investigation done.
@@kaisersose5549 Not watched much archaeology then? This whole series is viewer bait. Archaeological Charlies Angels! Whilst Charlie sits in safety moaning he hasn't been allowed to join in. If they Really wanted to investigate that site they would have done it when the weather was right and got a helicopter to airlift them and the tools in. Job Done They could have still played dramatics ,being lowered down.
@@hogwashmcturnip8930 They were the first to explore that site in how many years? Has a full excavation been done yet? Was anyone done anything to bring attention to that particular archaeological site before them? Sexist garbage aside, It's not what they didn't manage to accomplish, it's your expectation of what you thought they should have done. You asked me, "Not watched much archaeology then?", indicating that this isn't something you do. I, on the other hand, have found myself right in the middle of uncharted Mayan ruins on more than one occasion. What I'm saying is that you're spouting nonsense because you don't have the faintest idea what they're actually doing. If you want to be taken seriously, go get some hours on site with a trowel in your hand rather than being an armchair official.
@@hogwashmcturnip8930 The last thing I am is a feminist, but I'll give credit where it's due. Why don't you take a little trip down to Guatemala? Go to a lake called Atitlan in the district of Solala, then find an aldea called Chacaya. Outside of that village, toward San Pedro volcano, you will find a large field of chayote growing. Go up the side of the volcano there, and take the path that circles back above the village. You'll see it if you've got a keen eye. Another easy to access site can be found in Rio Dulce. Ask the locals where the island with the hot springs are, and walk into the bush on the north side of the river from that island. As soon as the ground is dry, you're there. How does that sound to you? I don't think you've caught on to the fact that I'm a yank, so it's not as though I need to book a flight to get there. It's less distance to drive than traveling across half of the U.S. Limey jackass.
Maybe they should add a meteorologist to guide a more habitual time to dig. I vote for Viking settlement from their exploration of more farming land before discovering/intruding Wales, Ireland, Scotland.
@@soxpeewee no. It is interesting. It is show. If they would find something interesting someone could continue. In Egypt archaeologists have limited time too. Permissions etc. Even if they found amazing discovery they have to stop block metal doors and pray no one will stol it. In the middle of nowhere they have to leave their discovery. Last week I watch sth like that in documentary. And if was quite big and they have to leave it. Maybe on Netflix it was but doccumentry not film
I actually do enjoy your shows, and even getting the carbon dating for this site, alongside the terrain survey is a huge achievement for such a short period of time. People that will come in the future will find this useful.
90% of getting to somewhere, and complaining how dodgy it was to get there, 10% actually doing what they set out to do, this team screams poor management, unrealistic goals, poor logistic planning and a very poor leadership.
To me this site looks like a Norse base camp from back in the day they where hunting the walrus to extinction in this area (before moving on to Iceland) for it's ivory tusks, lamp oil rendered from blubber, skins to cover their boat frames and lots of meat to eat (maybe they even smoked the meat or dried it. The boat shaped foundation is common in Canada where they would turn their boats upside down for a roof on winter shelters. Probably their first shelter before they built the other shelters and work buildings. Only question is was there enough fuel (wood) in the area for their fires to carry out this activity.
I'd say this was a Viking settlement. More than likely not as treacherous to get there 1.2k years ago. Little annoying they couldn't do an actual dig... saving this as a monument for what? Aerial pictures? Doubt any tourists make their way there. Might bring more people if they knew what kind of settlement it was.
A shame that archaeology had not been done far earlier when the kane was more intact than the current spine out to the rocky slope. How many more barrow houses could there be in total that spread back toward the mainland? Such would be the many island and mainland colonies by claims of the Earl of the Orkneys (and the Shetlands) related to the times just before Rollo moved down from Norway into Normandy (northern Neustria). And the Earl of More and Romsdal of Western Norway (Vestlandet) controlled these Earldom island extensions into the northern Scottish lands, until the final expulsion of the Dano-Norse at the time of King James IV. These colonies could have continued existence anywhere from 750 - 1500s CE.
After five or ten minutes watching this video, i can tell you, with 94.6% security, that there have been humans living on that point for at least 5000 years...
If this place is going to disappear , due to erosion - it’s silly to do tiny test pits. .. when Mother Nature takes it, that I if is gone for ever and so are it’s secrets
I think they should try Excavating on the man land above the rock face they are working on. It looks to me like that chunk of land came off of the Mainland after the homes were built. I would check the mainland where are the houses would have been before the rock slide
Even though they were disappointed that they didn't find any artifacts, often when you're the first group of people to tackle something extremely challenging, there's so many logistical considerations, that you don't always get what you wanted to. Simply getting out to the site, getting the equipment, and getting back safely took a great deal of time. But the next group of people that go out, will use the knowledge from this group to do it more efficiently. And with the next group going out maybe they'll be allowed to dig more now that they know what kind of site it is.
Not only was it wider, it was also higher the further you go out towards the water. Erosion from the waves has caused the entire area to collapse as the earth has eroded away into the water. It could have been as much higher as the camping area. Nice and level.
I do have to say, this is one hell of a site to try to access.. it is a very worthwhile sight to excavate, though. It is very sad though, that information pertaining to a lot of us is being lost through erosion, and no archaeological work has been done.. I'm glad to see some as being done with this group..
Why didn't they do this thing in like July and what's with digging up the pointy end of the boat-shaped structure. Wouldn't digging up its middle be more likely to find something?
It could have been a flat area before mass is a earthquake, shook the ground and shifted the plates underneath making a flat area now sloping. I think this is the most logical explanation to your question.
Also Is means Ice and bister means harsh or grumpy in norse. So "pointy icy harsh mountain ridge" does Kame of Isbister mean in aloose translation to Norse 😊
First, this might be my fault. I watched this documentary with only one eye. I was surprised how little success they had. Did they have restrictions on days to dig? Why? By the government? If the place is really empty, I guess they did a great job. Quick, little disturbing of the area and they found out who had been there. But my gut tells me that this place has a lot more to tell us. If that is the case I just did not get why they could not find the answers. They might have explained it, but I didn't notice it.
If it was settled in 11C or earlier, especially when Scots invaded from Ireland, the weather might have been milder, the kame more accessible, and like mainland Scotland, more forested. The "leper colony" seems far-fetched, and we dont know that monasticism was common among the Picts. Right now, I'm pretty sire that it was a Tick-Tock amusement concession.
About 10 minutes in, I cam convinced that whomever built and stayed there, they had a wider and better means of travel. Erosion made it so narrow afterwards. I am not saying it was a huge width to start, but probably at least a few feet wider when the site was occupied. Let's see how wrong I am! *Edit: A couple minutes later, they talk about erosion! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I have been hearing about it most of my life. How it affects ecology, farming, terrain, etc....
How magnificent that these four women are first to research the site of the Kame of Isbister, persevering even though their support team was sluggish, belittling, and sloppy with safety procedures. But to the ladies, congratulations!
@@tardigrade9493 Of course it isn't! But that hardly answers my query. (And I also wonder whether the archaeologists would agree with your assessment. But that's another story and is irrelevant to my questioning your choice of words.)
We're talking about the Viking period. 1000 years ago. They are talking like that rock is a static feature. Unchanging. I think it was more accessible during the time it was settled, and after a few storms eroded some of the accessibility, it was abandoned. I mean, look at how the landscape changed in a matter of days following the Mt. St. Helens eruption in the US in 1980. Natural landscape features may be long lasting, but they are never permanent. This rock is being constantly bombarded by the winds and surf of the North Sea smashing against it. It would be almost impossible to tell what it looked like 1000 years ago. And most of us know that when you get water down in rock crevasses, it can freeze. And when it freezes, it expands and can fracture the rock. That's somewhat the basis on how potholes form in city streets, especially in the more northern latitudes. So, I believe there was a lot more area to access that spot with back when it was active. Simple logic demonstrated here is that if these people are having this much difficulty accessing the site with modern climbing gear, then had it been exactly the same during its settled period, they would have had a lot more difficulty trying to free climb. So, no. I do not believe the rock as we see it now is as it was when people lived there.
Modern archeology is wild. “We have to preserve a site but we have no idea what it is and can only disturb a small area because it’s important but we don’t know why.” Anyone with any sense would’ve dug until they could at least confirm exactly what it is, exactly why it’s there, and at least completely excavated the areas that are vulnerable to be swallowed by the sea to preserve any artifacts. There seems to be no awareness that the site could’ve been more accessible 1200 years ago and that erosion may have turned it into what it is.
I feel that from how the structures are laid out along with the large boat shaped structure out front that this is a Nordic burial site/cemetery. The charcoal could likely be from cremations.
They're not even through the intro and I'm thinking people would settle their because it's easy to defend. It also may not have been quite so difficult to get across at one time. Compared to some places I've seen ancient houses and granaries in the Americas it doesn't seem to bad to me. I'd love to see a group like Time Team do this. By 16:40 I'm fed up with their speculation. 20min in I'm fed up with the filler of basically their personal diaries.
OH MY, these people are MAD. All for archeology, No way would I do this job, even though I wanted to be an archeologist, a person afraid of heights and enclosed spaces. They are very brave, and what they have discovered is facinating. I stuck to art and ceramics
So many questions... Why wasn't the equipment sent over on or before the first day? Why not give them one more day? How much could that have cost? Would it have cost so much to have a helicopter drop the equipment off prior to the archeologists arriving? Why do this in October?
I hope that someone takes up this challenge again, soon. Also, if they were pitching detritus into the sea, what about searching there? Probably dicey, but this is extreme archeology, and they could possibly use remote devices, as well. I understand a bit of what the team must feel, so close, but so far from knowing for sure. The question will forever be in the back of my mind. 💚🌎😎🍀
For all the people screaming "they could have landed everything in a helicopter!" No they couldn't have. The helicopter would have had to land RIGHT on the archaeological evidence (the marks of the buildings.) This means that anything fragile and close to the surface could have been BROKEN by the weight of the machine. Helicopters (according to google) are 600+lbs. I would wager that the size needed to get the team AND all the gear up there would weigh several tons. Especially loaded with the team and all the gear. Plus with the obvious evidence of erosion...the weight of the helicopter could cause a chunk of the land to just drop off with archaeological evidence STRAIGHT into the sea. They chose the best way to get to the site that would have the least amount of damage to it. Also for those saying they could have picked a better time/date. You don't know how hard it was to get permission to dig the site. For all you know they were told "you have ONLY this time to do it in and none other." Also its the UK its usually rainy and windy there from my understanding lol.
Is there a chance that this remote settlement could have been a refuge for times of attack by a hostile clan? The difficult access would be easy to defend
Why on earth are they not there with one metal detector so they can quickly and efficiently retrieve just a small representative sampling of relics by most advantageously locating the best places for the trenches? This given that this could prove to be the last or the only chance that anyone will have to access this place, as having backing and the making of a significant effort would be necessary to carry it out again. And by then, more restrictions may exist. And why did they choose an obviously disadvantageous time to go?
Having only 3 days and those weather conditions, of what was found was exciting to say the least. Considering....... But that opened up for more in the future for that site. October wasn't the best time obviously, but they only allowed to do little digging spots which doesn't give you the information you are looking for. But with that, Bravo to those whom took that expedition.
Probably a clear visual stop for norse heading towards england. The beach below. A small town on top thats easy to defend. Back then with a wider pathway and land.
I'm just going to make an analogous observation.. I'm not necessarily talking about this site in particular. During the War between the states here in the US, there was a young Union Major general, named George Armstrong Custer. He and several of the generals came to the bank of a river, and the other generals got into a discussion, speculating about how deep it was. They continued for a bit, and finally Custer got a little bit aggravated, entrada is horse out into the middle of the stream. Speaking to the ranking general, he said General Sir, this is how deep it is.. This is a lot like all the archaeological, and historical speculation that goes on, rather than digging and gathering hard evidence..
This show is so irritating. There is plenty of intrigue in the subject matter. They don't need to manufacture it with terrible planning and mishaps with logistics. People watching a show like this aren't going to watch for the rock climbing. They want to see the archeology. I have tried to watch this episode three times. Each time, I get irritated and quit. I guess I'll go find an episode of Time Team I haven't seen in a while...
