The Extreme Excavation Under River Wye | Extreme Archaeology | Absolute History 

We have these new inventions called mud boats. Amazingly they are designed for just such places as these. I agree with Sheadi, inefficient waste of time & too much drama.

This seems to be the most inefficient method of getting over the mud and only done for the drama.

Archeology in its essence is disturbing history. You didn’t have to actually walk out to know you were going to get stuck. Going out in a boat and sitting until low tide was obvious. Going out so unprepared is really quite outrageous. And thank “goodness” the “men” got involved 🙄 Too bad they didn’t know how to do a preplanning risk analysis.

Over 40 minutes of mucking around in the riverbed... Then they just send a dude with a chainsaw and pull a sample in the last few minutes. I think I actually lost braincells from this "educational" show.

LMAO! I kept yelling, "Row out at low tide... Row back at high tide!" It was a cool find though.

Are any of these people actually qualified? These are definitely not Time Team caliber archaeologists here.

This looks like a Pilot Episode of a new series called "How to Look Real Dumb, Real Quick" lol

Part of me thinks they purposely chose to walk through the mud than finding a more efficient way to cross/bypass it.

Everybody talks about Rome's military but we should never forget that they were also the best engineers.

We had a tidal mud flat similar to that near my house in Anchorage Alaska. It's literally impassable with no equipment, but a sheet of plywood makes it behave just like a slippery sidewalk. You can even use the plywood like a boat and a pole to push yourself along. I thought of trying plywood when I was 12. Am I that much more intelligent than these scientists, or is the whole segment just for show?

I am retired now but in my career in Aerospace, I used that equipment daily. The single station Theodolite is the least accurate tool we had. It would have been very easy with other equipment to get an exact location of the site from the bank without the Stadia rod. They clearly were ready and had planned to use a zip line and Bosens chair from the beginning. The steel structure they used on their side of the bank clearly shows the pre-planning for the zip line equipment. A much easier way would be to have been to use a wide-flat bottom boat and position it via the single station directly above the site. The tide will drop the boat down on to the mud then lift it up again at the end of the time all with the people in perfect safety. . This show clearly was edited to show drama, real life "on the job" is not so minute to minute drama loaded. I am not saying it was not fun to watch, it was but like most "live drama" shows, there was more involved.

"we can only work at low tide for an hour "Katie's been in the mud over an hour" Quick maths don't add up.

Yeah I'm confident that whomever built that bridge walked straight through the mud... 🤦 This was incredibly hard to watch the stupidity unfold.

Snowshoes (do you have them in the UK?) Or geocloth rolled down to the site would significantly reduce the mud drama. Or, you securely tie two flat bottom jonboats, paddle them out at high tide, and there you are at low tide. Stack the boats one inside the other, so even if the bottom one gets stuck in the bottom, the upper still floats up free.

You gotta admire Kates dedication

If this isn't this biggest Time Team ripoff I've ever seen...except with Time Team, they actually accomplish something

Why don`t they use a rubber boat to come over to the mud?

So, like, putting a few wide planks on top of the mud never crossed your minds? Astounding.

Why not set up an anchored pontoon deck with a buoyed support bridge? It would float up with the tide, and keep them out of the mud

"Forensic" means "legal or relating to law". It's not necessarily related to medical or scientific analysis. Going to the site in a boat when it's under water, then hopping over the side when the tide goes out would be easier. If there's a bridge there, there ought to be traces of the road on both sides. Work gloves ara a really good idea.

I enjoyed this one immensely, thanks for uploading. Also 45:47 I love the colour coordination... red hair in a plait, red sunnies,dark shirt. Dark hair in plaits, dark sunnies, red shirt. 😂 The little things make me smile 😊

An experienced climber and caver didn't think to tell them that they need to effectively slide over the mud on a raft propelled with a stick, or else lay down boards to walk over so their weight is spread out over the sticky mud?

The coast guard patrolling the Thames River use inflatable platforms to rescue people stuck in the mud. This is what they should have used to form a kind of path down to the river.

I love this, thanks. It’s - How to make archeology an extreme sport 101”.

Should have called the Time Team boys in for this one.

The engineering skills were outstanding in Roman times. Well done guys on your quest to find it all out. Exciting..

I'm guessing this is early 2000s lol The clothing is very very early 2000s. I also can't believe that it took several days to think... boat... they literally thought.. walk through chest high mud before boat.

Congrats to the whole team. Is there a 2nd part to the story, I would love to see a follow up. What a great story, I wont ask how much it cost.

You know, they've invented boats that can easily access the location.

There’s no reason to advertise archaeology as some sort of extreme sport adventure. It’s already plenty fascinating all on its own. There’s no need to tromp through the muck and endanger each other in a riverbank. Why not try walking across some wide ply wood? They’re being extremely silly with this mud marching attempt. It’s a very obvious reach to make “content.”

rent a hovercraft and quit risking your girls

Why didn't they lay out a walk way of ply wood anchored down so it didn't float away with the tide. Work smarter not harder

Perfect application for a small hovercraft...

Love the jazzy, pounding music as the two boys paddle swiftly across the river just ahead of the treacherous onrushing tide over the deathly quicksand. These documentaries are going to attract bright, vigorous young people into the field. These gals should all be awarded some fancy medal at Buckingham Palace. Nice job, the whole cast & crew 😉

Be interesting to see the landsat images of the area

So glad to see what Katie Hirst is doing these days!

So contrived and choreographed that it is difficult to watch for any length of time.

"I can't think why anyone would want to build a bridge here!" Mate, its a giant death trap, a bridge would allow you to walk over the giant death trap.

Wow... Could have slid down there in the kyak with a battery drill and core bit, plotted it with gps and been back on the bank in a few minutes... Perhaps they should get the old time team in to finish the job

This whole video can be summed up by just watching the last 5 mintues

A low tech way to get there would be to put down plywood, each board tied off for recovery when the tide comes in. This was fun to watch but the dramatics do detract from the exploration.

You can easily pull them out with a pully system. That was bloody idiotic. You can glue platic containers or barrels and make a pontoon bridge. Bundels of sticks. Put planks on top of it.

Why didn't they use a sawzall instead of a chainsaw? If they didn't want to damage the wood there are better options. I'm not even going to mention the stupidity of the zipline, I'm sure the guy in the "safety" boat got a good laugh. 😂

I agree, its far too dangerous a site to get too. they had to use a boat! take an airboat to the site, flat bottom, no prop

95% mud drama, 5% history and archaeology. Very disappointing considering I'm here for the history and archaeology...... Oh well, I guess that's the dumbed down state of programming these days.....

I’ll never forget when they go like 2 miles into this cave and found all kinds of animal bones. Then they said the bones came from sinkholes depositing it into the cave then sealing shut. Everyone was so tired that it looked gruesome.

I love Katy. Scared to do it but does it anyway. That takes nerve.

"sadly, I won't be going with them" So what else is new? You rarely do anything but yammer on anyway. Even at the end, all he does is go along for the ride.

Stepbro! I’m stuck!

A whole episode of messing around, using the dumbest methods trying to get a sample and in the end 1 man with a chainsaw sorts it out in a few minutes.

Why not use a battery drill and a hollow core sample bit?

Real killer quicksand.

Why not use a stand-up paddling bord and get ropes to it from both sides, V shaped. You could easily pull yourself over the water and float on the water next to the structure 🤔

Plywood? Textiles? Any engineers handy?

yes i was thinking take a boat and dive it. mind you the flow speed might cause a problem.

Can't help but wonder with all the college degrees on the display on the bank of that river, none of them considered employing a dozen 8 by 4 sheets of plywood laid end to end to get to the bridge footing, no environmental damage and a simple solution but then again no big drama either.🙄

As a non native english speaker, I find the accent of the narrator here is very different from the usual Netflix series. May I know what accent of English is used in this video??

They can't find pottery in that short little trench they dug. Of course not. It's a road not a settlement or a midden. So the guy says that a flood came and washed away the pottery that they imagine was once there....They also wonder why they find no carbon from the remains of a campfire...in the middle of the road. If they have degrees in archaeology, then Wal-Mart can make me one also, like it did for them.

Perfect example that higher education dose not equate to higher knowledge. At their age I could have went out and did what they needed in an hour or less and been back on the bank. Saving thousands of pounds. I think they tried to make it look difficult and dangerous to justify their ridiculous salaries. What a clusterf*ck.

Didn't Team Time already do this site? I've notice they've done the same sites as Time Team has done 15 yrs ago.

bruh. you had a god damn boat!

Use a boat, wait at location for low tide get samples, airlift out or wait for high tide?

Sheets of plywood to make a path across, you're out there in a few minutes walk. How disappointing.

Why indeed.

6-7 sheets of 1/2x4x8 plywood, 1 eyebolt for each, 1 clothesline rope for each. Problems solved. Use the rope to drag the plywood across the mud to place it and to retrieve it. It's not rocket science and causes less harm to the sight than stomping through the mud. Or you can anchor a boat next to it and let the tide lower it next to the site and lift it out of the mud after. Either way is better than the not thinking it through and overthinking it that they did.

Rivers evolve. When the Romans built the bridge, the mud may have still been upstream in the hills and mountains.

I miss Time Team!!

Would mud shoes not work? Similar to snow shoes where the sole is ridiculously large to distribute weight and keep the wearer on top. I’m only a few min into the video… hope they figure out something better.

This entire time my first thought was simply lowering someone down to the site. Why did it take so long to come to that conclusion I wonder? It's a very obvious solution that I'm sure most of us laymen watching thought of since the start.

Start at 11.50 and cut out all the ridiculous contrived drama in the mud (unless you're here for the giggles of course). Not that it gets any better though

Romans always had Coins* Get the best metal detectors to scan the area. They may just pop your answers ***

A big mistake but a good learning experience - a boat would have been wiser, or at least a mud sled/ferry contraption. I’m surprised by such an unwise and dangerous decision to walk in that mud as the team are usually very safe. Lived to learn.

Ok I have to tell this story since I was whining about the over use of rigging. I worked in a climbing shop in S. Colorado in the early 80s. Some young climber covers came in and started buying many thousands of dollars of gear. Since they didn't work, and lived in their vans (dirt bag climbers, and that's badge of honor) I had to ask, where did you get the money. They ran into a Nat Geo film crew in a bar in town. Who were looking for guides / riggers to film the recently discovered Lechugilla cave system in New Mexico. These guys talked their way into a gig. They were quite good climbers and covers. They had a reputation tho, that I cant ever recommend in the least, of dropping acid and doing really dangerous routes. Like climbing Fisher Towers Utah whilst tripping hard. So the director gave them a blank check to buy ALL the gear for the project. (Ice climbing gear for caving 🙃) So later i ran into them. Yes they were tripping big time during the entire project. You can watch that documentary. It's quite fascinating...

Why is the quality like 360p, while it's uploaded as 1080p?

This makes absolutely no sense to me I've worked in places like this you lay down sheets of plywood and walk across the plywood the plywood gives you enough surface area to where you don't sink

Why not lay out a series of boards to walk on? I feel like I'm watching my 7yo and 4yo sons figuring something out.

My first thought was if not slip n slide, then, go by boat. Kyak...

Of course the carbon 14 date is the date at which the oak was alive. A mature oak could be 300 years old and the dated portion of the sample may not be the youngest part of the tree. If the dated sample is from the older material near the center of the tree, the date on which the piling was prepared could be several hundred years later.

What about like snow shoes for the mudd

Hovercraft might be handy.

What a waste of time and energy to near this target by feet , dagerous too , planned by academical men and woman . . . ! ?

Was this made before the walkie talkie was invented?

You guys need swamp mats there big pads that will float they use them in oil exploration on tundra and you can run cat bulldosers heavy equipment with that it's easy to make a coffer dam and dry it out and dig giveing you a lot more than splinters to get a date .

Road?

Helicopters weren’t invented by the time this program was recorded, I guess... 😳😆😳

I'm embarrassed for Alice to be on this show. She was clearly brought along for her star power.

After watching them struggle in the mud and trying to come up with another way.. my way would be put a boat in the water at high tide from the shore, would be boring but paddle around until low tide, then your right there. Lean out or drop down a ladder and get your sample. Of course then you have to wait until high tide so you can get back to the shore past the mud again.

They need snow shoes to distribute their weight.

Why not just anchor a kayak over it till low tide and take a sample before tide returns

Why did you even have to waste time adding your failed attempt to walk across the mud? Get to the point before you bore people into clicking off and going elsewhere. Edit: clearly have to fast forward my way through the majority of this.

You know, for supposedly educated people their lack of knowledge is astounding. All they have to do is take a small boat When the tide is up, sit in it anchored over the spot, and wait for the tide to go out.

Why not do a rope ferry like they did ancient times? It could be secured on both sides of the river

1 minute in: wrong information: the Usk has the second highest tide in the world. 40 ft. Fact.

A simple raft to sit on the mud and float in high tide. !!!!!!!!

A blonde a brunette and a red head walked into the mud......................

Why didn't they use a small hovercraft or string a rope across the river and tether a boat that would drop on the sight when the tide swell lowers the water level.

Academicfoololigests now I'm here for humor

2 words...hole saw 2 more ... hammer chisel Or maybe ..... Sawzall

Why not put some boards out to walk on?

should have used a hover craft