Time Team S17-E01 Westminster 

+Donna Perez I agree completely.

Check out digventures. Also Wessex archaeology has a channel here in RU-vid that is packed with fresh content from none other than Phil Harding himself. As well as that Tony went on to host a whole mess more similar content. The man's comedy work was phenomenal itself but he was born to do this sort of presenting.

Luckily, the experts and producer, Tim Taylor, decided to start a RU-vid site and are buying these episodes and posting them in HD for us to watch for free. They are also taking donations to do further digs, this time with longer times and more in depth exploration and conclusions allowed. They have the financing for two so far and are already in midst of planning the first. This link is for the RU-vid page. The playlists are very helpful for finding episodes in order and some episode have further commentary discussing the importance of the dig and why they recommend watching it. You should check out what John Geophys Gator looks like now. It's nice! ru-vid.comfeatured This is the online website also. Here you can see additional footage on some digs and donate, etc. www.timeteamdigital.com/

Don't say never my good friend ,don't say never

Broken pottery in a field usually means there's ruins under said field if they haven't been ploughed away. What a tantalizing thought.

sadly, it won't happen

Yer a wizard Harry

He's wonderful. I love them all, truth be told. I wish they would bring the show back. So much archaeology to be dug!

Sadly, it is the same all over the country. I live in Kent and I haven't heard anyone speak the local accent since the mid-70's. It was killed off by Thames Television English, or what is now called Estuary English.

In my dreams there’s a video of a slightly drunk Phil Harding doing Wurzels karaoke.

Ever-increasing failure of U.S. education notwithstanding, there's also the fact that even including American Indian culture, human history in north America is like the proverbial drop in a bucket compared to the British Isles.

Including specials and several long seasons it's over two hundred actually.

Every place is older than we think ... don't give up hope.

Is there architecture knowledge of what the average Saxon church looked like as there often is for cathedrals? I can't help but think this would answer a "huge raft" of these sorts of questions. I do hope followon and spin off research was done. I can't imagine that they would not have, it IS Westminster lol

MOST MADE OF TIMBER@@joshschneider9766

the protestants like a bit of cultural vandalism,they are like a early isis. personally I think Oliver Cromwell was a true spiritual heir of genghis khan

+Sam Johnstone very interesting insights! It is always sad when a country destroys is religious, artistic, historical and cultural patrimony in a moment of "religious fervor!"

+Giovanni Serafino The Abbey holds the tomb of a sainted king - Saint Thomas at Canterbury had defied and humiliated a king. Henry VIII appears to have had a particular dislike of St Thomas, declaring him not a saint and threatening punishment to all who thought otherwise.

I can't help but think about the position mere mortal men "were", and "are" put up against in history since the beginning! While GOD, who I believe exists for sure, (seeing how we humans, and all our "intellectual historical folly bears out a reflection of HIGHER IMPORTANCE!) should every now and again,,, at LEAST utter an AUDIBLE: ""EHEMMMM"", just to keep us egotistical beings at harness!!! LOL!

Thomas wasn't a king, he was archbishop of Canterbury. Edward the Confessor is there though. And he was a king and saint.

"you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means." - the princess sacristy

:)

Thanks for commenting. It's good to know I'm not the only one. Lincoln looms large here in Illinois, as well. You can't swing a cat without hitting a statue or something. Watching the history of the UK unfold backwards, to me seems like going home again. With Wellies, a poncho and 4WD, I could stand the weather there for the sake of the beauty, I think. Cornfields interspersed with fast food neon are a poor substitute here. It makes an old stone wall appear ever so much more desirable than some sort of advertising to the eye.

Funny enough, I too watched the series in the reverse order, regarding the seasons after only watching the specials. You say the archaeology in your area goes back only a few centuries, but what about the natives? Have there never been living any humans before the first settlers? And if that is the case, there is also paleontology. Maybe there were some interesting prehistoric creatures roaming your back garden? ;)

KYIRISH1 I am american too. American history is limited. Indians pah. The Western European That will keep you reading forever.

But here we do have at the Falls of the Ohio, the largest exposed Devonian Age fossil bed in the world. Almost 400 million years old. It can only be observed during the summer and fall months when the river is low but they have a wonderful interpretive center on the site, if you are into that stuff. It is located on the Indiana side of the river across from Louisville. www.fallsoftheohio.org

There is a Time Team America too! Not as good, but ... ok to watch.

None of that would work lol

Hell, you could die of alcohol poisoning!

They could easily have kept searching for the treasure chambers. I believe they were discourage from doing that by people who know about them.

Watch the last minute of the video.

OLD WIPPER-SNAPPER I want to know too. I watched right to the end and they gave us their best guess but not a confirmed absolute date.

OLD WIPPER-SNAPPER not what they wanted.

OLD WIPPER-SNAPPER Early 11th century. Pre Edward the Confessor.

Wessex Archaeology report radiocarbon dating of 1025-1155; a male 23-25 years old, 5' 11" tall. Wessex Archaeology reports: highly recommended if you wish to dive deeper in a Time Team dig!

They were contacted twice to do the dig but said it was too much for them to do in 3 days. Bet they were wishing they had done it now!!

Wow. I can't believe they missed that opportunity! It would have been their magnum opus

Hypatia4242 Maybe some other team got there first! can't be dozy in this competition.

Mary Ann McDaniel The producers didn't feel they could do the dig in just three days. ooops.

Intellectual honesty - nothing to denigrate, rather they should be applauded.

+Neil Pollick I agree. I don't think this is anything more than a corridor.

Yes, it seems a very plausible explanation to me.

They didn't have the fancy drawers and cupboards that they have now, back in the 1300's. those come from more recent ideas about how to preserve clothing. And the L shaped hallway could have been anything, from what this program suggested, to a closet for peoples coats, or a changing room for the choir... We will never know for sure.

Based on experiences from a previous career, which involved organizing and participating in a good number of church processions, I'd go with the Time Team's interpretation of its purpose. For processions involving a large number of important people in all their ceremonial finery, this would be an ideal staging area: get them all dressed/equipped and lined up out of sight and sound of the folks in the pews. When all set, send them down the full length of the center aisle.

Catholic's??????????????? The Saxons built it and there is no apostrophe in Catholics.

As a Saxon, Christian church it would of course have been Catholic. if you're going to patronise people, get your own facts right first.

2serveand2protect rebuild*^

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey#History

The true church is a meeting place for sharing, nurturing, and commemorating. This “posh” none sense is a corrupt version of the description of God in the OT. Burnished bronze, etc was just a way of describing Him to people who knew nothing of the kind. It’s sad that we went this way during royal times, it is promising though that commoners from different areas frequented much more humble churches with hopefully much more appropriate staff.

@@edlingja1 Where are these rules about what a church should be laid down? What you say makes no sense at all.

Why plan on digging up bodies an punishing them?????

20 years of exploratory archaeology and numerous finds made by over a hundred people involved including world renown experts associated with this program. The only buffoon is you.