Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

What nobody knows about hill forts (ad-free) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-06-02 05:15:01
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Downloads

Content

Time Team archaeologist Helen Geake is answering questions from Time Team members. Where did people who lived on Iron Age hill forts get their water? Did Anglo-Saxons live in buildings vacated by the Romans and which member of Time Team is most keen to get to the pub? Helen brings you her thoughts on the things you want to know about.There's also a surprise guest in the form of Dr Michael Olsson from Uppsala University in Sweden. He's got in touch after hearing Helen and Martyn discuss a topic he knows a fair bit about!

Don't forget that as Time Team members you have the opportunity to ask Helen a question on a future episode. Go to the 'chats' section here on Patreon and follow the links to leave a comment.

Comments

Dr JAG Geofizz

Very disappointed not to have been given the accolade of 'who wants to get to the pub first' - I will be having words with Helen next time we are in a pub...(but will Stewart will be buying a round of beers? 🤔)

Mak Wilson

Loved that! Thank you all!

John Hunt

Will this be on YouTube? I am deaf and cannot listen to podcasts unless there are subtitles

Chris

Wonderful how Helen explained all the changes following the departure of the Romans. Culture and economy are so intertwined. Only thinking when I had my first car. I could repair nearly everthing on my own. Now you need a fully equipped garage with computeranalysis to find out why this alarm lamp is yellow.

Kathy Calmejane

Awesome, loved the thoughts on how societies transition and the reuse (or not) of former infrastructure and technology!

Peter Horsam

I'm comforted when the answer to a question is 'we don't really know' . Very few questions in life have simple yes/no answers. It's useful getting a range of possibilities, it's food for thought.

Paul Bivand

On the issue of disease around the arrival of Beaker people - I believe that there is European evidence of plague in some very late neolithic contexts, but in Britain not until after the Beaker people arrived. However, getting the DNA evidence is quite hard.

Dr R

Hill fort=Party fort=‘BYOB’

Linda

Excellent!!!

Richard Linley

Will Stewart be buying a round of beers? Are bears Catholic?

Dennis D Kerkman

Cognitive developmental psychologists, esp. Jean Piaget, say that all knowledge originates in action, and that decentration (coordinating perspectives) are *the cause* of intelligence itself in all its forms. Coordinating the sensorimotor trowel movements with feelings, the act of drawing the images, and the verbal and mathematical symbols is what causes understanding itself. Dennis D Kerkman, PhD

MKCMJon

I found Michael Olsson's dicussion about the use of the tactile sense or "feel" of an object very interesting. And I was reminded of a conversation I heard many years ago when I was just beginning my contract archaeology career at a prehistoric site. A visitor (non-archaeologist) on the site expressed surprise and interest in an activity he observed. He noticed when an archaeologist picked an object out of the screen or picked it up from his or her unit, they would wipe it off and gently rub it between their finger tips for a few moments. Only then would they give it a close visual inspection. He noticed all the archaeologists did that each and every time. It was only then I realized I and every one I worked with did, indeed, do the same thing. I am not sure if it was something we learned or perhaps something we just did instinctively. But, just as Michael learned, it is an important part of the process of evaluating and catagorizing a find.

Tim Walker

Brilliant episode thanks. Packed with interesting ideas. In particular we forget how much knowledge and skill can be lost in just a generation. Add that to the collapse of civic commercial life and we get a complete change of economy in a hundred years. My children have no idea of what was important to my grandfather or how he lived.

Jane

Great episode. I especially enjoyed the thoughts about “seeing” through drawing and Helen’s bid for a dig diary. As we tackle the increase of AI in our lives it’s good to think about the human touch.

Brian Fisher

Some possible factors in the population replacement in Europe about 5,000 years ago, include the spread of the Yamnaya people who were among the first to domesticate cattle and horses. One theory is that because they were pastoralists, they had developed different immunities to diseases that were animal transmitted, and the other human groups they encountered were unprotected against any infectious diseases that they were used to. Plague may be another factor, since there are burials from that period indicating its presence. Some researchers speculate that this kind of plague may have been transmitted by aerosol similar to how Covid spreads.

Will

I completely agree with that! How many of us know how to change our oil, or tires, or gears (my clutch is out again so I must've forgotten!).

Ziska

Oh Dr. Olsson- what a treat. To be fair Helen an Martyn these podcasts are always a treat and something to look forward to with glee- downright eye twinkling giggling glee. The entire discussion on “touch” brought back memories of a discussion with Gadi Geiger of MIT on his studies of dyslexia. One finding was that Hand eye coordination - specifically hand /eye tasks which were not engrained yet in muscle memory- helped people with dyslexia read more easily. There were a lot more levels to this study- contrasting numbers, and letters with flipping right and left- up and down visual cues- ( spoiler you can unscramble if the water glass is near your right or left hand a lot faster than an upside down word). The take away was that the connection between hand (touch) and eye has been an evolutionary advantage for a lot longer than the written word. Drawing is a really good way of understanding something. When you’re drawing you’re playing down down down where the iguanas play. Sent from my iPhone

Julianne Ture

Of course we all know that John Gater would be leading the parade to the pub!

Pam

Brilliant podcast as ever. Michael Olsson was particularly thought provoking about how the physical actions of archeology help to unlock meaning. I love drawing and find the enforced concentration deepens my understanding of the subject. My pencil is my trowel. Also, yes, hill forts and water sources? So much more to be understood. Finally, I am fascinated by the transition from Roman occupation to AngloSaxon dominance and loved Helen's analogy of the passage of time relating to our all too familiar ups and downs. Keep it up!

Jacky Smith

I wonder if it would be relevant to put Dr Michael Olsson in touch with the Bateson Institute, who work on "warm data". Warm data is the sort of information you can't collect in tick boxes - the relationship between things rather than just the things themselves, the complex way information fits within a number of different contexts and changes depending on how you think about it. Doing rigorous work in this area is hard but very possible, and there might be some very useful exchange of ideas.

Pamela Langridge

The segment on embodied knowledge was absolutely wonderful.

Elaine P

Thank you for yet another thought provoking episode. I am a pianist and former information management analyst, so the discussion with Dr. Olsson has my mind racing in many directions, including making me look at just myself through a new lens. Riveting, will have to listen to this again. And if the interview was longer, please release the full interview!

Lee Broderick

Nice to hear Philip Rahtz get a mention.

Debbie Gerlock

Thank you so much for answering my question. It’s been one that has plagued me for a very long time.

Marcus Mellåker

Maybe no one forget how to maintain and build the Roman buildings when the Roman’s left. But as the Roman economy collapsed there is no one left that can are willing to pay for the maintenance or new building.

Marcus Mellåker

As a nurse I find a cross over from what Dr. Olsson talked about. To be able to have a present reflection in the doing. You could just do without thinking about it but it is the present reflection that realy bring forth new meaning from the doing. Different profession just use different tools in their doing but we all need this present reflection to extract the data we need.

Harry

My remembrance of the UK i of the end of the sixties and the seventies is quite different than that of Helen. Tremendous growth?