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S22 | Dig Watch | Knights Hospitaller: Q&A - Send your questions now (Patreon)

Published:
2022-09-11 05:49:28
Edited:
2022-09-11 13:54:55
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

We are somewhere on the Welsh Marches – the border between England and Wales – investigating the site of a potential Knights Hospitaller preceptory.

What would you like to know? Please put your questions to the team in the comments section below. Please include general questions for any of the team or start with the name of the person it's directed to.

We'll answer as many as we can in our upcoming 'Spoil Heap' sessions, to be released when normal programming resumes.

UPDATE

Thank you for all your Knights Hospitaller related questions, which we'll be putting to the relevant experts. Please also share your more general questions for the wider team, including their favourite Time Team moments, fantasy dig sites, most treasured tools, archaeological insights and more. If you could ask us anything, what would it be?

Files

Comments

LexFi

For any / all of the team: what got you into archaeology in the first place?

Ingela Norrby

At last we starting to re-write the history. Many examples for example up here in the north with viking warrior graves change gender from male to female. Do you think we will rewrite the history regarding knights templar?

Ingela Norrby

Are there any examples already, and might it happen this time?

Lisa Wilson

What did a Knight Hospitaller have to do to be named as such? Lisa Wilson NZ

Lisa Wilson

Also what evidences are you looking for to distinguish this as a hospitaller preceptory?

stuart sutcliffe

My question is for Helen. Would there be graves on the site, and if so what items if any might you find in the graves.

Lengua Franca

Do KH Preceptories change or individualize a bit from region to region? Are there aspects that continue on to more modern hospitals?

Chris Siegmann

The Knights order originated during the Crusades I understand. How, when and why did the order begin to concentrate on Preceptories in England and become 'Hospitallers'?

Jeeves

To anyone from the geophys side of the team, we've seen amazing developments in Geophys technology between the start of Time Team and now with the 'live' geophys readings, but what's next? Is there still new tech being developed, and what are your hopes for the future of this incredible tool in the archaeologists' kit.

Ian Thomson

Why was the hospital at this particular site? Was it geographical or due to any other reasons such as a donor had given them the land?

Hunt

How many people would have worked at the preceptory?

Alanna Landers

Did preceptaries have a standard layout like monasteries?

Anne

In the wrestle a number of questions were raised in relation to this site / dig by the team themselves. Those are the questions I would like some enlightenment on. I realise it is way too soon for answers but a daily round up of developments on-site from each of the specialists would enable Patreons to be more engaged with the dig as it unfolds and would provide us with a basis for a site specific Q&A.

Josh Fell

The knights hospitaller lasted longer than their counterparts the knights templar, what enabled them to survive when other orders at the time didn't?

Pauline Guest

Will Naomi be there with her flotation tank? If so, what things might she be looking to find and how will they help give us a better idea of what life was like in the preceptory?

William F. Campbell

Early in dig watch it helps to see a graphic or map of the site with known or suspected features and the location(s) of investigations or trenches. Would someone do this please?

Dyfan & Jemma Graves

Being in the Welsh marches, did the knights hospitaller site ever get affected by the fighting between England and Wales, e.g before 1282 and during Owain Glyndwr's rebellion in the 15th century

Patricia Amero

I read that while the Crusaders were executed, the Hospitallers were given 1 year to leave. I'm not sure if that's true for all, but would those at this site possibly have been given that option? ALSO Is there historical documentation of others reusing this site post-hospitallers?

Nameri Verdstela

I’m a St John Ambulance volunteer. I know there isn’t a direct connection but I do know that the Order of St John was inspired by the Hospitallers so I was interested to find out how that came about - why did people who wanted to save lives in the 1800s name themselves after a monastic order? What was it about the Hospitallers that “fit”?

The Earls Imagery

I dont know as much as id like regarding the funding of the order- where did their wealth stem from, and how was it moved from here to the middle east?

LouLi

I was wondering if we knew anything about the relationship between this preceptory and others, both locally and abroad. I'd love to know how it fit into the order as a whole!

Steve Mikre

How does it feel knowing many current and future archeologists chose this career path because of their love for Time Team?

Mak Wilson

Will it be possible to detect through the archaeology when the Hospitallers took over the mantle (and the money) from the Templars?

gary hipkiss

How did the team first find this site, was it in historical records or was it found by a previous dig by other archaeological groups?

Shannah Behling

Do you have any idea how many preceptories the knights ran in England?

Eelco Kruidenier

What was the general function of a preceptory?

Pamela Brotherton

What type of finds would be most helpful in answering the questions of this site?

Jenna Leigh-Thompson

Two questions, Stewart, this site how and why does it differ from Torphichen?. Carenza, has there been a study to trace the ancestry of any of the of the known Knights Hospitaller families.. if there were, were any direct decandants found?

Andrew Taylor

I guess this is a more general question but how did they communicate with other Preceptories and even as far as Jerusalem? How did they know a message received was genuine?

James Leighninger

Has Lidar made Stewart obsolete? It was always fun watching him roam the surrounding countryside and do his “pushups” in the field looking for lumps and bumps!

Elizabeth Nicholson

Will someone do a day in the life of a knight hospitallier? Will there be an armourer involved to explain the armour and weaponry that would have been used, especially anything specific to Britain?

Jon Colcord

What type of evidence do you hope to find that you believe would be definitive in not only dating the site, but for identifying the site as being related to the Order?

Mike Darby

Did they care about or for their local community, and if so is there likely to be archaelogical evidence to support such a suggestion or were they mainly there for fundraising purposes, for their wider aims?

TimeTeamOfficial

Thanks for your questions - we will be asking lots of Knights Hospitaller related questions to the relevant experts. Please also feel free to include any more general questions to the team about their wider Time Team and archaeology experiences!

Carl Johnson

How did the records that were found in Malta help with determining where to dig or hint at what you might find while digging?

Steven Meeks

Living across the pond, these Knights are very new to me. What is their origin story and what became of them? Are they strictly from the United Kingdom?

Mark

Did the knights hospitaller and templar Co operate or compete with each other ?

DOOBAT

For all those in the trenches: is there anything specifically (be it small finds or architectural features) that you're hoping to find?

Kathy Faltinson

What is involved with recording finds, recording the trenches, and compiling a report?

bart sikkes

how has (or hasnt) the actual digging changed in the years since time team stared till now? tools, procedures, duration, ...

Mark Pileggi

Any reason they picked that location for the preceptory?

Richard Seaton

How would you define a preceptory as I have found a number of different definitions

Laura Rash

What specific artifacts are likely to be found that can be certain to belong to the knights? Were the knights who lived there men who had served in places like Rhodes and Malta or did they serve locally only?

John VanAntwerp

Will the reports from last season be released to at least Patreons? I would love to see them even if they are works in progress.

Ann H

Agree with Andrew re communications. Especially in the same date range. Are there more coeval and comparable preceptories in the archival documents in Malta elsewhere in Europe?

Ann H

For Naomi will you be looking for pollen indicating medicinal, edible, or horticultural plants brought back from the Middle East or Mediterranean? The warrior/hospital aspects of the Hospitallers seem quite separate in the 1300s from what I have read on Kingdom of Jerusalem. Any signs of healing skills and knowledge transfer?

James D Speckart

What's the quality of workmanship in the building remains, maybe on a scale of "peasant piling rocks on the ground" to "Yorkminster Cathedral"? I'm wondering if you can tell if they had national/international corporate standards they had to meet in what they did, or if the findings are instead more reflective of regional/local standards.

Davey

This Preceptory is on the edge of Wales where there are many Abbeys and pilgrim routes . Are there any links to other sites in Wales? Basingwerk via Llanelidan and Valle Crucis formed a route for monks and Strata Florida was placed near the Roman routes out of Wales. Why was this site chosen by the Hospitallers?

Roger Mills

And for the younger ones how much of an influence was TT?

Robert Wise

Could we see a summary of the known history of the site?

Joy Garner

Brilliant question. I would also want to know how tech can help? How useful is LiDAR? What is in trial now?

Nathan Edwards

What is the significance of this location? Why was it ‘lost’?

Mac Whatley

Does Derek bring along any of his students to help out with the digs? I see both Derek and Lawrence are connected to Bournemouth- is it a prominent training ground for archeologists? [We in the US are pretty ignorant about British universities that aren't Oxbridge...]

Mark Lund

Is the church/chapel likely contemporary with the possible Hospitaller?

Charles Weager

From what I understand the Knights Hospitallers were a wandering order and their "abbott" wasn't in England. In 1180 they were commanded to establishments. The Austins were evicted from their house at Mynchin Buckland, Durston, Somerset and the Knights were moved in. There was two houses on this site male and female.

Charlotte Edmonds

For geophys: what was the origin of the buried Ford Cortina running joke? For any of the team, what has been the most surprising find or discovery about a site for you? Has there been anything discovered from a Time Team dig that has significantly changed your understanding in your specific field, or changed the way you work?

Sharyle Doherty

For Stewart, how do you approach doing an initial assessment of the landscape in general and for this landscape in particular? What key indicators do you look for?

Peter Blay

What is the church that appears in centre of Hospitalars dig site

Kerie Receveur

What is your opinion of the portrayal of the Hospitallers in Dorothy Dunnett’s magisterial novel series, “The Lymond Chronicles”?

Jill Bray - Author

I'd love to know the history; when it was established; who granted the lands; how the site developed; who the preceptors were; and how recently were there remains of the buildings still standing.

Kathleen Garza

Matt Williams: what advice do you have for an 8 year old boy who owns a Time Team trowel, a metal detector, and an imagination, to stay inspired and curious?

Arie Dijkhuis

I have been watching a lot of old Time Team episodes lately, something that I do every holiday, and I have noticed that you often include the local community or even the local school in your digs. Will you be doing this for the oncoming digs as well? Keep up the good work!

Di

For Naomi what is your favorite discovery? and what brought you to environmental archeology?

Nigel Brown

Fantasy dig site for us ... underneath Chester Cathedral. Also, Bedlington St Cuthbert's churchyard (very ancient site). Well you did say fantasy?!

Nigel Brown

More seriously ... Ad Gefrin in Northumberland and the site of Guildford Racecourse.

Mark Freestone

Paul Blinkhorn…how do we tell the difference between Roman pottery and an old flowerpot when we find them in a field on a walk? Is there a definitive guidebook that might help us?

Mike Lowndes

ask him on Twitter @R1100GSBlueNose