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Dig Watch: Spoil Heap Q&As – Ask away! (Patreon)

Published:
2023-06-15 09:38:02
Edited:
2023-06-15 09:39:49
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Another dig means more Spoil Heap Q&As with Derek and Lawrence. This is your opportunity to put questions to the team on site. So what would you like to know?

We have some great guests with us this weekend who we're hoping to catch for a chat, including:

Dr Richard Parker, historic buildings expert: Our good friend and authority on Devon's vernacular architecture will be lending his talents and keen eye for detail to our investigation.

Dr Sophie Kay, genealogist and ancestry researcher: We're very excited to welcome Sophie to the team. Sophie's career began as a scientific researcher in DNA analysis, though she is equally adept in translating Medieval Latin!

We'll also be catching up with regulars including, Dani Wootton, who has been working closely with the local community to make this dig a reality.

Please put your questions in the comments section of this post, either keeping it general for all the team or including the name of the person you wish to ask.

Files

Comments

Wolfgang Zenker

I guess the rental agreement usually requires you to return the Pineapple clean and undamaged, so don't place it on pizza 😉

Paul Faulkner

When we see bits of ruined/destroyed buildings redistributed around a village (stonework, etc)... I wonder if there are any accounts of how that actually happened. Did the entire village work together to pull down the old buildings and then help themselves to the spoils in some sort of festival/community/group event? Or did individuals/families sneak up to the ruined buildings in the night and pinch bits of stonework under cover of darkness? Or did the ruins' owners perhaps sell bits of their old buildings to the townsfolk, effectively recouping some cash from their downfall... like someone breaking-and-selling an old car for spares?

David Boon

My questions are for Sophie Kay - How are you planning to use genealogy to connect individual families to local sites/buildings and to the places they later immigrated? Will you be using any DNA research as part of the focus on Modbury? How might family historians / genetic genealogists in countries they moved to be able to assist in your research? For example, I know there was immigration to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) where I live from Modbury in the early 19th century. Will there be any possibility of identifying surnames/families of interest during the weekend and Patreons such as myself who have a background in history, genetic genealogy and local archival sources to flesh out the stories of these people? I am not suggesting it will necessarily be a focus on Tasmania but wherever the focus, you involve locals to help with the research spreading the community aspect of the dig to the global context.

Goijaart van Dijk

For Dr. Sophie Kay: My grandfather was a keen amateur genealogist. He spent 18 years (from retirement until his death in 1968) finding his own paternal ancenstry in actual paper archives. He soon realized that everyone is related to everyone, so as he was getting on with it, he also found the ancestry of most of my hometown's inhabitants in 1950. (Tilburg NL, at the time around 70.000 people.) I have published the family tree he made online, on MyHeritage, just to make it accessible to my own (extended) family. It goes back to 1300, so there are many links with other family trees. I have noticed that most links I get notified of, relate to copies of the research my grandfather did, or interpretations of it. This makes finding new connections, or even older ancestry, quite difficult. So my question is: How reliable is the data of sites like MyHeritage? Does it relate to actual, scientifically checked, genealogical databases, or should it just be considered the basis for further offline research?

Eggs Ackley

That’s three good questions! My punter’s answers would be yes, yes, and yes…just a guess.

Goijaart van Dijk

A question for the not-so-spring-chicken-anymore in the team: Time Team's Phil Harding is no longer involved, because he is getting on a bit and is (presumably) not able to do three days of digging anymore. How do archeologists deal with getting older? Do you dig until you drop, do you step back and let the younger ones do all the work, do you step into other fields of archeology that are less physically demanding?

Leitchy

Dr Parker, what do you look for to distinguish between buildings of different eras?

Ann Wagner

Will you be looking for the lost Priory of Modbury? What sort of archival and geographical research are you doing to try to locate where the priory buildings used to be? Might robbed out stone from the priory be visible in existing buildings? Thank you!

Michael Louk

What is your favorite piece of TT clothing to wear on site from the official shop?

Julianne Ture

The Angles and Saxons were generally in different parts of Britain (East “Anglia” vs. Wessex/Essex/Sussex, i.e., the West, East, and South Saxons respectively), so it’s a geographical rather than an archaeological question. The Angles founded the kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia, which were later conquered by the Vikings. Following the Saxon-led victories over the Vikings in the ninth and tenth centuries, the Anglian and Saxon realms merged into the first unitary kingdom of “the English” and the Angles effectively disappear as a distinct group.

Justin Freeman

Question for anyone in the team but related to this style of dig. Comparing commercial, research and community archaeology, what do the team think makes public engagement/involvement so important?

Elizabeth A Tice

How far back can you go with DNA -stone. age, iron age, etc. - and connect with people of today in a particular locality?

Thomas Grenn

I have a general question for anyone. I am looking to start a career in Archaeology and starting from step one although I do have a History Degree from a Canadian University. What do you recommend as the best education path to become an archaeologist? Are there any particular universities that you recommend that I look into? Also do you have any general tips for someone trying to break into the industry?

Michael Sperry

Dr. Parker, is there an example you can give of a building (or part of one) that fooled you into thinking it was from a different era? (example: "ancient" ruins that turned out to be Victorian-era folly, or something like that)

Carl Johnson

Dr Richard Parker, how often do you find historical blueprints of buildings or design plans from the time of construction?

Carl Johnson

Dr Sophie Kay, what DNA evidence amazed you the most either in this dig or across your career?

Patricia Amero

I'm looking forward to the TT Q/A... Seriously, TT Patrons ask such interesting questions that make me say "wish I'd asked that..." bring it on.

Patricia Amero

🤢 Yuck to pineapple on pizza, that's a NO from me (in Canada) 😂

Patricia Amero

I'm 100% up for Canadian Bacon anywhere, any time!! 😃👍

Paula Holter-Mehren

Must be Canadian Bacon! (At least down here at 48° North)

Phillip Nelson

It seems rare to find whole pots on digs, even in midden pits. If someone threw out an old pot, you would think they'd throw out all of it in one go. So, where's the rest of the pot (s)?

Michael Louk

What equipment are the metal detectorists choosing to use on this site and why?

Emily Flotilla

Good question. I'm sure Phil's knees and back are riddled with arthritis.