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Dig Watch: Iron Age Site - Q&A: Send your questions! (Patreon)

Published:
2023-09-14 18:34:26
Edited:
2023-09-14 20:25:09
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

The team are arriving on site in Dorset, preparing for another busy weekend ahead, excavating an intriguing Iron Age site.

One of our favourite features of Dig Watch is the 'Spoil Heap' Q&A sessions, when we put your questions to the team. So, what would you like to know?

Please share your questions in the comments section, either keeping it general or directing them at a specific team member. We'll try to get through as many as possible during the dig.

In particular, we hope to chat with returning guests, Dr Miles Russell, and Roman small finds specialist, Dr Philippa Walton, so please get those questions coming in!

UPDATE: Here's Derek with a little teaser from the site on what to expect: https://youtu.be/FVt1UpHfflo 

Files

Comments

Giles Langley

What are you hoping to find that may change our views on the period?

Ralph Salier Hellendag

Many Iron Age sites have older Bronze Age components. And some sit atop even older components. Any evidence of older components?

Ralph Salier Hellendag

Is there a nearby water resource? If so, has there been any underwater archaeology been done or is this planned? Especially given the propensity of these being sites of religious import?

stuart sutcliffe

I'm pretty sure your hoping to find postholes. But what are you expecting to find in the bottom of the postholes

Roseanna Lee Horton

What is the most exciting and fantastic thing that you hope to find on this dig? I love you guys and can’t wait for the next exciting dig to watch🤩😊

Ann H

What was the local ecology like during the Iron Age? Trees, open, marsh, springs, etc.

Priscilla Waller

The passing comment about Iron Age DNA was fascinating. I hope that'll be followed up.

Cathy Tyrrell

How many people lived there at any one time? What was the social structure like… would the settlement be one extended family or a group of families?

Ruth Ann Copley

Will you be able to determine what Iron Age group or tribe originally controlled the site before the arrival of the Romans or was it a "crossroads" with various visitors.

Jakub Jůzl

How (if at all) has amateur metal detectoring changed our understanding of small finds?

Robert Boudreau

Question for Miles Russell: In your career you've been involved with and worked on sites ranging from the Neolithic to Medieval in shows I've seen you in (not just Time Team). What period of history do you find the most interesting, that you most like working in?

Cindy Masek

I recently listened to a research presentation that discussed pottery in Western Mexico where they were surprised to discover that pottery, rather than traded over distances, was copied locally. To establish this, they had to test the substance of the pot and the decorative substances used via some advanced tools in France. While certainly in the UK during Roman times and later there was a great deal of trade,but is it possible that in earlier times, such as in the Iron age, rather than trading pots, they too were copying them? Granted, it was harder to transport things in Western Mexico, mountains, no wheels, etc. But has anyone looked at pottery there to validate traded vs copied accurately?

Victoria {Harvest Hare}

Does this site offer up any possible data that could help us to understand the impact of the arrival of the Romans on the LIA Durotrigian communities?

Doug Lucey

Have any Irish connections been made, dating to the Iron Age, in the Purbeck/Dorset area? We had no Roman conquest/invasion in Ireland, and the Iron age and prehistory perhaps lasted a little longer here. There would still certainly have been contact and trade with Britain (including slavery) in Wales and western Britain, but how about Purbeck/Dorset?

Dyfan & Jemma Graves

How much connection did the Durotriges have with Gaulish tribes on the mainland?

Dyfan & Jemma Graves

This site being on Durotriges land, how would you determine their relationship with the neighbouring tribes e.g Damonii and Belgae?

Dyfan & Jemma Graves

How important was sailing to the iron age people in Dorset? In west wales where I live all the hillforts seem to cling to the sea, making it seem like transport by sea was far important than land? I am aware, for example, of a theory that Iron age culture reached Britain not by conquest as previously thought, but sea trade along the west coast...

David Boon

Having already dug at the site before, what insights have you gained on the local people and what more do you hope to learn from this new dig?

Elizabeth Esser

What more have you learned from the skeletons? Can you tell what caused the lateralization in the young male? Our first thought is that weapons training could cause this. Does this fit the hypothesis that the upper class were the ones buried at this time? Would upper class young men of this age be expected to excel in military pursuits? What kinds of activities might an upper class lady of this time have pursued? Spinning, embroidery, overseeing the work at the kilns, perhaps? Also, can you tell from her skeleton if she was a mother?

Hypatia1

In past Iron sites we have seen on time team a lot of use of the mag to find ditches, have there been any surveys done on the site prior to this dig? Also will they be using the GPR, as I don’t remember it being used at an Iron Age site in the past episodes much but it seems to be used a lot more in the new episodes

Vernon Kelly

The previous video speculated only upper class people may have been buried during this period. It would seem the thousands upon thousands of common folk over generations should have left some remains from this time. Even Neanderthals have been shown to have burial practices.

Chris Healy

Given the proximity of Corfe Castle and its large natural 'motte' is there any thought of Iron Age use of that feature, even though too small for a normal hill fort, and could there be a connection to the new site?

Jon Colcord

Did they invent irons in the Iron Age? If not, how did they keep out the wrinkles? 👕 Did they invent golf in the Iron Age? If so, did they already have woods, or did they only play with irons? ⛳️

Kerry Hennigan

When I studied the Iron Age for a Cambridge ICE undergraduate certificate of archaeology of Ancient Britain I was astonished at the profusion of pits at Iron Age sites. Just what was it with the people in Britain at this time and all these pits?

Hazel

I am thinking that more remains will be found. Is there one grave that has a story that jumps out at you? Are you finding any graves of the common people or does it appear if only the upper classes were buried here?

Levy

and any information on what modern population might be related?

Peter Blay

Is the site in danger from coastal erosion

Charles Rand

Will Phil Harding be joining the team again in the future?

Kerry Hennigan

Hey, fancy us both being here, Victoria 😁

Janette Menhennet

Defensive, Domestic or both? What are Time Teams views on that age old question regarding the purpose and function of hill forts.

L. Randolph Lee

I have an ‘offsides’ question about the re-editing involved in making shows like “Most Tragic.” Are they assigned as tests or training for prospective full-time editors? Could you please provide links to the original shows that the excerpts originate from?

TimeTeamOfficial

Hi, the compilation episodes on the Time Team Classics channel are all drawn from full episodes available on that same channel (typically Series 12 to 18). Links to the full episodes are provided in the video description. Thanks

Mika

Perhaps not for this dig, but generally: do archaeologists ever wear protective equipment due to potential toxic fungi or the like when digging?

James D Speckart

I'll ask a classic Stewart Ainsworth question: what do the current roads and field boundaries imply about the uses of the site within the surrounding context?

Joanne Kellam

My question is not specifically about this dig... but in general, for the original team members. What was it about this reincarnation of Time Team that made you want to come back/continue to be a part of the team? (I love that so many of you have returned, and how you have embraced the new team members as well!!!)

Garry Matthews

Once a site has been selected how much work is done before the digging team get there regading planning and preperation

Charlotte Edmonds

Cheesy by itself, but in amongst all the serious questions this was so unexpected it made me really laugh!

Peter Martin

As this area is also known as the Isle of Purbeck where/how does this site fit into it? What is it's relationship with Bucknowle?

Olivia Wilson

I would love to know more about dating Iron Age sites in this region. Are there certain characteristics that are associated more with the early/mid/late Iron Age? What dating evidence can be used for features that have a broader use?

Jon Colcord

We definitely need more ‘Dad jokes’ around here! 😁

Ms. C.J. "AbriiD" Rideout

I’d love to ask, have any of you had a wheelchair user on any dig site? I know an Archaeologist, a friend who was actually part of the Geophysics team on your very first episode of the original show, and he can’t recall any.

Martha Berryman

Ploughing? When did "ridge & furrow" begin? In many parts of the World the soil is not disrupted. Instead, there is a practice of poking little holes in the soil for seeds or transplants. Recent gardening science has suggested that the "French mthod" of turning or carving into the soil prior to planting. Ideas on beginning of ploughing?

Diane Jones

Anglo Saxon question. I've just read The Word Hord by Hana Videen. She says that manuscripts based on the oral stories of the AS were prepared by monks and adapted to a Christian ethos. What might have been excluded/we have lost by the Christianisation of the stories?

Mark Freestone

Question for Lawrence and Derek…what made people dig in the field in the first place?

Dorothy Africa

In the thirty years of Time Team the scientific equipment has improved greatly, allowing us to learn more than was possible earlier, but Time Team has itself contributed enormously to what we know just through the number of digs it has conducted and the finds it has made. Over the past 30 years what have been the most important Time Team contributions?

Bede Browne

Hi, What is the name of the ruins on the horizon behind the dig please.

Elaine Molenaar

Looking back at 30 years of Time Team, I have a general question for the Original members of TT. With all this technology and help from so many new possibilities that you didnt have before, how do you feel about your work and your contribution? Does all this tech make your results better in your opinion or do you think that the way you did it in the past gave you more room for imagination and thinking about what you are finding in the ground?

Alan Murdock

Looking at Google Maps, Corfe Castle. At least I am 99% sure. I live 4300 miles away from it.

Ann Wagner

Talk about some about the practical set up for digging and filming. Who sets up getting the diggers and equipment to the site? How do you arrange remote power sources? Who sets up food, drink, accommodations, toilets? How many total people do you have on this dig/shoot? It must be an enormous logistical challenge to make sure everyone has what they need!

Sheila Sanderson

When the weather changes suddenly, how much damage is done to the exposed archeology in the opened trenches?

Debbie Gerlock

Noticed how the test kiln needed to be destroyed because they couldn’t get the bloom out. Is it a possibility that when that happened in the Iron Age (or any other) they rebuilt in the same spot or had to use a different area? If used a different area, why would they need to? And finally, if they did have to build elsewhere, would that be a reason there would be other kilns close by as opposed to a big production site?