Time Team S14-E08 No Stone Unturned, Warburton, Cheshire
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 มี.ค. 2013
- Moss Brow Farm in Warburton, Cheshire, had been the focus of intense study by local enthusiast James Balme for almost a decade before he invited Time Team to investigate further. In that time, the site had produced a range of artefacts, discovered as a result of intensive field walking and metal detecting including a rare snake's head bracelet, a silver denarius and a collection of Roman metalwork.
The assemblage of finds is unusual in the context of the north west of England. The evidence for Roman activity in the area is relatively sparse. Sites tend to produce few finds and aerial photography is rarely productive. In fact, there is a huge gap in our knowledge about the extent of both Roman military and civilian occupation in the region.
Time Team was keen to try to fill in some of that gap, and in particular to discover what lies beneath the bean fields of Warburton. And they left virtually no stone unturned in the process of doing so.
When I was really young, there were two jobs I wanted to do - either to be an archaeologist because I adored Time Team, or a zoologist because I loved David Attenborough. Now I’m a palaeontologist, merging the two jobs I wanted to do back when I was 4. Thank you Time Team. Rewatching makes me so happy
Sounds brilliant. I got into geology and am now reversing my decision and goong back towards archaeology. I must just love wading through mud.
I envy you. The US had exactly zero TV shows like this when I was growing up.
OH what a gallant and beautiful life you have had. Mr gallant himself, Sir Richard Attenborough, has all ways been my favorite. Your prodigal sons the USA love and esteem you, your King and the people, thank you, dear friend and ally. Kevin from sunny Mexico.
Your story also makes me very happy. May all your finds be fossils.
💯
Phil's also a geomorphologist! His identification of the glacial gravel lens was elegant, and then his identification of the old terrace lynchets was a lovely example of observation, experience and sticking to the task until he's figured it out. What a pro he his in a trench. Every episode he spots something crucial others don't.
One of the best TimeTeam episodes ever - it really showed the vulnerablility and how genuine the show was. Real bravery to air a show where nothing at all was found but nontheless huge educational value. I loved the stuff about geology, glacial deposits and how finds ended up where they did
This is actually one of my favorite episodes. Listening to Phil and Helen talk about what they'd learned is the point of archaeology. But Samian Ware is nice too.
I agree with you.
Baranduyn NoIdea AND I feel that they did find a lot. The evidence of the history of the changes in agricultural usage of the field was impressive. On a personal note, they identified that the trackway came from the direction of Dunham which is my family’s ancestral home. Thank you!
I think this episode was great in so many ways. But what I like best was Tony's observation at the end. This episode should be a must watch to any student of archaeology that just because you find evidence of presence, that presence need not be near by or significant. People drop things and they get moved around with time.
This episode (well, the entire series) represents what I love about British television over American television. In the US, they would probably never air an episode where they didn't find anything exciting. They would probably just leave the entire episode on the cutting room floor. But that's because they don't realize that such an episode can be just as engaging and entertaining and _educational_ as an episode where they find an entire villa complete with mosaic floor! I love this episode, and I love Time Team.
Which explains Don the Fart and the Fart Followers.
Ahhh, no one is old enough to remember Geraldo Revera and opening of AlCapones safe!
@@gwendolynfish2102 Yep, and all those shows where they pretend to be looking for bigfoot, giants, etc. But, of course, the premise of those is bunk anyway.
Thats why i love the early episode where they proved the site had been faked. Archaeology is as much about disproving things
@alanrtment porter To think, Americans saved the UK from the Nazi's for you all to turn into them less than a century later. Must suck to be stuck as a victim depending on the government teat.
I like that they showed this episode even though the Time Team didn't find anything amazing/remarkable/etc. It's unrealistic to expect EveryDigEver to result in grand and marvelous finds. And, in the end, they DID find something - an area of land that seems free from Glorious Roman Ruins and other Important Historical Things. A really good episode.
I really like Phil's story about 1800m on Salisbury Plain and only one post hole. I've been there! My first two pieces of excavation work for Avon County Council put me firstly, within spitting distance of Roman pottery kilns: I found nothing. Second: on a site that had recorded prehistoric features: I found nothing. I was beginning to despair, thinking they would think I was just a useless archaeologist. On my third site, we had found nothing by 11am on the third day, and completely fed up, I left my second-in-command in charge and walked up to the local shop to get some food. He kept extending the trench in the five minutes and when I returned, Andy jumped off the digger and said 'We've got a Roman building!' Just my luck. However, it turned out to be part of a Roman villa, and after that, I couldn't stop finding things. Just beginners bad luck, I suppose, although like Phil, I had done my job.
You were useless. Your pal saved the day when you went off crying like a baby !
This episode spoke to me. Yes, there were no tangible finds but the fact that the fields had been probably tilled for 2000 years is interesting to me. My family, going back several generations, also farmed land in Cheshire, quite near to this site.
I love this show because sometimes it goes 'wrong' and that the experts argue, even with Tony. It's helpful and honest to see them be good scientists about it. I love the "are you mad" at 36:00 conversation. It's genuine frustration, which is a part of all science.
Yes! I really enjoy the friendly (well, mostly) rivalry between John "Geophys" Gater and Stewart "Eyeballs" Ainsworth!
This is where the reality shines through. Sometimes there is virtually nothing.
My favorite episode is the one where they catch the guy and his son in out- and-out fraud. They demonstrate how science works by picking apart the elaborate deception. The Time Team are British so they never come out and call the guy an F-ing liar but they strongly imply it.
Despite not finding anything, this is an excellent example of the realities of archaeology. Okay, they didn't find anything, however they did figure out the mechanics of the site and how it has been worked over the centuries. That's still a very worthwhile result.
I love the expression 'lumps and bumps'!!! Not quite disrespectful, but also not terribly impressed by jargon.
In other wards, they learned “found” a lot at that site.
They didn't FIND anything. They LEARNED a good deal. Learning is important.
So much for the theory that you can sink a shovel anywhere in Britain and find cool stuff.
Love this series, thanks for posting!
Well, they did manage to make a bunch of empty dirt interesting to me! Phil describing lynchets, and what they mean, I found really interesting. So this episode was landscape archaeology instead of site archaeology!
I learnt quite a lot from this, about geology, about the movement of soil in a farm field, and about how to read the shape of the land for usefulness. Not bad, really.
You've got to love Phil and his outlook on everything.
It seems like he could easily get mad at Tony, but he doesn't. He always keeps that escalation to a point mirroring a professor trying to shove information into the head of an obstinate student.
One of the best TTs. It's the process that's enjoyable as much as the result.
I'm inclined to think a lot of viewers may be a little confused when a Roman 'brooch' is found. In modern times brooches are purely decorative jewelry but to the Romans these were practical buttons, sometimes embellished. Think of how many times you've lost a button from pants or shirts, and how quality men's clothing comes with spare buttons to replace one when, not if, one is lost. To the Romans losing a brooch was like losing a button, often easily enough replaceable and not worth spending a day searching for.
That's true; it seems the Romans were shedding brooches to an unnatural degree. They must have all been clutching one shoulder quite a lot in ancient times.
Always listen to Stewart!
I love that dog... easy going. My favorite.
One the best episodes from an educational perspective
They talk about these things being transported in with manure. Instead of manure, think of a compost heap or ancient garbage pile. Dump everything in, wait a year for the compost/manure heat to die down, then shovel the whole bit into the field. Learned my lesson when my first year's compost had tape and random bits in it - when you break down cardboard boxes, remove all the tape or it ends up in your crop. Doubt the romans cared though.
"The background noise of antiquity."
This episode is one of the most honest things that has ever been on television.
Phil's hands are always immaculate whether morning or night (including his long fingernails.) What does that indicate?
@@brushbros It means that Phil was not a dirty hippie. He was a conscientious scientist who also happened to be a talented musician as well.
Well said and thank you. Phil is amazing and deserves respect for all his hard work and dedication to the work he so clearly loves.
@@brushbrosThat he washes his hands. He takes good care of his hands for his guitar playing and also for his flint knapping. The man is not a slob.
I watch them all regardless, just to see if John and Stewart get into an argument.
Oh that's too funny! I just posted something about their rivalry, then I scrolled down and immediately saw your comment! I love those two! John's rarely wrong; it's his equipment and readouts! But then Stewart is right almost all the time. In one episode, I think all the way down in season 13 or so, Tony even said "Stewart was wrong, for once" - it wasn't about surveying but about _what_ was in the ground at a certain spot. I think John gets _a little_ bitter about it. He seems to get just a bit gruff with Stewart, as though he is _about_ to lose his cool with him, every now and then - maybe once a season.
I don't understand how sometimes there's nothing on the geophys and a massive building in the ground - unless it's clear that conditions are bad - and especially how on earth sometimes the clearest geophys signals represent nothing at all! Stewart's been wrong in his estimations a few times, too, but he's usually spot on interpreting the lumps and bumps that he can see.
But yeah, I'm right there with you. Stewart's my favourite on Time Team, then John! The best Stewart quote: John was saying something about how he's got the best and newest equipment, or possibly something about how the equipment wasn't right for the conditions, and Stewart said, "I've got the most technologically advanced surveying equipment known to man: eyeballs."
LOL, and I thought of this comment right away: I just watched an episode in Season 17 where Stewart gets a _leech_ put on him. Somebody asks him what he's going to call it. Naturally, *he says he's going to name it John Gater!!!*
The is the first episode I can remember where Phil does so much explaining. Excellent.
Love this show Phil is my favorite
Crab 🦀
Thank Goodness it's Dr. Pryor as Site Director if Mick can't be there! Neil Holbrook drives me nuts.
LOL TRUTH
I love how Phil teases Tony mercilessly.
The episodes where they find nothing they thought they'd find, or even find nothing at all, are my absolute favorites. The Arkwright Mill dig in Manchester (S13E3) is an example. They found loads of great stuff, but a wall was not at all where Francis Pryor and Mike Nevell (who appears in this episode also) expected it to be. Things became a comedy routine.
Tony [to Francis]: You promised me a wall! There is no wall here!
Francis: Yes, this trench is a wall-free zone.
Tony [to Nevell]: Well, where *is* it?
Nevell: Well, it's not *here*!
It was about 10 ft. farther on than they anticipated.
I'm only 10 minutes into this one, and it's shaping up to be another funny one. Interesting that Dr. Nevell is closely involved again.
Never mind _finding_ a roman fort, they've dug enough trenches to make their own!
What we're hoping to prove is that there's dirt in the bottom of Phil's ditch.
Great show.
I understand what Phil is talking about the plowing. Every plow has a shear that cuts into the soil and a mold board, a large curved peace above and behind the shear that pushes the dirt to one side. usually you go down one side then the other way on the other side, you end up with a frulow in the middle that is like a ditch.
I think you might be confusing terraces with ridge and furrow?
UNTRUE! You found "nothing" ... nothing is a thing... as there is nothing there, then that is something... Well done Time team.
I would not be surprised if a "lay over" area was found near the river. A place where people waited for other parts of their group to show up so they could travel together. Broken bits of kit would be dumped, horses and herded animals fed and watered. It wouldn't need a permanent "fort", but everyone would know that on THIS particular ridge, you could stop for a bit, sort out your kit, give the animals a good feed and watering and see if anyone else was coming by to travel with.
Local farmers could come along , haul away the detritus and dump it on their cleared fields as fertilizer.
There wouldn't be any stone walls or post holes. There might be some fire pits if someone wanted to cook a meal. But you'd only be there for a couple of days, hardly time to make a mark. If there WAS any mark, the farmers came by and took it.
I went on too find two.militsry coin hoards following the programme
Phil really shines in this one. Will now watch an episode of Mackenzie Crook's "The Detectorists" to celebrate the importance of finding nothing.
I found plenty .. even after the team left
@@jamesbalme2080 hah, given that you were the source of the finds for this episode, I'd expect this comment to be at the very top, not hidden as a reply halfway down the page. Thanks for providing the impetus for a great show James, and congrats on all the lovely finds!
They look quite cheerful having a few cold ones at the pub.
It was a great pint.... cold n tasty ...
@@jamesbalme2080 Even if it wasn't natural ale in a "Traditional Pub!"
helen wore the hell out of those jeans... WHEW.
Love the music at 11:14.
Sometime you win, sometime you lose - I guess we lost this round. We'll get 'em next time.
Paul Anthony Balistrieri
Well i think you really can't loose. Before you try a test pit, before you dig and before Geophys you are just suspecting or mere gessing what is in the soil, after it you know so much more, even if you found nearly nothing.
I love that this brought you into the normal life of people over 2K years. They farmed the same area that entire time, lost things - probably treasured things - that took over a thousand years for someone else to find.
It's like that ring I lost when I was a kid. Some archaeologist a thousand years from now is going to find it and assume there was a settlement there. Nah, I was just unlucky and lost it in the field as I ran through.
I'd like to know how that bracelet got there. It didn't look too secure on Helen's arm - like it could easily fall off. Perhaps a forbidden love - a tryst - out in the dark field for a row in the back of a cart? A rural roman love story.
Greg Liberace... It's comments like yours that make me glad I don't read the comments until after I have watched the show! I did learn a lot, and was glad to see them point out that not everything stays where it was dropped. It's something that has always bothered me about archaeology. They find something in the ground, and tell a whole story around those one or two finds. It's sometimes frustrating to me how they guess so much based on so little.
no stone unturned, no episode unwatched.
" It's sometimes frustrating to me how they guess so much based on so little." It's not random guessing. They are able to do that because of their depth knowledge about the subject, and their years of practice and study. It really shouldn't be a surprise. What I find annoying is people in the comments section who clearly know very little but presume they can talk on the same level as Archaeology experts and professors and challenge their ideas. Especially when the ideas these comment 'experts' put across are usually ludicrous.
Hey, if I was doing professional archaeology, I might just bring my dog along as well, because dogs can dig like crazy!
Of course, he might make off with some of the bones...
Hell yes! If I were going out into the country, out into nature, digging around all day every day, I would abso-frickin-lutely bring my dog on every dig! What an adventure for a dog! We'd all get to go for long car rides, and then we'd "mess around" and "play" in the dirt digging holes, and he'd get to be with me all day out in nature... That would be a great life for a dog. Heh, and for a person! I really wish I'd gone with archaeology in college! I almost did! :'(
+APIEngineering One of my favorite parts of the show is when some random local dog shows up in the background...just checking out what's going on!
Once on a dig, having turned around to make a comment to someone behind me, I picked up the pick ax I was using and started to swing before fully having turned back again. I just managed to stop the downward swing a cm above our excavation director's dog's stomach, who had chosen while my was turned to lie down in all that nice cool freshly dug soil on a hot summer's day. I spent the next 10 min. at least a trembling mess for nearly having killed that poor dog.
A. Westenholz 🤭😢🐶
You win and you loose! The first investigative team (the "punic ditch" guys) were full of themselves! I miss Mick! Dig on!
Love when the crumps of pottery were displayed after the trenching. It does show that you have to try in these cases since what we know based on docmenttion may not be totally accurate or locateable by contemporary landmarks. All I know is that digging regardless how plentiful a site may be is very tedious on the majority of the time with the unexpected unusual find. Made me change from arcaeology to anthropology.
It's obvious why they didn't find anything. Mick wasn't part of the team!
I remember a different version of the scene where Tony insisted Phil was disappointed, and Phil seemed pissed off after explaining about Salisbury Plain, and Tony insisted he was disappointed and surprised a protesting Phil by bringing up the pub. This version is different, I'm sure, with Tony looking at the camera and explaining about the pub. How can there be two different versions in circulation?
Yep, I'm in love with Helen.
Hot take
I’m always struck by how awesome it must be for a history nerd to be named “ Geake”.
Francis assessment so true!
Helen geake rules
Naught to see here:
53°23'47.6"N 2°26'18.7"W
Stewart would cuff ya upside the head. lol.
But what is that at 53.397247,-2.454259 ?
@@seekernz7790 As the satellite images get updated the crop marks come and go. There are several other intriguing spots just to the west of your co-ordinates,
Although it is much too late to comment, really, this is one T/T that I managed to miss. The team nearly mentioned something they have overlooked - all the 'night soil' from the surrounding towns, Manchester, Lymm, Warrington, etc were placed on these fields!
Not quite true. The site Time Team dug had no nightsoil on it. Indeed when Time Team left I unearthed another republican silver coin hoard below plough soil. Did you know we excavated this site in 2002 with MUAU and found the fortlet ...
@@jamesbalme2080 - No, sorry, I didn't. I saw nothing about it in the press, either, and I'm only a couple of miles down the road! It IS on record that night soil went onto the moss, to fertilize it, but I have to agree it doesn't say just where, but if there are any traces of a narrow-gauge light railway anywhere around, it was used to transport the material. Sleepers and bits of infrastucture have been found along the twelve yards road.
Like drilling for oil in Texas today, some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug! I should say most days you're the bug.
I wouldn't say it was nothing. There was a perfectly good example of how farming has disturbed the natural geology of a slope in a very large trench, along with a lead pendant from a seed bag.. So, yes there is definite evidence of human interaction with the environment, just not a building.
I don't think there is much territory in the UK, that you won't find any evidence of human activity if you look hard enough.
Actually like these episodes where the presumed "great & glorious" turn out to be proof of simply living and love anything farming related as, unfortunately, people have forgotten where food comes from.
One out of 160 program and was it a first? No rain! 😊
I think this is the first episode of the show I ever saw when it was on tv.
Wow I’ve lived here for 25 years and always heard rumours of time team being here and finding a ‘gladiators ring’ - how wrong people are 😅
I think this is the episode the cast referred to in later years, where a local metal detectorist suckered them into digging a field he knew to be empty of archaeology.
classic!
*(PS: Love the Bracket!)*
🔮
*roflol* Oh how funny! @ 30:23 *Phil Harding "Nailed the Timing" with his "searing quick witt"!*
Begin about 30:15 for full conversation clarity.
I wonder if this was a seasonal outdoor marketplace in Roman times?
I see your point, but I guess it just goes to show that you can't just dig absolutely anywhere and pull up archeology. I wouldn't want too many of these, though.
Seems to me the local farmers--if their families have been there for some time, which is typical--would have some "folk memory" if not actual records about the uses of the fields over time, and where some manure (laden with finds) may have been carted in from.
IF they got into that field from the manure of another field, how did it get into the manure of the other field. Certainly 2000 years of accidental droppings could certainly cause a great accumulation of "stuff". There is always a next level question in archaeology. And, a negative result is still a result, and a result that requires explanation and from which much can be learnt. Good show.
Im assuming it works as a rubbish pile. As the manure accumulates in piles you chuck the odd bit of rubbish on there, when it comes to fertilising it all gets mixed into the soil together.
Alternatively it could be from a burn pile thats been used to create ashes which in turn could be used to fertilise a field.
No way, I live in lymm- this is so weird to see!
Hi John it was my site !!! I went on to find greater evidence after the dig ...
I got a laugh when they said, all the "great" finds at temples can also be found in manure piles... LMAO
Isn't a fortlet a small build where the roman garason had to go and spend a penny during marches(a toilet)?
The people loading the manure must have dropped the stuff, and then the manure was spread onto the arable crop farm area.
Is fortlet a synonym for shart?
First appearance of Naomi Sewpaul, who later becomes a key environmental analyst. Looks like someone brought their kid to work...
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
This is what would happen if you put a trench in anywhere in our yard. Our home is probably the first one ever built here. Archeology in western USA is never going to produce a show like Time Team, there just isn't enough there.
They did an American Time team, it got 2 seasons. And it is so boring. I never finished episode 1.
I bet money the guy in the white sweater was in a ska punk band when he was in high school. I’m not sure why this idea comes to mind but I have a strong feeling. Haha
Bummer...such is a dig sometimes.
Those damn GLASSiers..
Francis is in charge...
Have known The Saracen's Head Pub for years.
Calls itself a Traditional Pub but doesn't serve Real Ale
Watched
May I please have a couple of beers with Phil Harding?
Wouldn't it have made more sense to examine the maps before any digging was done?
6:48 A bear!!!
First aired March 4, 2007.
is it a bakery
Can anyone name the episode that they found nothing because the home was built in an area of folklore. They made up the history. My favorite line is, "I don't want to kick a dead horse."?
S18E09 "Mystery of the Manor Moat"
Not the putrid ditch
.in the us we call it a latrine
3:02 ITS A TRAP
Do they pay the farmer for the crop they destroy?
Often times the farmers consider any information they're given as payment in lieu of money. But I do wonder how many episodes are never made or digs never done because the farmers say "no!"
Yes they do !!
well they didnt find nothing ?? so are they saying that every field has all that stuffff ???
160 programs to find nothing ... thats a pretty good run tbh
That's not a snake bracelet; the Romans were trying to invent the 9-iron.
Who's the pretty young lady at the 40:27 mark?
She is Dr. Naomi Sewpaul. Brilliant woman.
Why do they only have THREE DAYS on these digs. I just don't get it... the sites have been there hundreds of years, why not give it an extra effort to delve ALL THE WAY into their history?!?
Because that’s how Mick Aston designed the show. What they do is exploratory archeology, seeing what the basic nature of a site is. They’re not there to dig a whole site completely.
Just know watching and I don't think it was a snake bracelet. It is a hair pin r a nail.
If they really did all that hard work and found little to nothing, then they at least learned what American archaeologists go through all the time. In some areas of the US they still find nothing even though the Natives were here for a long time before us.
Thats why US archaeology is so meticulous. They literally dig incredibly slowly and carefully. On a European site where you have 15ft of archaeology its just not possible
Pete Nielsen.
That indicates that they had a life style which left the land undamaged.
You'd hope the land owner would have already mowed...but, I guess it wouldn't have helped.
It's about minute 28 and I'm thinking -- salted field....
Sorry but you know nothing of the site history. All finds were made on site with many recorded on video as they were unearthed as part of a previous TV documentary. Finds Liaison officers recorded all finds over a period of three years and two previous excavations were carried out at the site with myself and Manchester University archaeological unit. Also BBC 1 made a film about the site first broadcast in 2002. So before commenting check your facts. For your information all finds did come from the one field as can be confirmed by the portable Antiquities scheme.
Not salted at all. It took me 4 years to accumulate the finds. Also featured on BBC1
9k
You know, unless I am mistaken, of all the time periods, the Romans are the messiest. LOL They don't clean up very well. *Giggles*
18.00 Interesting that pre Christian societies saw snakes in a positive light, or at least not as friends of the devil. The Bible has certainly shaped Western culture but not always in a useful or truthful way.
I just had a brainstorm or maybe a grand mal seizure but I thought with all those trenches you might as well just put in some wood forms pour in the sufficient cement to make a foundation and build your own fake Roman-style villa. You could add all the fancy Roman decorations with the floor tiles
and the mosaics including a large bathhouse For the current farmer. After all, you’ve already got all those huge trenches. Then the current landowner can
charge for tours and rented it out for Roman orgies. Because after all sex sells very well and it’s fun. I always had a secret wish to own a house of ill
repute though my biggest fear was that I'd have eating up all the profit.
Well, I know what the Romans were doing in Warburton........ they were baking bread. lol
It is WARburton, NOT WarBURton!