Chat Ed : Welcome Carenza!
manwe : hi Carenza - congrats on a great programme!
dundarach : Hi Carenza thanks for giving up some time.
Carenza Lewis : Hello everybody, I've just finished watching the show and it brings it all back, how absolutely awful it was down there!
Dave Bradbury : Surely it can be a rather depressing profession when nothing is found & an ecstatic one when things are popping out of the ground in every direction. How do you handle it?
Carenza Lewis laughs
Carenza Lewis : Often when we don't find anything those times are very academic. We learn new things all the time. Everything you find, or don't find, brings you closer to the truth. It's the most fantastic thing in the world when you start to find things which start to make sense and a whole new idea comes into being in your mind. It's great, the essence of archaeology is the physics of touching the past.
tony banner : is there any theory as to why cannibalism took place?
Carenza Lewis : There are lots of theories as to why it happens at different places and different times. There are religious ideas about eating the brains of a very revered leader to gain his knowledge, or it can be something very disrespectful i.e. consuming someone to stop their life. There has been a lot of work done looking at cultures which were still in existence 100 years ago, who hold evidence of cannibalism. It's not a salvation issue, it's not done as a casual thing though. It's not like 'oh we might as well eat them'!
Andrew Green : What was your verdict of the dig - ritual or dumping ground?
Carenza Lewis : Ritual definitely. I don't think that, at that period, you are casually throwing human remains away. All this thing about no objects being found is not a problem. The fact that you have a large number of human and dog bodies all in this very unusual situation and with evidence of cannibalism means that it was something of a ritual going on.
tintin : You found lots of Dog bones in that other Time team special over the New Year. Julian Cope says in his book that that cave was called the cave of Dogs. A link?
THE : Why all the dogs?
Carenza Lewis : Well I don't know, there could be a link. What's interesting is that dog bones very rarely turn up in ordinary rubbish. It does look like the dog is being treated differently in the same way that humans are being treated differently. Dogs have quite a different relationship with humans, not like cows or sheep. Dogs were sometimes, in other cultures, used as healers... they licked wounds clean and helped to heal. So this all adds to the ritualistic feel.
M Badger : do you ever wish you could spend more than the 3 days on a site?
sstorey : How often do you want a time team dig to continue beyond the third day?
Carenza Lewis chuckles
Carenza Lewis : Sometimes... But after three days we've done our job and we feel we are ready to go. Other times you do end up wanting to stay. In Alviston that was a bit of both, at the end of three days we were utterly drained, we were pleased to get out of the hole and get clean! But it was the most fantastic site we would have loved to stay. So it is frustrating to think there might be more clues down there.
John OH : What's the single most exciting find you have unearthed?
Carenza Lewis : Oh god...
Carenza Lewis thinks
Carenza Lewis : I get asked this a lot, in many ways archaeology is not about finds it's about discoveries. It can be a bolt of lightning that hits you with all the answers, it's not just about physical objects. Although it does give you the ability to touch the past. There are two that stick in my mind, a little babies bracelet - copper gilded, twisted wire and it was just like the ones we give babies now... that tiny little item was very evocative. The other was from Pap Castle - a fragment of mirror which didn't really look like anything at first, then we cleaned it up and saw a dim distant image and to think that the last person to look in that mirror died 1700 years ago, it was amazing.
John : Good evening Carenza, Throughout all the series, which I have enjoyed enjoyed very much, I've noticed that when it comes to the dirty jobs you seem to be selected the most - do you get paid more than the rest?
Carenza Lewis laughs
Carenza Lewis : Sadly no!
Gavpowell : you're one of a handful of women in a male dominated profession.How does that feel?
Carenza Lewis : There are quite a lot of us, but more men the higher up you go. I'm pleased I'm there as an example to other women. I hope I'm encouraging. I don't really think about it - I just get on with it. I'm so used to working with mainly men that it seems normal. It's a badly paid profession so if you do rise to the top you are unlikely to earn megabucks. It's not quite as male dominated as other professions. That said, it is quite a physical macho profession too though.
Caro : What do you do in real life - are you a teacher or a hands-on archaeologist?
Carenza Lewis : I've done both. When Time team started I was doing landscape archaeology. Time Team takes up a lot of time these days. We did 17 shows last year. I teach at Cambridge the rest of the time. It's something I have to fit in with TV commitments at the moment though.
ember : One of the Time Team episodes concerned a 'hoax' site - how many 'hoaxes' have you come across in your career?
Carenza Lewis : That's the only one I've known about so far. They do come about from time to time, but I've not knowingly gone to any others.
manwe : Does Mick Aston ever get his hands dirty? He never seems to get in a trench like you or Phil?
Dave T : Hi Carenza, how come we never see Mick Aston down a hole getting dirty?
Carenza Lewis laughs
Carenza Lewis : Mick's job is to be in charge of everything that's going on. And he has to make the decisions on what is the best way to move forward. He's like the managing director.
dundarach : Come of Chat Ed, ask her to dish the dirt on the embarrassing stories of what goes on off camera.....!!!!
Carenza Lewis chuckles
Carenza Lewis : There's enough on camera! The night after Day one there was a fire alarm at 4:40am! So that stopped anything from going on that was going on I think!
Phil Walker : It often seems a shame that whenever a excavation provides some really excellent finds, they are just paved over again for someone else to look at in the future. More should be made of the better finds.
Peter Griffiths : who writes the final archaeological reports and where are they published for others to read and learn from?
Carenza Lewis : Finds go to local museums. The sword we found at the hoax site went to the local museum. The best finds are on display usually. Opening sites up is very expensive. You can't leave it as an open hole in the ground, you have to maintain it and make it safe etc. Sometimes we go to public sites which are open. The reports are written at two levels - at a Time Team level for Channel4 and the technical reports written by Katie Hurst. Time Team and the local units have copies. Some are published though in local reports and in journals.
Chat Ed : OK folks - our half hour is up now so last three questions thanks...
Thrawn : are good sites passed on to other teams tho, those who don't have to do the work in 3 days?
John Henderson : Have any sites been re-opened after you have left and if so, is there interpretation of the site similar to yours?
Carenza Lewis : No we don't pass them on generally. We do get thousands of letters a year asking us to come and dig at sites. We can only do a handful. We'll go away sometimes though and excavations will carry on as part of long term projects. Occasionally we'll leave the team for another couple of days - Coventry was one.
Stephanie : Where in the world would you most like to dig and why??
Kathryn Dowd : If you had an unlimited budget, where would you most like to take the show?
Carenza Lewis : Ooo I love medieval Britain so I'm involved in that and it's origins, but it's not very exotic! I dug in Jordan a few years ago, and that was fantastic. There are so many places you could go to it would be impossible to make one choice I think.
Chat Ed : And the last question now - people have been dying to know if you know:
Dalgarven : Where does Mick get those woolly jumpers?
Carenza Lewis laughs
Carenza Lewis : This is a really boring answer!
ember : he knits them himself?
Carenza Lewis : Sue Fitton's mum knits them! One of his field walkers.
Carenza Lewis laughs
Carenza Lewis : I get asked this all the time!
Chat Ed : That's it folks! Thanks for coming, Carenza...
Lucy Brown : Cheers Carenza! You rule!
Rob Davis : thanks Carenza
dundarach : Thx Caz = :)
steven lewis : Thanks Carenza!! You were great on the show tonight!
Bunny : yay Carenza!!!! your great!
Chat Ed : And lastly - the Time Team book: 'Timechester' is available now from the Channel 4 bookshop, priced 16.99. You can get to it at www.channel4.com/shop!
Carenza Lewis : It's been brilliant talking to you - I need to go and mark some essays now!
Philip : thanks carenza
Adam : thanks Carenza-Keep on digging!
Chat Ed chuckles
Chat Ed : Folks - there will be a transcript of what was said up on the TALK section tomorrow.
Carenza Lewis leaves the room
