Tony Robinson : Hello all!
Phil Harding : Evening...
Jason Moore : Wotcher!
montypython freak : The programme raises interesting questions: should we leave the bones/remains etc where they are in the ground or should we leave them where they are?? And if there's loads of bones, why shouldn't people make a bit of money from them?
Phil Harding : Well... I mean, as far as I'm concerned... stuff that is spilling around on the surface needs to be collected, but it needs to be collected scientifically. To me, we do this in archaeology - we collect bits of pot and what have you... the important bit is the context. You can learn a lot from the distribution of bones on the surface. Personally I am against floggin any forms of antiquity for money full stop. Certainly for me, there's probably nothing wrong with someone collecting a few bits off the surface, providing there's some record of significant distributions and that people don't actually go digging.
Jason Moore : I would say, if you leave things on the surface, they're going to get weathered away anyway, so you're going to lose the data. So ideally they should be collected. Now there isn't the money for that to be done by museums for every bone so there is the potential for non-scientists to collect stuff. The important thing is that all the specimens that do have scientific worth are made available to the public in museums. It's also a question of the law in different countries. In the USA if you own the land then anything on it is yours, you can do what you like with it. But I believe the situation is different here, where things are property of the Crown.
Tony Robinson : I think we need a sea change in people's attitude towards both archaeology and paleontology. Everyone except a few mad gits knows that you don't go round nicking birds' eggs... and yet people seem quite relaxed about the idea of taking away irreplaceable archaeological and dinosaur finds. Every time we do that we are destroying a piece of irreplaceable environment... in exactly the same way as if we were stealing a sea eagle's eggs. It's a message we can't repeat too many times.
Phil Harding : From what I can remember there were very serious thefts of very big bones in the USA weren't there?
Jason Moore : Yes very much so.
Clair MacKinnon : Phil - how did digging for dinosaur bones compare with digging for flints or Roman coins, and was it frustrating having to leave bones you started to excavate still buried through lack of time?
Phil Harding : The really big difference was at the Bahamas site. The Daspletosaurus was in solid rock... that was definitely a hammer and chisel job. The other part of that excavation where the bones were near the surface, the excavation was a lot easier. When we went to Hell's Creek, the material there was just sand. Very easy to dig. There's a slight difference with archaeology in that with paleontology to tend to isolate blocks of bones... in archaeology you clear around the finds and lift the finds... at Hell Creek one of the things I should never forget was that the fossilized bone was harder than the sand that it was lying in, so when you hit something hard, that was a bone.
Phil Harding chuckles
Phil Harding : As for leaving it in the ground, I don't mind. I would rather leave it in the ground and let it be dug properly than rush it. We do that in archaeology anyway.
David Spink : Do the sites explored on Time Team always get completely closed up after the 3 days, or are there often other groups that want to continue from where you finished? And if so, will you ever report progress on any of these?
Tony Robinson : Each site we dig is properly recorded. Those reports are available at local museums and from the local archaeology service. In addition, we've made two Christmas programmes which are report-backs from sites we've already dug. It's prudent after the TT 3 days to close the site down and cover them with earth again, after all, the earth has protected them for 100s of years already, so it's a suitable environment to return them to. If we didn't, there's no doubt that site seers would cause damage. Either inadvertently or, sadly, to plunder them. If we find something very exciting and local archaeologist want to revisit the site, the dictates of their timetable usually mean it will be some time before they have the personnel or the budget to open up the site again. The trick is, to make sure it's absolutely, thoroughly recorded before we leave, so anyone can come back and continue excavating with minimum fuss.
Phil Harding : Amen to that. There was one incident where archaeologists were paid to continue after we left... to continue our holes. That was as I recall Netheraven? Where the county archaeologist wanted more work done... and rather than back-fill the holes, it made more sense to pay professional archaeologists to carry on where we left off. It was the Roman Villa in an army camp.
Ann-Marie Ratcliffe : If I was to find a dinosaur bone (or any archaeological item, eg coins or pottery), whats my next step? Who would I notify?
Jason Moore : Local museum? Take it there and try it on them, if they have expertise on what you've found ask their advice from there on.
Phil Harding : Possibly County Archaeologists too, they maintain a Sites and Monuments Record which has got all the known archaeological finds from each County.
Tony Robinson : But before you pick it up and take it, make sure you know EXACTLY where it was, to the inch!
Jason Moore : Even better, take a photo and send the photo?
Phil Harding : The most important thing is a six-figure National Grid Reference would be ideal.
Ian Barefoot : For Phil Harding - I'm looking to change careers from police officer to archaeologist. (At 55 years old......) Any advice apart from strong kneepads??
Phil Harding guffaws
Phil Harding : Get yourself a criminal record!
Tony Robinson : Never plant finds on another archaeologist!
Phil Harding : Presumably if you've had a lifetime in the Police, you have some sort of pension fund which means you may not have to hunt around to make archaeology pay? You might want to go to University as a mature student. That would be one possibility. Secondly you could go to the local museum and find if they want anyone to do voluntary work... there's always masses of cataloguing to be done in museums. Or maybe a local professional archaeological unit that might be glad of someone to process finds? I know we do at Wessex. You could go on a training excavation in the summer but that would normally involve money. Main thing is, just get involved. I would have thought that covers most eventualities.
Tony Robinson : Mick Aston and I are both 55, it's a very good age for archaeology!
unwrappedtrout : If you could go to any time zone in History, just to prove what you deduced on the telly was true, where and when would you choose?
Tony Robinson : In the world of my fantasies, I'd want to go to Palestine round about 33 A.D. Just to find out exactly what the hell was going on. But, more practically, I'm hoping I can persuade Channel 4 and Phil...
Phil Harding : Ey?
Tony Robinson : That we should go to Kenya some time this year, to look at the very first people and their very first tools.
Phil Harding : Remember you heard it here first!
Jason Moore : From a paleontologist's point of view, it might be nice to go back to 65 million years ago to find out exactly what happened at the end of the age of the dinosaurs! But it might not the most pleasant time in the world to be. Realistically any time when they existed, as we know so little so that to see them living, breathing and interacting with each other would just be incredible.
Tony Robinson : I would love to know what colour the dinosaurs were! in my text books at primary school, they were always grey, green and brown. But look at their nearest relatives, the birds - the most highly coloured animals in the world. Could it be that the time of the dinosaurs was much more psychedelic than any children's illustrator had considered?
Jason Moore : Yes, look at the frills and crests and plates that these guys had for display purposes (we presume), it makes sense that they were brightly coloured. You don't have a camouflaged peacock's tail. No point in showing off if you haven't anything to show. I think Tony's right.
Tony Robinson : Yeah, paint the tops of Triceratops scarlet!
Jason Moore : You never know.
Chat Ed : We're nearly out of time... and the guys've gotta be off now, sadly.
Tony Robinson : Time Team classics is running next week... and the new series starts next Sunday!
David : yes we will watch
Time Team Lover : i wish that you'd make a video with all the timeteam bloopers on it please consider it
Tony Robinson : So we'll log off now... because you're going to be sick of the sight of us by the end of March! No video is long enough, TTL!
Nick Borner : WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aragorn : cheers,good program!
Stephen Goodyear : All the very best to you all
Phil Harding : I wish you all a Happy New Year... I hope you enjoy the series. I s'pose the only thing for me to do now is go to the pub.
Chat Ed grins
Chat Ed : Thanks guys!
Jason Moore : Thanks to Time Team for making the programme for us. And to any budding paleontologists out there : Keep at it - you never know, you might be out there in a few years time!
liz kennett : Looking forward to the new year's programmes
Lindsay : Bye Guys
Chat Ed : Thanks everyone, hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to take a look at the TimeTeam website - channel4.com/timeteam where you can find details about the book - Digging the Dirt With Time Team, and the TimeTeam club.
Phil Harding leaves the room
Tony Robinson leaves the room
Jason Moore leaves the room
