Chat Ed : Right folks, we'll get cracking. Welcome, Mick and Tim!
Mick Aston : Hello there! I hope you're picking up the excitement and flow of what's going on.
Tim Taylor : Hello everyone!
Fallen Angel : *waves* Hiya!
Strongbow : ello
Eye : Hi
milly : Hi
katherine : hello!!!
Tim Taylor : It's very exciting to be doing live archaeology on TV and to have people following on the web as we go along.
Chat Ed : Right, first question....
Hob Nob : Hi Mick and Tim. How do you choose which site to excavate live? How do you know you'll actually find something and have you ever experienced the problem of not finding anything worth broadcasting??
Tim Taylor : We choose the live sites by finding one that's got a good storyline in it. This one started with a fantastic object and once we have got an object like the bucket it is a great start. The bucket and some of the other finds implied that there might be a cemetary there. The combination of a fantastic, exotic object and the possibility of burials was too good to miss.
Mick Aston : We've never done anything that hasn't gone out actually.
Tim Taylor : We have come near to not finding anything until the last day. But it's about the reality of archaeology. But, touch wood, we always seem to get Time Team luck.
Dave wmids : Can you make sure Mick gets sun suntan cream on his nose for the rest of the dig please?
Mick Aston : I really don't need it. I've just spent 2 weeks in Greece and I'm completely brown and burnt all over several times, so if it's shining it's probably not because of the sun!
stuart : fascinating as ever....but why only 30 minutes..and why call it live when it isn't?
Tim Taylor : Stuart, we are tied into Channel 4 programme schedules which means that the schedules have half hour slots during the week and we have to fit into that time. There is an ambiguity about calling it a live dig. But certainly large amounts of it are live and I can tell you Stuart that the nervous exhaustion that we all feel at the end of the day is witness to the fact that it feels to us like it is live.
Mick Aston : Yes, I would echo that!
babeegirl : Hey guys. What would be your dream find on this excavation??
Samantha : What would be the most exciting find on this dig ?
Mick Aston : I think this is always hard to answer but if we could confirm that this was a bronze-age barrow with a pre-historic burial or burials in it and that it dates from 2000BC and that it had been used as a focus for an Anglo-Saxon Cemetary, then that would be great.
Tim Taylor : In one sense we have already got the most fantastic find - the bucket. It really is amazing. I'd quite like to find an Anglo-Saxon brooch or piece of personal jewellery; something which would have been valued as a personal object by the people who owned it. But, the spears we found today were very exciting.
paul-salisbury : how much does it cost to do each dig?
RobMac : what's the series budget, roughly? it's great to see resources going to something so valuable as investigating our past
Tim Taylor : I'm afraid that information is confidential, but I'm glad you feel it is well spent. We are a lot cheaper than some of the other rubbish you see on TV!
Mick Aston : Time Team, Channel 4 through VideoText has pumped a lot of money into archaeology in the last 10 years.
warren : Do archaeologists actually appreciate metal detectorists or are they seen as a destructive influence on a delicate site?
Andy and Jennie : Are metal detectorists seen in positive light by archaeologists?
Mick Aston : This is a very complicated question. In the past and still to some extent today, there have been treasure hunters and night hawks who raid sites and take the objects and either keep them or sell them. When metal detecting began this happened a lot. Over the last 20 years there has been much more co-operation between the 2 groups. There are metal detectorists who work very closely with archaeologists. So it has improved a lot. In East Anglia a lot of finds found by metal detectorists have produced a lot of new important information that we may never have found otherwise. There are 2 main problems that remain with people who do it for a hobby though:
1. They do not record properly where the pieces are found.
2. Many keep the objects they find as a private collection.
Mick Aston : This limits the reach of information. If they are interested they should work with archaeologists and get themselves involved in archaeological projects. They should give the material to the local museums.
Tim Taylor : We have had some very good experiences with metal detectorists and in some cases their presence is vital.
MattK : What will happen to the human remains that have been unearthed?
andrew mitchelmore : why were bodies laid in a crouched position when buried?
Mick Aston : If they are lifted they tend to be examined in great detail because they can tell so much about the gender, state of health, nutrition etc. I think most archaeologists would prefer that it was kept in a museum as a reference collection. As our techniques progress we will be able to extract more info out of them.
Mick Aston : Sometimes there is a request to re-bury the remains. Which makes it hard to look at them again. We haven't had a crouched burial on this site, but the simple answer is that people decide to dispose of their dead in different ways at different times. Putting the body in the ground is the most popular in Roman Catholic countries, but it's all to do with cultural, religious or even fashion concepts on how people at that time decide to dispose of their dead.
hannah : How old does a body have to be before you can lift it?
muddy green wellies : Do you ever worry that someone may dig you up in a couple of hundred years?
Mick Aston chuckles
Mick Aston : It varies on soil conditions really. It would be very unpleasant to dig up a recent body.
Tim Taylor : Yes, we wouldn't do that. We only dig those from fairly ancient history where they may provide vital clues to that element of archaeology. We are quite reluctant on Time Team to be seen to dig up any recent burials and any burials we think fairly seriously about. It's one of the things about Anglo-Saxon archaeology - the majority of info that we have from them has ONLY come from cemetary sites. 80% of Anglo-Saxon material was organic and so leaves very little trace.
Mick Aston : I had thought of being cremated but it may be more useful for me to be buried so that they could find the metal pin in my leg! That could tell them a lot about the medical technology of today.
Damien : How important is the site going to be regarding the finds that have been uncovered today?
Mick Aston : It's difficult to judge that at the moment. The bucket and other finds show that it is a very important site.
Tim Taylor : The importance of it, is that although 11 of these buckets have been found throughout the world, only 2 or 3 have been found in an archaeological site. The others have just turned up in museums and you don't know where they have come from. What we can do is find out the archaeology around the bucket and that alone makes this site important.
Mick Aston : We will be in a better position to answer this once we have completed the 3 days and we know what the complete range of the date of the site is.
Simon Leigh : Do you bring along a bag of flint to a dig in case you don't find anything else? 8)
Mick Aston laughs
Mick Aston : No! But we have the best flint detector in Southern England, called Phil Harding.
Tim Taylor : I think it's an interesting point in the case of this site that we may well be getting early Bronze Age flint which shows, nicely, that the Bronze Age didn't just abandon flint technology and turn to metal overnight. The look on Phil's face when we were able to show him some flint was a joy to behold.
Mick Aston : Although we call it the Bronze Age for most of the 2000 years or so, flint was still the most important cutting material and even more so, probably wood provided most of the material that they needed.
Mick Aston : Bronze was always a relatively rare and precious material.
Tim Taylor : And we're hoping to find some of it tomorrow.
Chat Ed : Our half hour with Mick 'n' Tim is up now, so last two questions now, thanks....
Charles : If the coin is 5th century, which seems very, very early, where was it minted?
Mick Aston : We haven't found any coins, maybe it was the brooch. 5th Century coins tend to be rarer than usual and you don't get them much in the Western Roman Empire.
Chat Ed : And finally, a _very_ popular subject, this:
David J Lennon : Mick: Where is ya jumper!?
andy : Mick, my wife would like to know what size you are as she would like to knit you a new jumper?
Mick Aston laughs
Mick Aston : Thank you very much but I don't need any more jumpers at the moment. I have enough, very kind offer though. I have it with me but it's too hot to wear it!
Chat Ed : That's it! Thanks for coming Mick and Tim, that was fantastic. And thanks for all your questions, folks...! Why not join us tomorrow, 9pm, here, for another live Time Team chat with TONY ROBINSON and SANDI TOKSVIG !
Kev Timmons : Thanks for your programme
Rosemary : thanks for a great chat ;-)
fairbang : thanks
Fallen Angel : *waves* Thank you so much!!
Munchkin : Thanks for getting this together :)
Chat Ed : 'The Ultimate Time Team Companion' - Tim Taylor, 'Time Team's Timechester' Carenza Lewis, Phil Harding, Mick Aston, 'Behind the Scenes at Time Team' Tim Taylor ' are all books available from the channel4 shop, check out www.channel4.com/shop... you can also obtain TimeTeam videos from there.
Tim Taylor : Thank you for taking the time and trouble to ask us the questions.
Samantha : Many thanks for allowing us to chat with you
muddy green wellies : seeya all, thanks for great prog and chat
Dawn : may the gods and goddesses bless yor dig
Tim Taylor : There will also be a Time Team Masters Course starting in October at Bristol University. The students on that course will be joining us on Time Team digs.
Mick Aston : Keep watching.
Fanny : Hurrah!
David Sutherland : Have a good time at the pub tonight;-)
martin conyard : cool
Siobhan : excellant!
Fallen Angel : *runs off to apply for uni*
Mick Aston : There will be more programmes in the Winter.
William : excellent... =)
fraser : great digging! more on tv please channel4
Mick Aston : There are very few places in the country where there is not something of interest. There is archaeology everywhere!
Chat Ed : Why not join us tomorrow, 9pm, here, for another live Time Team chat with TONY ROBINSON and SANDI TOKSVIG !
Mick Aston leaves the room
Tim Taylor leaves the room
