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3.00pm 27th August 2006
Lunchtime (veg curry, salmon or roast pork) and the team are refuelling. Brigid's Civil War trench (number 1) has produced a nice brick with a fragment of clay pipe in it (it must have fallen into the clay mix when the brick was made), and also a tin glazed handle from a potty!
Over at Phil's trench (number 2) some more tin glazed pottery (dating to around the mid 18th century) has been discovered, but it's in such a friable state that it's been lifted in a block of surrounding soil before it falls apart. It can then be carefully 'micro-excavated' at a later stage. The team are unsure as to what the original vessel may have been used for.
Our third trench (which will be supervised by Brigid) has been opened just outside the incident room with the aim of finding some wall remains from one of the earlier houses.
So where are we at the mid-way stage at Buckingham Palace? Well, the auger survey told us where the Tyburn used to be and also warned of the depth of the landscape garden make-up material. The Civil War defences have been illusive, yet the decorative canal looks like it's been pinned down by Phil. Now, if Brigid's new trench successfully finds any traces of ancient walls, then Stewart Ainsworth should be able to align his maps and figure out the orientation of some of the earlier houses.
We asked Mick Aston if working on a site with few finds was frustrating. 'It's not all about finds.' said Mick, 'A site like this is so heavily landscaped that the chances of finding much in the way of artefacts are very limited. However, we still get plenty of information, such as environmental material, to add to the record. The auger survey has been very useful, and any features that we actually find can only add to our knowledge.'
Stop Press: Just as we're pushing this report live a piece of Victorian jewellery has been found in Trench 3.
11.30am 27th August 2006
A sequence created by our graphics team
Fascinating animations that were featured in the programme last night, where paintings came to life and morphed from 2D to 3D images. Just watch and marvel...
play video >>
11.30am 27th August 2006
Some of the work taking place today includes an investigation of the cellars of the palace; an attempt to discover some foundations of previous buildings. For the television piece to work the production team need a map, and for that you need Time Team 2D graphics genius, Neil Emmanuel.
'As you can imagine, it's not that easy to get hold of detailed maps of Buckingham Palace floor plans, and any material that we use in the programme is not permitted to be too detailed for security reasons, but to be honest it's not that restricting. If anything it helps simplify what I have to do,' said Neil.
Neil also produced some fascinating animations that were featured in the programme last night, where paintings came to life and morphed from 2D to 3D images. 'It would be great to see what the original artists would think of seeing their paintings that way,' said Neil with a smile.
We'll feature the animations in our video section.
