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Buckingham Palace
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A fragment of worked mesolithic flint |
Diamond earring, date currently unknown |
17th century metal trade token |
Targets:
To establish the layout of Buckingham House which preceded the Palace and which was partially adapted to become the Palace. This involved extensive geo-phys work in the main enclosed piazza to seek the missing 'wings' of the 17th century 'Buckingham House'.
At the time, the gardens were formal and complex, with a canal, steps, walkways, walls and so forth. The team wanted to establish what this garden really looked like.
To uncover and verify the existence of London's Parliamentary Civil War defences that ran through the garden in the mid 17th century.
To create 3D models of the evolution of the Palace from its beginnings to its form today.
To establish the layout of Buckingham House which preceded the Palace and which was partially adapted to become the Palace. This involved extensive geo-phys work in the main enclosed piazza to seek the missing 'wings' of the 17th century 'Buckingham House'.
At the time, the gardens were formal and complex, with a canal, steps, walkways, walls and so forth. The team wanted to establish what this garden really looked like.
To uncover and verify the existence of London's Parliamentary Civil War defences that ran through the garden in the mid 17th century.
To create 3D models of the evolution of the Palace from its beginnings to its form today.
Key Finds:
Bottle Bricks, Gold Earring, Metal Trade Token, Mesolithic Flint, Canal foundations.
Bottle Bricks, Gold Earring, Metal Trade Token, Mesolithic Flint, Canal foundations.
Overview:
Despite the geo-phys and coring teams suffering a bit of an early nightmare in their efforts to seek out the route of the ornamental canal, Mick took a stab in the dark and established Trench One bang in the middle of the Queen's back garden. Luckily for all concerned the trench soon started giving up some interesting finds including a beer tankard and a number of bricks probably used to fill the canal when the landscape of the garden was changed. It didn't take long for Mick to find the edges of the canal and confirm the existence of the original centrepiece of the gardens of Buckingham House.
Meanwhile, in a far corner of the Gardens, Trench Two was opened up in order to search for possible Civil War defences. Finds appeared almost instantly – a Victorian clay pipe followed by a rivet, a squashed musket ball and even a piece of pottery dating back to the 12th or 13th Century. However, extensive landscaping seemed to have removed any clear evidence of the defences.
With Trench Three the team hoped to discover the original garden walls but whilst the search may have been in vain, once again some fascinating finds appeared such as a gold and diamond earring that could have belonged to a member of the royal family.
Dating far further back – to 6 or 7BC came a Mesolithic flint, which really got Mick excited and was easily the oldest find from all three sites. It is possible that the flint was used by early settlers who might have lived along the banks of the River Tyber, evidence of which was sought by the opening of Trench Four just a few metres away from Trench One.
Despite the geo-phys and coring teams suffering a bit of an early nightmare in their efforts to seek out the route of the ornamental canal, Mick took a stab in the dark and established Trench One bang in the middle of the Queen's back garden. Luckily for all concerned the trench soon started giving up some interesting finds including a beer tankard and a number of bricks probably used to fill the canal when the landscape of the garden was changed. It didn't take long for Mick to find the edges of the canal and confirm the existence of the original centrepiece of the gardens of Buckingham House.
Meanwhile, in a far corner of the Gardens, Trench Two was opened up in order to search for possible Civil War defences. Finds appeared almost instantly – a Victorian clay pipe followed by a rivet, a squashed musket ball and even a piece of pottery dating back to the 12th or 13th Century. However, extensive landscaping seemed to have removed any clear evidence of the defences.
With Trench Three the team hoped to discover the original garden walls but whilst the search may have been in vain, once again some fascinating finds appeared such as a gold and diamond earring that could have belonged to a member of the royal family.
Dating far further back – to 6 or 7BC came a Mesolithic flint, which really got Mick excited and was easily the oldest find from all three sites. It is possible that the flint was used by early settlers who might have lived along the banks of the River Tyber, evidence of which was sought by the opening of Trench Four just a few metres away from Trench One.
David Wilkinson of Oxford Archaeology talks about his experiences at Buckingham Palace:
"Oxford Archaeology have a contract with the Royal Household, so I manage archaeological work at the Royal Palaces. During the Big Royal Dig I supervised the excavations at Buckingham Palace. This was my first Time Team, although I've done other work which has been filmed for TV, and I've done news interviews for TV and Radio.
All the paperwork from recording the excavations, and all the finds, were taken back to our main office in Oxford. The gold earring is safely tucked away in a bank vault. In Oxford we've been able to study all the results in detail, and this process is ongoing. We're working towards a report for Time Team which will be published, and details will be put on the Time Team website."
1. How did the Big Royal Dig compare to other digs you've been on?
Doing the Big Royal Dig was like the last few days of a major excavation, with all the rush and stress to get everything done in time, but without the months of work that usually lead up to that. I've been in archaeology since the long, hot summer of 1976, so I've been on quite a few digs, but none quite like this one. The setting, in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, was stunning, and there was a real buzz about it all, especially on the Bank Holiday Monday when we could hear the Notting Hill Carnival all day – bass beat and police sirens. Also, for an excavation to be memorable you need a good team, and I had a great team of archaeologists at Buckingham Palace.
Other memorable projects that I've worked on include digging on the Forum in Rome, and excavating medieval waterfronts in Norway where all of the wood is preserved, from house walls to children's toys. In this country I've excavated Roman forts at Dover, Iron Age horse burials in east London, and the site of the former royal palace in Oxford, birthplace of King Richard the Lionheart and his brother King John.
2. Was there an aspect of the dig that was of particular interest to you personally?
I'm very interested in the palaces anyway because of Oxford Archaeology's work there. Finding the bottle bricks (used to build vaults) was great, and I hope we can find out which structure they were originally used in – we found bottle bricks last year on a dig at Hampton Court so they seem to go with these big prestigious places.
3. Did working with a TV crew in tow create any added pressure? For example, were you asked to give an expert opinion on finds at short notice?
It doesn't really create extra pressure, it's just different. There's no point in regarding the TV crews as a nuisance – they're integral to the job, and that's the whole point of Time Team, to show people what we're doing. We just had to be flexible, so sometimes we'd stop working on something while we waited for the crew to set up and film – there were always plenty of other things to do anyway. And I always had to be ready to talk about anything, at any time - that certainly kept me thinking.
4. What was the most exciting find in your view?
I'd say there were two. One has to be the gold earring with all the diamonds on it – just imagine someone finding that they'd lost one of those. But I also liked the Mesolithic flint blade – the skill of the person who made the flint blade, thousands of years ago, is comparable to the skill of the jeweller who made the earring. I enjoy seeing parallels like that across different time periods.
"Oxford Archaeology have a contract with the Royal Household, so I manage archaeological work at the Royal Palaces. During the Big Royal Dig I supervised the excavations at Buckingham Palace. This was my first Time Team, although I've done other work which has been filmed for TV, and I've done news interviews for TV and Radio.
All the paperwork from recording the excavations, and all the finds, were taken back to our main office in Oxford. The gold earring is safely tucked away in a bank vault. In Oxford we've been able to study all the results in detail, and this process is ongoing. We're working towards a report for Time Team which will be published, and details will be put on the Time Team website."
1. How did the Big Royal Dig compare to other digs you've been on?
Doing the Big Royal Dig was like the last few days of a major excavation, with all the rush and stress to get everything done in time, but without the months of work that usually lead up to that. I've been in archaeology since the long, hot summer of 1976, so I've been on quite a few digs, but none quite like this one. The setting, in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, was stunning, and there was a real buzz about it all, especially on the Bank Holiday Monday when we could hear the Notting Hill Carnival all day – bass beat and police sirens. Also, for an excavation to be memorable you need a good team, and I had a great team of archaeologists at Buckingham Palace.
Other memorable projects that I've worked on include digging on the Forum in Rome, and excavating medieval waterfronts in Norway where all of the wood is preserved, from house walls to children's toys. In this country I've excavated Roman forts at Dover, Iron Age horse burials in east London, and the site of the former royal palace in Oxford, birthplace of King Richard the Lionheart and his brother King John.
2. Was there an aspect of the dig that was of particular interest to you personally?
I'm very interested in the palaces anyway because of Oxford Archaeology's work there. Finding the bottle bricks (used to build vaults) was great, and I hope we can find out which structure they were originally used in – we found bottle bricks last year on a dig at Hampton Court so they seem to go with these big prestigious places.
3. Did working with a TV crew in tow create any added pressure? For example, were you asked to give an expert opinion on finds at short notice?
It doesn't really create extra pressure, it's just different. There's no point in regarding the TV crews as a nuisance – they're integral to the job, and that's the whole point of Time Team, to show people what we're doing. We just had to be flexible, so sometimes we'd stop working on something while we waited for the crew to set up and film – there were always plenty of other things to do anyway. And I always had to be ready to talk about anything, at any time - that certainly kept me thinking.
4. What was the most exciting find in your view?
I'd say there were two. One has to be the gold earring with all the diamonds on it – just imagine someone finding that they'd lost one of those. But I also liked the Mesolithic flint blade – the skill of the person who made the flint blade, thousands of years ago, is comparable to the skill of the jeweller who made the earring. I enjoy seeing parallels like that across different time periods.
