Professor Margaret Cox, osteoarchaeologist and regular Time Team specialist, gave us the scoop on the human remains so far …

Some of the remains that have been found on this site were first uncovered by an earlier excavation. Has this affected their condition?

‘Yes. The fact that they were uncovered before allowed them to dry out, and then when the trench was back filled the bones became wet again. Changing conditions can be very bad for the preservation of bones.'

Why didn’t the previous excavators lift the bones when they found them?

‘There are a lot of things to consider when you lift human remains. They need to be properly conserved and can require a lot of post-excavation research. I don’t think the previous excavators had enough resources available to them to allow the remains to be lifted. Their excavation found a lot of metal artefacts, and because the site was being hawked by people they had to concentrate on rescuing the priority items.’

Are the bones here in good enough condition to give you the information you require?

‘Not really, no. They are in very bad condition. One of the skeletons is in such bad condition that we can’t even sex the individual. The other does have some pelvis remaining, which suggests it could be a female.’

On the live broadcast, you suggested that one of the skeletons could be a juvenile. Can you tell us more?

‘Yes. We can tell a lot from the teeth of an individual. It so happens that one of the skeletons does not have any wisdom teeth evident. This could indicate that the individual was no more than 21, and over the age of 13. However, we would need to X-ray the skull to find out if the teeth were budding when the individual died. Sometimes the wisdom teeth can be completely absent as a congenital factor. But saying that, there’s very little wear, so I think it could be a young individual.'

What about the third burial that was discovered on Day One of the dig?

‘All we have is the side of the skull. The interesting thing with that one is that we found a very smooth pebble where the mouth would have been. We know that right from prehistory there has been a burial practice where people are buried with something in their mouth.’

On a personal note, is it true that you have taken a year’s sabbatical from your work at Bournemouth University?

‘Yes. I’m working on a very exciting project and I have a year to do a feasibility study. It’s called INFORCE, which stands for International Forensic Centre of Excellence for the Investigation of Genocide. This is a completely independent charity, which will investigate genocide anywhere in the world. The organisation will cover every aspect of investigation and be completely unbiased. This year I’m going to be finding out if the whole scheme could work and trying to raise enough money and awareness to make it work.’

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