What happens after the three days are up?

A great deal! Actually, it varies from site to site. Whatever else happens afterwards, the archaeological work doesn't stop with the digging. Every site has to be fully recorded, finds may need preserving, further tests carried out, results interpreted. Eventually some sort of post-excavation report will usually be prepared (although in common with most archaeological sites it may take several years to complete).

Sometimes Time Team's excavations are part of a bigger, ongoing archaeological project; on other occasions what the team uncovers may lead to further excavation work. In these cases, the site may be handed over to the archaeologists carrying out the broader work.

More usually, though, Time Team carries out 'one-off' digs, often on sites where funding is not available for other, longer excavations. Here the team takes whatever steps are necessary to protect any immoveable finds, infills the trenches and restores the site to as near as possible its original condition. Often people are amazed (and sometimes disappointed) to discover when visiting the site of a Time Team dig only a short while after it took place that there is no visible sign that it ever occurred. When the team dug up the Archbishop of Canterbury's grounds at Lambeth Palace in 1995, for example, everything was back in place again for a garden party attended by the queen a fortnight later. Likewise, when one of the biggest-ever Time Team excavations dug up the croquet lawn at Richmond Palace for a programme in the 1998 series, the turf was all replaced with barely a sign that it had been disturbed.

Indeed, the Time Team crew has become expert in restoration work – learning some unexpected things in the process, such as the fact that meadow turf grows better if it is relaid roots upwards.

Getting things recorded