Time Team Season 10 Back to Our Roots - Athelney, Somerset 2003
Time Team revisits Athelney Abbey, the hideaway of Alfred the Great, and also the very first site investigated by the team one hundred programs earlier. Ten years of technological advances in the meantime has significantly enhanced their geophysical survey methods and changes in heritage management attitudes have also given them the permission to dig at the site. Slag and magnetic readings suggest that iron and steel was smelted and worked at Athelney, the latter being a good indication of Anglo-Saxon presence. At the abbey site itself Phil and his diggers uncover several burials. Reenactors show Anglo-Saxon dress and weaponry and their Viking counterparts as the experimental part of the program, while Carenza and Tony make – and burn – traditional Saxon cakes. The archaeologists find a number of objects, a Medieval graveyard associated with Athelney abbey, a metalworking complex, and a substantial defensive ditch dug in the Iron Age, but reused in the time of king Alfred.
- Released: 2003-02-23
- Runtime: 50 minutes
- Genre: Documentary, Mystery
- Stars: Gus Casely-Hayford, Natalie Haynes, Carenza Lewis, John Gater, Stewart Ainsworth
- Director:
-
4. The Giant's Grave - Fetlar, Shetland 2003-01-26
-
5. Joust Dig It - Greenwich, London 2003-02-02
-
6. Digging Liberty - Merton, London 2003-02-09
-
7. Death in a Crescent - Bath, Somerset 2003-02-16
-
8. Back to Our Roots - Athelney, Somerset 2003-02-23
-
10. Rescuing the Dead - Leven, Fife 2003-03-02
