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- Time Team trace evidence of the palaces given to, or constructed by, Henry VIII. These include Hampton Court, and the now non-extant Beaulieu, Calais, Whitehall, and Nonsuch. The team start by digging in the grounds of New Hall School in search of Beaulieu's gatehouse, then move on to uncover evidence of its apartments and bay windows, and finally a chapel. The next stop is Guînes in France where they identify the site of the lavish Field of the Cloth of Gold. Back at Hampton Court, they have been given permission to excavate for traces of four demolished towers, and a Tudor-era bowling alley. Next, in London, they seek evidence in Whitehall of a wine-cellar under the Ministry of Defence building. Finally, they compare the extravagant design of Nonsuch with Italian renaissance architectural influences. (en)
- Time Team turn their attention to an important Royal Saxon tomb in Prittlewell, near Southend in Essex. During a routine road widening in late 2003, an impressive array of Saxon objects were uncovered, leading to an excavation by MoLAS. Further excitement centred around the discovery of an intact 7th century wood-lined burial chamber, and its precious high-status contents were comparable to similar regional discoveries in Broomfield, Taplow, and Sutton Hoo. As part of the show, a lyre was reconstructed from soil impressions and surviving metal pieces, and was played to accompany a funeral song sung for King Sæberht in Anglo-Saxon and English in St. Mary's Church in Southend. (en)
- Robinson joins a team of experts as they strive to reconstruct the most intact Bronze Age boat ever found which was discovered in 1992 under 2 metres of silt in the Dover town centre. The long and 2.5 metre wide oak craft, lashed together by cleats and without nails, was incomplete, and parts had been removed in antiquity. Probably used as a cross-channel tin and bronze trading vessel, it was waterproofed with moss and beeswax to make it seaworthy. To help explain the mystery regarding its shape and construction, at Dover Museum in 2014, experts undertook experimental archaeology to construct and sail a 1/2 scale sewn-plank replica with supporting evidence from contemporary finds in Ferriby. (en)
- Robinson and the team are invited by Bamburgh Research Project to help investigate Bamburgh Castle, a key fort high on rocky cliffs with Lindisfarne visible in the distance. Described by Bede as a royal city of the Northumbrian kings, the dig tries to find evidence of pre-Norman Saxon structures or relics. Bede also mentions a basilica near the castle's well, and there is evidence of a structure under the keep's lawn. Meanwhile, stone-masons endeavour to recreate a carved marble "gif-stōl" or throne, and others search for the castle's Anglo-Saxon village. Further, extensive burials of non-locals indicate the area's importance as a religious centre and regional trading hub. (en)
- Robinson visits an excavation in Norfolk that may hold the key to uncovering what happened to Boudica's tribe after they were defeated by the Roman army. In 1928, an aerial reconnaissance flight of a farm near Caistor St Edmund rediscovered the ruins of Venta Icenorum. An archaeological dig quickly followed, but the site remained quiet until the University of Nottingham reopened it in 2009 seeking Iron Age structures. Discovery of the nearby Snettisham Hoard indicated goldsmithing of unparalleled quality in the region and Butser Ancient Farm also offers insights into daily life of the period. At Stonea, however, evidence of tension between the Romans and Iceni are seen, but the site in Caistor shows evidence of simply being a regional administrative "backwater". (en)
- The team join researchers from Birmingham University excavating the site of the William Shakespeare's home, New Place. Containing some 20 rooms, it was, at that time, the town's largest private house. In 1702, however, a new house nearer to the street was constructed on the site, and the exact placement of New Place was lost. New documents indicate a placement further back on the lot, and fronted by a gatehouse and courtyard, an area known to have not been excavated by a team organised by James Halliwell. Features explored include a possible laundry, a wall, an alehouse, and the house's gardens. Robinson also traces Shakespeare's life, from his parents' family home to The Rose Theatre, Mary Arden's Farm, and the Globe Theatre. (en)
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- Robinson visits Scotland in order to observe a group dive led by Nicholas Dixon onto a collapsed but well-preserved iron-age loch dwelling. Also participating are six "Field School" archaeologists who will learn the basics of an underwater dig. The Oakbank Crannog they work on is located in the north-east of Loch Tay in Perthshire, where more 18 submerged crannogs have now been identified. A working example has now been reconstructed about a mile away on the south side of the loch at the Scottish Crannog Centre. The crannog itself is dated to about 600BC, and evidence shows it was rebuilt some six times of over the next 200 years. The anaerobic conditions help preserve the many wooden and organic artefacts recovered and now displayed or recreated at the Centre. (en)
- Robinson joins archaeologists along the River Thames in London's East End as they research Brunel's . Designed to carry 11,000 tons of coal and 4,000 passengers to Australia, it weighed 12,000 tons and was five times larger than any previous vessel. Cutting edge technology for the time included steam engines, screw propellers, iron hulls, and plate rivets, as seen in . A split parallel slipway was built at the Isle of Dogs for the large vessel, but archaeology has shown how they were not properly levelled, causing Brunel's ship to stick on its launch in November 1858. After finally launching, and facing financial problems, the ship never sailed to the East and was scrapped in 1889–1890, with evidence of the hull still remaining at the final site. (en)
- In this episode, Time Team reflect on the findings of a 5-year research project, led by Glenn Foard, at the site of the Battle of Bosworth Field, including a rethink of the actual site of the battle. Beginning at the traditional site, Ambion Hill, Robinson learns the actual site of the main battle, based on 33 gun shot finds, was about 3km to the south-west. However, evidence on the ground is sparse given the time frame, but recent research at Towton helped provide an archaeological standard for the work at Bosworth. Further, neutron tomography can be used to analyse the lead-iron shot. Using experimental archaeology, Harding helps make a cannon barrel from the period, while researchers test fire one in a field. (en)
- In this 2-hour special, timed to coincide with the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, Time Team receive "unprecedented access" to three of Britain's most famous ancestral buildings in late August 2006. It also marked the 150th dig conducted by Time Team. Tracing the history and evolution of each site, they begin with excavating a strange midden-like mound at Holyrood. They then turn their attention to the original structures and gardens of the former Buckingham House – in particular an ornamental canal and traces of the River Tyburn. Meanwhile, at Windsor Castle the team seeks evidence of Henry III's first building on the site – a great hall, and evidence of a Round Table (tournament) from the time of Edward III. Back at Holyrood, they search for evidence of a cloister destroyed by Henry VIII. (en)
- Robinson and Harding from Time Team join divers from the British Government's Archaeological Diving Unit, fighting to recover a massive carved wooden statue and other artefacts from the shipwreck of , and endeavour to piece together the loss of this Napoleonic-era 18th-century warship. Using the reconditioned as a reference, it was clear that the carving was detail from the left-hand rear windows of the vessel. When permission to film the site became problematic in 2002, sonar and magnetic surveys were also carried out elsewhere in the area. The statue was subsequently successfully retrieved and sent off for preservation. (en)
- Robinson and "Time Team" travel to Ightham in Kent to visit the "most complete moated manor house in the UK". Conservation work on Ightham Mote began by the National Trust in 1989 that involved dismantling much of the building and recording its construction methods before faithfully repairing, restoring, and rebuilding it. The project ended in early 2004 after revealing numerous examples of structural and ornamental features which had been covered up or altered by later modifications. It is estimated to have cost in excess of £10 million. (en)
- Robinson details research from a six-year dig involving over 40 trenches at the Stonehenge site. Mike Parker Pearson, the project director, explains his theory that the stones function as a gigantic memorial to the dead. For example, the 56 Aubrey holes were a stone circle containing cremated human remains, and the 3km long Avenue a processional from the River Avon. The nearby Durrington Walls is believed to have been a contemporary timber palisade, with the wood possibly representing the living and the stone henge representing the dead, with the river as a conduit for ashes and souls. There is also evidence of a 1000-house settlement here, with refuse showing mid-winter feasting on a massive scale, as people came to honour the journey from life to death. The Cursus to the north of Stonehenge may have acted as a ceremonial separator. (en)
- Covers the Big Dig, where some 5,000 participants were encouraged to explore some of the archaeology in areas local to them. Alongside them, some 250 archaeologists volunteered their time to assist in the digs - although not everyone agreed with the project. Test pits, a 1 meter by 1 metre square hole some 60 centimetres deep were initially dug, with each process involving removing some 10 cm at a time. During the dig, some 1,200 pits ended up being dug, revealing rich layers of previously unknown archaeological evidence and finds, including "stunning new insights into long lost communities". 43 pits were dug, for example, in the village of Great Easton, Essex, pushing back the dates of finds to the Roman era. Similar finds occurred in places such as Boxworth, Warrington, Stogumber, and Middlesbrough, all yielding important evidence for the post-excavation analysis record. (en)
- Robinson begins at the Ypres Salient, where during WWI, to avoid the deadly conditions on the surface, soldiers of both sides dug downwards for protection. In 2007 the team joins an expedition in Belgium in search of an allied bunker, one of 150 commissioned to be dug in the area, called the Vampire dugout. Created in late 1917 by 171st Tunnelling Company after the Battle of Passchendaele, it was 14 metres below Flanders and functioned as a brigade HQ. The bunker is soon located, excavated, and partially explored, and is found in remarkable condition considering its age. Artefacts and tools are found, reflecting the work of the soldiers within the space, although it seems to have been abandoned prior to finishing. (en)
- Time Team follow an excavation in Ely, which uncovers a remarkable picture of Cambridgeshire in past centuries. Explorations reveal numerous significant events in the areas history: an ancient area of marshlands surrounding the then Saxon city; channels where boats used to moor to load and unload goods; a medieval kiln with quantities of high-quality medieval pottery; and remains of a number of wooden buildings fronting the road at Broad Street. (en)
- In the spring of 2050 BCE, a huge oak tree was felled and its stump upturned and half-buried on a site near to what is now Holme-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. The following year, a number of smaller oaks were felled and cut into 56 posts, which were arranged in a timber circle around the central stump. This Bronze Age monument, hailed by some modern archaeologists as among the most exciting ever discovered, could have formed some kind of ceremonial site, perhaps with special astronomical or other significance. The show reveals that its removal for conservation was vital but controversial, and shows efforts of Neopagans to disrupt the salvage.Time Team also build a replica nearby. (en)
- Robinson and geophysics specialist, John Gater, reflect back on 200 digs at the extraordinary achievements of cutting-edge technology, which has uncovered lost Roman villas, tombs, temples and ancient monuments, as well as other more mundane items. To better understand the technology, a number of everyday items are buried in a field and Gater is challenged to interpret them using his machines . Robinson mentions Richard Atkinson's pioneering of the technology for archaeology in 1946, and Time Team's first use of it in 1993 at Athelney Abbey. The show's 100th episode returned to the site in 2003, with geophys providing new key details of the site. Other examples are provided too of how the technology has achieved results for the team. (en)
- In September 1999, a local farmer rediscovered a mysterious underground structure - a flight of 17 stone steps descending to a half-landing and a further 11 steps descending to a chamber. The Team travels to Orkney, where local farmer Douglas Paterson went in search of the mysterious underground chamber, initially thought to be an ancient broch dwelling. Time Team film the excavation of the site and its surrounds for this year's Christmas documentary. Time Team also build a small replica nearby, and sections of a ditch surrounding the mound were also excavated. (en)
- Robinson and Harding travel to the Rocky Mountains in Montana, USA, for this special programme on dinosaurs and the professional and private 'dinosaur hunters' who seek and recover fossil remains. Accompanying several digs, they soon learn that the methods used by the dinosaur hunters turn out to be similar to those employed by archaeologists. After joining a museum dig to excavate the bones of various tyrannosauroids, they discover the profitable tourist industry that dinosaur hunting has spawned in the US. Their journey culminates in a trip to the Badlands, where they help dinosaur hunter Jack Horner dig up the remains of a tyrannosaurus. (en)
- The Time Team journeys along the length of the South Dorset Ridgeway and explores its ancient occupation. Running south of Dorchester, from West Bexington to Osmington Mills it is a popular 27km long walking trail. Formed of limestone chalk, it was also a rich source of flint for tools, stone for monuments , and material for henges and hill forts . Using phenomenology, the team try to reinterpret the landscape, and with advances in radiocarbon dating, more precise dates. The introduction of bronze and then iron changed the lives of the people in the area forever, as did the sea-change linked to the arrival of the Romans. (en)
- Time Team first discovered evidence of a Roman villa in 2002 , providing context to the surviving but plough-damaged remnants of hypocaust mosaic flooring and foundations of a substantial and complex Roman-era country house. In the week-long second dig, in July 2005, the team is assisted by over 40 volunteers and students from University College Winchester. Evidence soon begins to show the grand multi-stage evolution of buildings on the site, and its orientation, via a driveway, to a nearby Roman road now known as Fosse Way. Recovered artefacts also suggest evidence of the wealth invested into the estate and its buildings, and the high quality of life enjoyed by its wealthy Romano-British owners. (en)
- Robinson looks at the evidence re-examining where the Battle of Hastings was actually fought. Starting at Battle, the historic site of the conflict, he reveals the lack of any archaeological link to the fight. A 2012 theory, however, states that the English troops remained on Caldbec Hill and were met there by the Normans. An alternative location is also given as Crowhurst. Seeking proof, Time Team undertake a dig at both Caldbec and Battle Abbey for the very first time. Meanwhile, Robinson examines the Bayeux Tapestry and visits the British Library and a local museum looking for clues. The area is also surveyed with lidar, a first for an English battlefield. Scans reveal the natural bottleneck at Battle Abbey blocking the exit from the Hastings peninsula area, a spot that would have drawn the armies together. (en)
- Time Team visit Colchester, a town well-known as rich in Roman remains, and tour a former military site due for redevelopment. On site, Robinson tells the story of the discovery of the only Roman circus ever found in Britain, south of Camulodunum's town walls. The team are joined by Philip Crummy of Colchester Archaeological Trust, Roman historian John Humphrey, and site supervisor Rob Masefield. Meanwhile Guy de la Bédoyère visits the Circus of Maxentius near Rome. As with the Circus Maximus, and the 50 or so others dotted around the empire, circuses were event spaces that were used for ludi, such as the popular ludi circenses. Harding helps wheelwright Robert Hurford to make a replica chariot, which is demonstrated by stuntman Jonathan Waterer. Other discoveries include a Roman era cemetery to the west of the circus. (en)
- Robinson and other regulars present a radical picture of the British Iron Age, by concentrating on its charismatic hill forts. This period was virtually ignored by antiquarians, who assumed the structures related to the Roman conquest of Britain. Nevertheless, many of the tracks, boundaries, ditches, and hill defences are still visible or in use today. Modern archaeologists like Barry Cunliffe, Mike Parker Pearson, and J.D. Hill have thrown new light on structures such as Maiden Castle and Danebury, suggesting their function was social and religious rather than military. Other sites visited include Castell Henllys Yeavering Bell, Bamburgh Castle, the Uffington White Horse, and Stonea Camp. (en)
- Robinson, with the help of experts like Grand Designs' Kevin McCloud, retrace how in just 20 working years, architect Augustus Pugin radically changed the architectural and interior design faces of Britain in the early Victorian era. Seeking to capture the essence of his massive legacy, Robinson travels to Ramsgate seeking The Grange – the house he designed, built, and decorated for himself – now being restored. He also visits St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham – Pugin's first major project, St Giles' Catholic Church, Cheadle, and Eastnore Castle. The last stop is a showcase of Pugin's perfectionist attention to detail in the rebuilt Houses of Parliament. (en)
- Robinson joins forces with expert diver and historian Innes McCartney to uncover the experimental origins of Britain's Royal Navy Submarine Service. Starting with a visit aboard , Robinson contrasts it to the pioneering vessels such as the Holland-class submarines built for the Royal Navy. These prototypes had all the basic features of a submarine, including hybrid motors/engines, with improvements in handling. buoyancy, torpedo firing, and a periscope. Archaeologists dive on the wrecks of the Holland 5 and U-8 to learn more about their design and condition, and Harding visits the U-1 in Munich. In WWI, the race to contain the threat posed by submarines altered the naval aspect of the war in Europe. (en)
- Robinson investigates the details surrounding a key Anglo-Saxon treasure, the Staffordshire Hoard, found near Hammerwich in July 2009. Discovered by metal detectorist Terry Herbert, an excavation undertaken by Birmingham Archaeology uncovered over 3,500 fragments, which were jointly purchased by two museums. Mystery surrounds from where the pieces were collected, why they were broken, and why they were then buried and abandoned. Helen Geake was brought in to help evaluate the finds, and the items were processed by both museums. As with Sutton Hoo, geophysicists, environmental archaeologists, metallurgists, and art historians then analysed the site and the objects. (en)
- Robinson and Aston tell the story of how domestic lives in the UK have changed over the last 10 millennia. Starting with Star Carr and Goldcliff, Robinson traces the early shift from Mesolithic nomadic cultures to Neolithic hunter-gatherers prehistoric Britain. Next, there is evidence of domestication within causewayed enclosures and Bronze Age land clearance, round-houses, and farming as seen at Bodmin Moor. In the Iron Age, as the population grew, hillforts such as Danebury then began to appear, followed by Mediterranean-style Roman towns , villas and gardens. Anglo-Saxon remains are less obvious, though still present at places like Knave Hill, followed by Medieval style finds at High Worsall and pre-modern houses at St Fagans. (en)
- Robinson goes behind the scenes of the National Trust's £11 million restoration of Castle Drogo in Devon, Britain's last castle which was built between 1911 and 1930 for businessman Julius Drewe by architect Edwin Lutyens. Styled as a "neo-Norman castle", by the 21st century, the structure's flat roof had begun to leak heavily, weakening its steel frame and threatening the structural integrity of the building. Robinson then follows Lutyens' life story, from the Arts and Crafts movement to fame via Country Life magazine, Classicism, war memorials such as The Cenotaph and Thiepval, and massive commissions in colonial India. (en)
- Robinson reveals the discovery of a Viking hoard in a Yorkshire field in 2003 by local metal-detectorists. The site was reported to authorities, and artefacts were examined by PAS then sent to the British Museum for analysis. In late 2004, English Heritage funded a highly-secretive project, designed to protect the site from looting while it was being investigated. Geophysical surveys were taken, and trenches were begun in July 2005. It was learnt that the discoverers had found and sold thousands of items at various places on the site over a 12-year period. The show reveals tension over investigative procedures, and the "true" valuation of a hoard – exposing a deeper rift between the practices of detectorists and the limitations of institutions. (en)
- In this episode, the team go back to Much Wenlock in Shropshire, which they visited in the 1994 episode "The New Town of a Norman Prince", and from the Guildhall look back on previous Time Team sites to see what has happened since. (en)
- Robinson investigates Bethlehem Royal Hospital, the world's first lunatic asylum. Now located near Liverpool Street station, with no visible remains, the original structure was founded as the Priory of the New Order of our Lady of Bethlehem in 1247 on a desolate spot outside the city walls. Recent Crossrail building work enables the team to investigate a medieval graveyard with potential Bedlam internees. However, the earliest records of inmates only date to 1598. Skeletons from the site are analysed for signs of mistreatment, disease, and attempted remedies which differ depending on the era in which they lived. The anachronistic hospital's practices were eventually superseded by less punitive approaches, as seen at York Retreat from 1796. (en)
- Time Team travel to the site of "James Fort", in Jamestown, Virginia, the site of the first permanent English settlement in America, and now identified as the birthplace of the United States. In 1994, American archaeologist William Kelso finally located the site and dimensions of the original wooden fort built in 1607. Elsewhere on the site, "mud and stud" style houses have been traced to the architecture of east Lincolnshire, and were probably built by carpenter William Laxon. Next, the old well on the site proves a rich source of finds, including an iron halberd, hammer, pistol, name plate, and a child's shoe. Due to detailed records of the colony and its inhabitants it is possible to name specific individuals from their artefacts or remains. (en)
- Robinson presents this seasonal episode of Time Team from York's Barley Hall, where an extravagant Medieval Christmas celebration is in full swing. Looking back over previous digs, startling new evidence is revealed about one of the 'stars' unearthed on the show – a skeleton discovered during the live dig at Bawsey in Norfolk. He also revisits Reedham Marshes in Norfolk, to pay a special tribute to the crew of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress which crashed in February, 1944. (en)
- Time Team travel to Tintagel Castle to begin searching for evidence of King Arthur – a character well known as a great hero and legendary 'King of the Britons'. Modern research, however, reveals that most of what we know about Arthur is actually a myth, the creation of imaginative writers and propagandists such as Geoffrey of Monmouth and Alfred Lord Tennyson. Time Team searches for some of the truth behind the myth and mystery. (en)
- In 1745, the Royal Navy purchased Haslar Farm near the Portsmouth dockyard at Haslar in order to build Britain's first naval hospital. Costing £100,000, the 1800-bed structure was the biggest construction project in the country. Completed in 1753, Royal Hospital Haslar treated sailors until it closed in 2009. As part of its closure, Time Team document excavations of the hospital's 9-acre unmarked burial ground by Cranfield University. Of the 7,800 bodies calculated to lie there, some in multiple-burial plots, examination of 30 excavated skeletons reveals the dangers and hardships of life at the time, such as amputations, ulcers, diseases and scurvy. The hospital's first chief physician, James Lind, also pioneered new hygiene techniques that helped reduce mortality. (en)
- Robinson explores a time in the 19th century when criminals would break open graves to steal freshly buried bodies for autopsy and dissection. William Blizard from London Hospital, for example, supervised illegal uses of dead patients for the advancement of medical study. In 1831, however, there were 900 medical students in London alone against the legal body source of 9 hanged criminals. The Anatomy Act 1832 gave freer licence to doctors and medical students to dissect donated or unclaimed cadavers, and the supply was helped by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 and the developing railway system. It is estimated that over the following century, some 125,000 bodies were supplied for dissection. More recently, the Alder Hey scandal led to the reforms of the Human Tissue Act 2004. (en)
- Coventry's St. Mary's Priory and Cathedral, first consecrated in 1043, was thought to have been virtually obliterated by Henry VIII in the late 1530s. When Time Team went to Coventry in 1999, they found that a great deal more has survived than expected. The team went back to film the updated results. Using the extant walls as a guide, they are able to plot the expected dimensions of the cathedral. Comparing them with the surviving period architecture as best seen in Lichfield Cathedral, they soon locate the mosaic floors, broken pillars, and buried cellars of the buildings. Later, remains of a clerical burial that had survived Henry VIII's destruction of the monastery were uncovered. (en)
- Robinson learns that there are gaps in historians' knowledge of the rituals, death rites and beliefs from around 2500BC, when Neolithic Britain entered the Bronze Age. Robinson visits a liminal excavation at an ancient burial site in Northumberland, near Lindisfarne, which is in a race against coastal erosion. The dig reveals a cairn, highlighting underlying belief systems and the perceived power of stones, as witnessed in similar structures seen in Orkney or at Stonehenge. In Cranborne Chase, holes drilled in bones from kistes indicate an attempt to keep remains intact for ritual or social purposes. Robinson then visits Mike Parker Pearson to discuss British peat mummies and introduces the unifying role of shamanism. (en)
- The team examine the expensive Enlightenment fad for landscape gardens, in particular, one designed by Capability Brown. To get a feel for naturalistic garden designs, Robinson travels to Prior Park near Bath, built by Ralph Allen and inspired by Alexander Pope, where a water cascade feature is being restored by the National Trust. At the Royal Society in London, he learns of the explosion of interest in the natural sciences at the time, an interest expressed in Greco-Roman inspired garden grottos and faux statues, temples and lakes. At Stowe House we see evidence of the vice/virtue dichotomy as portrayed in classical symbolism, and he travels to Rome and Hadrian's Villa to explore the comparisons further. (en)
- Robinson introduces Liverpool as the innovative beating trading gateway to the British Empire – a stunning transformation from its sleepy backwater origins. Recent redevelopment work revealed its first dock, started in 1709 – a revolutionary "wet dock" design directly alongside the quayside, with gates to maintain water levels despite the tides, allowing all-day and direct loading and unloading of goods. With its plans lost to a fire, excavation work allows Harding a rare chance to re-examine and survey the site. The brick-dock ignited a flurry of development and industrial activity along streets radiating from the site, including slums and warehouses on reclaimed land called Nova Scotia. The show also examines the local effects of the profitable triangular trade of tobacco, sugar, and slavery. (en)
- Robinson explains how Edward III decided to turn Arthurian myth into reality, and how in 2006 Time Team found traces of Edward's 1344 round-table building at the Big Royal Dig. Described as being across, extensive records exist of its construction between February and November that year. Bellver Castle in Majorca provides a possible model of a circular building, as does the Globe Theatre as a theatrical space. Around this time, tournaments were also regularly held, which re-enforced both a sense of chivalry and of vassalage – as were parliaments in chapter houses where Edward could source funding for his wars . The timing of the campaign culminating in Crecy coincides with the rapid fading of the Arthurian-centric building from history. (en)
- Robinson reports from the Witham Valley in Lincolnshire, where many spectacular late Bronze Age finds have recently been recovered. Funded by the Environment Agency, a 6-week winter dig is under way, in an attempt to get a picture of the partial-remains of ancient settlement before the rebuilding of local flood banks. The then tidal peatland of the fens provides a well-suited environment for the preservation of organic materials such as votive offerings or walkways. They also discover evidence of metal and antler working, suggesting the area's possible importance as a trade centre and port. In addition to Time Team experts such as Francis Pryor, contributors include wood expert Maisie Taylor, environmentalist James Rackham, conservator James White, and archaeometallurgist Gerry McDonnell. (en)
- In this episode, archaeology students excavate Durrington Walls, Britain's biggest neolithic henge, which dwarfs the nearby Stonehenge. Mike Parker Pearson explains to Time Team his revolutionary theory about the connection between the two sites, where the cremated remains of the dead would, after a winter funerary festival, be thrown into the nearby River Avon to travel downstream to join their ancestors. As they travelled downstream towards Stonehenge, the dead would then be transformed into spirits and pass into the afterlife. The discovery of a curved avenue leading from the henge to the river helps to bear out his theory – of the spiritual transition from wood and decay to stone and permanence. Meanwhile, Harding takes part in Time Team's biggest ever reconstruction, a great timber henge aligned to the mid-winter sunrise. (en)
- Robinson introduces the Sevso Treasure, a mysterious looted collection of 14 Roman silver items kept in the vaults at Bonhams auction house, and owned by the Marquess of Northampton. He examines the concept of provenance – the legal paper-trail supporting authenticity of ownership. He travels to Budapest, then Polgárdi, and the Hungarian Museum, where he learns details of how the Hungarian Government has been fighting for ownership of the treasure since 1990, and of the suspicious circumstances behind the death of its discoverer in 1980. Robinson then traces the murky high-stakes world of the illegal trade in antiquities, where the theft of items and damaging of sites robs the world of valuable historical knowledge. (en)
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