Sutton Hoo helmet in LEGO
'We really need the public’s help to make the LEGO Sutton Hoo helmet an official LEGO set that anyone can buy and build.'
public archaeology
This week: Time Team
Of all the many side-effects of the coronavirus, perhaps the least expected (though most welcome) was a sudden revival of interest in a plucky little archaeology-based television series which last graced our screens way back in 2013. During the lockdown, however, it was reported that millions of people in more than 40 countries had been whiling away their newly enforced leisure hours by tuning in to classic episodes of Time Team on YouTube.
Time Team returns: how an archaeological institution rose to dig again
For 20 years, Time Team was an archaeological household name – and, while the show came to an end in 2013, its popularity has soared once again during lockdown. In the last two months alone, over two million people in more than 40 countries have tuned into the Time Team Classics YouTube channel. Now the show is set to return with a pair of new digs to explore the secrets beneath our feet, as Felix Rowe reports.
Heritage from home: April
With the arrival of spring and the promise of lockdown restrictions lifting over the next few months, we are looking forward to visits to museums and heritage sites in the not-too-distant future. For now, though, there are still plenty of things to keep you busy at home, whether you are looking for online exhibitions, craft ideas, or even some of the talks from Current Archaeology’s annual conference! Amy Brunskill has put together another selection of the latest options.
This week on The Past: The Dig
Welcome to The Past, the brand new website that brings together the most exciting stories and the best writing from the worlds of history, archaeology, ancient art and heritage.
The big talking point here this week has been The Dig, the new Netflix movie of the Sutton Hoo story starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes. Who would have predicted that a drama about the 1939 excavation of a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon burial mound would become one of the stand-out hits of lockdown? Or that it would plug so directly into modern concerns about the representation of women on screen?
Archaeology and the silver screen
As far as I am aware, The Dig is a first. I mean a film where the whole thing revolves around an archaeological dig that really happened? This is the only one, right?
The Dig: ‘poetic licence aside’
This is no high-octane adventure romp, but a slow, almost meditative period piece that focuses more on the people involved in the investigation and on the looming threat of the Second World War than it does on the astonishing artefacts that were recovered from Suffolk’s sandy soil.
Heritage from home: March
Last March, museums and heritage sites across the world closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, we created ‘Heritage from Home’ to share the many wonderful ways that you can get your fix of archaeology, history, and culture without leaving the house. Amy Brunskill has put together a roundup of highlights featured so far.
Heritage from home: February
As we find ourselves back in lockdown, the vast quantity of resources available online seems more valuable than ever. Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of some of the many ways you can get involved in archaeology, history, and heritage from home, to help you explore the past until museums and heritage sites are able to open once more.
Caistor Roman Project gets a boost
Caistor Roman Project (CRP) – a community archaeology group centred around the Roman town of Venta Icenorum at present-day Caistor St Edmund in Norfolk – received an unexpected morale-booster in August: an emergency grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund,…
Current Archaeology Live! 2021 Conference
It is almost time for Current Archaeology Live! 2021, which will run from 26 to 28 February. While this year’s event will be entirely online, and things will look a bit different to what you are used to, we still…
Digging Deeper: how archaeology works
How do archaeologists know where to dig? How do they find out how old things are? And who gets to keep the objects they find? It is questions like these, often asked by curious members of the public, that Eric…
The Archaeology of East Oxford – Archeox: the development of a community
Think of the archaeology of Oxford and thoughts will inevitably turn to the historic city centre. In the suburbs, however, there is a heritage every bit as rich and distinct. The Archeox project was set up to investigate the archaeology…
News in brief
British Museum revamps Collection Online The British Museum has recently launched a new version of its Collection Online website, featuring over half its collections, making it one of the largest such databases of any global museum. The updated resource encompasses…
Your Stonehenge
Visitors to Stonehenge have been taking photographs of the monument – and themselves – for almost 150 years. Lucia Marchini visited the site to explore a new exhibition showcasing some of these images, and the stories they tell.
Mistress of time travel: an interview with Caroline Lawrence
Best-selling children’s writer Caroline Lawrence tells Diana Bentley where she finds the inspiration for her pacy, impeccably crafted novels and why young and old alike continue to be fascinated by the ancient world
Q&A with Vicky Nash – on community archaeology
When I have gone into schools to speak to children about our digs they are normally convinced that when they get on site they will be like Indiana Jones and uncover lots of treasure.
Time Team: the rise and fall of a television phenomenon
Best of all, the cameras were rolling to capture the archaeologists’ euphoria as the geophysical plot emerged from a bulky printer in the back of the survey vehicle.
A brief history of Time Team
Everybody knows the story of how Time Team started: one ex-teacher turned TV producer, a couple of quirky archaeologists, and a fortuitous meeting in the Mediterranean with one of Britain’s best-loved actors combined to create the most successful archaeology programme ever on British television.
Mexican Clovis and Heavenly Hopewell
In Brian Fagan’s latest instalment of all things archaeological that are both exotic and entertaining, he reads a Jamestown tablet, gets spiritual with the Hopewell, and finds gomphotheres with Clovis points.