Warriors (Barrow Clump, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire) | Time Team | Season 20, Episode 5 | Posted August 13, 2016
Posted on 03/01/2019 11:54:41 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Barrow Clump has a remarkably long history of human activity. The Bronze Age burial mound built on an even older Neolithic settlement, was reused as an Anglo-Saxon cemetery. It had already been damaged by ploughing, but permission to excavate a listed site was granted because of damage by more recent trouble makers -- badgers which were burrowing out the entire site, and kicking out human bones as they dug.
This year's excavation was just beside the burial mound -- "the badgers are happily back in residence in the barrow now" Osgood said -- carried out in scorching heat and clay as hard as concrete, to investigate the extent of the cemetery, and the condition of any archaeology under the trackway.
The three week excavation uncovered scores of Saxon burials, men around the edge of the site, women and children in the centre, with grave goods including weapons and jewellery. They included a man with a less well preserved sword, and a little girl buried with a large amber bead. One of the graves held a young boy buried curled as if in sleep, one of the few without any grave goods.
The splendidly armed warrior was found when a metal detector being used for a last sweep of the site on the final afternoon gave an unusually strong signal.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Warriors (Barrow Clump, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire) | Time Team | Season 20, Episode 5 | Posted August 13, 2016
The whole article is very interesting but that paragraph stood out. Very cool!
I assume the Brit term refers to repeated folding and forge-welding -- akin to Damascus steel. If that's the case, the survival of the sword is really special -- because such multilayer metals are commonly victimized by corrosion delamination.
Thanks for posting this!!
TXnMA
The vid is pretty great as well. The presenter (Tony) doesn't dwell on anything, but asks several of the vets how they happened to get there.
And considering the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes conquered much of Britain, they left very little behind. Like other groups in other places, their burials are pretty much it, and those are little found.
Thanks for pointing out the video. I admit I didn’t get that far and hadn’t noticed it.
Just watched it and it was quite good. They found a lot of cool artifacts in that dig.
What a neat program those folks came up with to help those soldiers out. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy being involved.
I generally stream the TT episodes on the Roku, even if I don't watch it, I listen (often, there's not much to see, pretty much, dirt in a trench, Tony teasing Phil until he snaps) and watched the episode last year, but just rewatched it this week.
I didn’t know the show was streamed. Might have to check it out.
Archeology fascinates me but I wouldn’t have the patience to do a dig. Fortunately there are people who do and we learn a lot about the past, and see some REALLY interesting artifacts.
It’s been fun checking out all the goodies tonight but now it’s time for this “vampire” to head to the bat cave. It’s going to take several minutes to get our 35 cats settled down before I go to bed. They’re wound up like two-dollar watches tonight. *sigh*
Thanks for the fun trips into the past tonight.
It's been extensively, uh, shall we say, reposted in an unauthorized fashion. At least the transfer is good, more than can be said about, for example, the nimrod who pirates "Curse of Oak Island".
Yes the term does refer to repeated folding, but also twisting length ways of the rods before being hammered back together.
There are several tv shows on this that may be on YouTube by now.
Fortunately, nearby (in Texas scale) in Historic Old Washington, AR, there is a master bladesmith who does demonstrations in James Black's blacksmith shop -- where history says Jim Bowie's original "Iron Mistress" was forged.
The guy does unbelievably beautiful work -- including a spectacular "ladder-folded" sword blade that won him his "Master Bladesmith" certification.
Next time I'm there, I'll ask him if he has done the longitudinal twist bit.
That should produce a dramatic-looking blade! And, I expect it would be somewhat stronger than the transverse-fold "ladder-folded" version. (He admits he made that one as a show piece of capability and skill -- but, it still passed all the "hanging rope cut" tests with flying colors!)
And here is an earlier Time Team dig on the Royal Army’s Salisbury Plain training area that was shown in season 8, episode 7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OnzLtyICuI
Intro by Tony (Baldrick) Robinson:
Salisbury Plain, as well as being the British Army’s biggest training ground, is one of Europe’s most extensive areas of undisturbed archaeology. Over 38,000 hectares - an area the size of the Isle of Wight - is given over to the military here.
Time Team was called in to investigate a site believed to contain the remains of settlements spanning both the Iron Age and the Roman era. The aim was to find sufficient evidence to get the site scheduled by English Heritage ¿ so protecting it for the future.
Yeah, that one's pretty good as well -- probably that's what got the national service interested in that rehab program which led to the second episode?
Thanks Atlantan.
That's Tony Robinson. He played Baldrick in "Black Adder" with Rowan Atkinson. Tony also presented the 20 year British series "Time Team", and regularly does new historical programs.
That’s the guy.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG4Ec9nEwwk
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