Classic Time Team

On the surface it looks just like any other large Lincolnshire field, but when a pipe was laid across it a couple of years prior, a number of shallow graves were surprisingly uncovered. The team is intrigued that an Anglo-Saxon cemetery should contain Roman pottery. With the help of some experts in the field, the Time Team attempts to piece together this mystery.

Derek Batten bought a plot of land advertised as a castle and moat, but that's left is a mound surrounded by a huge ditch. He has asked Time Team to sort it out. Phil Harding gets kitted-out in chainmail as a Saxon footsoldier, facing a mounted Norman warrior. The site is finally identified as a ringwork castle, built on a previous Saxon structure around the time of the Norman Conquest.

In Wales lies an extraordinary site, complete with a Megalith, a Neolithic tomb, a Norman watchtower, early Christian symbols, and a natural spring. From this spring, the landowner has recovered an astonishing variety of coins, sculptures, and jewelry. It is almost too good to be true, resembling an ancient theme park. So begins one of Time Team's most remarkable digs.

Time Team wants to paint a picture of a family living in a Roman villa in the Cotswolds almost 2000 years ago, so they decide to dig a site near Fosse Way. They are only a few hundred meters from two previously excavated villas in an area unusually dense with Roman remains. With the help of specialists, they conclude that the villa was built very early after the Roman invasion, but abandoned. Why?

Time Team attempt to find what is reputed to be the first railway viaduct. Built in 1790, horses drew wagons along its tracks to efficiently move coal from the mine to the Blaenavon Ironworks, one mountain over. Tons of earth from local mines has not only covered the viaduct, but filled the valleys so completely that it is difficult to find any clues as to where to dig.

The owners of Rycote House live in a lovely converted stable block, but they believe that the extremely grand house that once stood on the property and which hosted Tudor royalty burned down in 1745, and they want Time Team to investigate. In the trenches, no evidence of burning is found, but it seems that grand houses were built and rebuilt from the 14th century through the Georgian era.

The team are on Salisbury Plain, over 38,000 hectares of land in Southwest England. Though the whole area is rich in ancient remains, they are concentrating on Beeches Barn, a field rumored to conceal an Iron Age roundhouse. Alongside the dig, they are helping Ian Apter to build one of the team's most ambitious projects, a full-size thatched roundhouse.

A pile of bones has been discovered in a narrow cave. They include cows, dogs, and a human skull, which have been dated to the late Iron Age Celts. One female skull shows clear evidence of a violent death. The quantity of dog bones may indicate an ancient dog cult. Celtic expert Miranda Aldhouse-Green suspects this all hints at human sacrifice.

While laying Brunel's Great Western Railway line 50 miles from London, men discovered mosaic floors indicating a Roman villa. The mosaics were broken up and the whole site ignored, until recent photographs of cropmarks showed the outline of the villa, among other features.

The team look at a wide range of historical deposits on the iconic Holy Island of Lindisfarne, including evidence of military activity in the 16th and 17th centuries. They are joined by John Heward (architectural historian), archaeologists Caroline Hardie and Richard Fraser, and pottery expert Jenny Vaughan. Phil Harding helps cooper Jim Newlands to make a traditional timber cask.

All that is left of Bridgnorth Castle is the 70 foot Norman tower. The team are in the park, trying to piece together what it looked like in its heyday, 900 years ago. They must dig outside the area of the scheduled monument. Phil and a group of enthusiasts recreate a 12th century catapult known as a perrier. Finally Philip is able to describe the construction and layout of the castle.

In highlights from a previous live dig, the team visits the ancient city of Canterbury to investigate three separate sites, all connected by their religious functions. There is a Roman temple, a monastery, and a medieval site devoted to the construction of sacred buildings. Celebrity guests Liza Tarbuck and Sandi Toksvig are in attendance.

Outside of Winchester, in what is today known as Hospital Field, once stood the St. Mary Magdalen Leper Hospital. Possibly complicating the search for the hospital, the entire field was used as an army camp during WWI. Time Team turns this to their advantage, as the medieval well that served the lepers was reused, with a wind pump, by the army camp, making it easier for geophysics to find.