Time Team HD

The Time Team is on the trail of a medieval mystery. Founded by Henry V and built by his son Henry VI, Syon Abbey was a large, wealthy monastery for nuns of an obscure Swedish order. During the reign of Henry VIII, it vanished... until now. What the team finds is on a huge scale, but there is disagreement as to what kind of building it was. It will take a deeper look to come to a conclusion.

There's a round island of stones in Loch Migdale. Could it be a crannog? 200 meters away, on the banks, is a small circular feature, a henge perhaps? The Time Team gathers experts on the prehistoric in order to find out. They set up a suction dredge to investigate two areas of the loch feature, and find wonderfully preserved timber. From there, it is easy for the team to deduce the structure!

The Time Team investigates a possible 5th century cemetery in a plowed field, where they find a metal shield boss. One male skeleton is holding a drinking vessel. There are hints of much earlier activity as well, including a Bronze Age barrow. Using authentic tools, they fashion a Saxon shield, and then demonstrate how the shields were most effectively used in battle.

Nobody knows what happened immediately after the Romans arrived in 43 AD because no Roman fort has been discovered in this part of Southeast England. The Time Team is on a mission to find the missing link. Local archaeologist Paul Wilkinson believes he has already found a military ditch, which would surround such a fort, however, geophysics cannot find any evidence of the ditch.

Green Island in Poole Harbour has already shown that it was a significant center of Iron Age activity, with evidence of industrial advancement and trading to and from the continental mainland. The Time Team has their hands full as the island is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, meaning they can only dig by hand. Not soon after they begin, the finds start to multiply.

The Time Team is revisiting the garden of Furnace Cottage in Churnet Valley, where the previous excavation of an Elizabethan blast furnace produced evidence of much earlier iron-making. Stewart surveys the landscape, to piece together a picture of water flow and other features essential to iron smelting. John is convinced that there is strong geophysical evidence for a furnace a mile away.

When the tide recedes on the Severn estuary, rare evidence of stone age activity is uncovered. The Time Team is on a three-day mission to help recover some of these relics before they are washed away. The Mesolithic period is poorly understood, because these people were mobile hunter-gatherers who did not build permanent structures. Phil finds the tooth of an aurochs, an extinct giant animal.

The British landscape is littered with Iron Age hill forts. A local archaeology unit is excavating such a hill fort in Oxfordshire, but cannot afford to investigate a neighboring hill only 200 meters away, which is much larger and more enticing. Both Roman and Iron Age remains have been found there in the past. Can the Time Team help them out with their dilemma? It would be a win for all!

Digging up fields and car parks and back gardens is all very well, but how could the Time Team pass up a chance to dig up a living room? The manor house in Nassington was purchased in a derelict state, and while restoring it, several massive post holes were investigated that seem to be of a size and spacing to have supported the structure of a Saxon Great Hall.

As renowned Suffolk archaeologist Basil Brown discovered, Castle Hill near Ipswich is named not after a castle, but a substantial Roman villa. Brown was unable to complete his excavation, so the Time Team has been called in by local schoolchildren to find out more. They will need to dig up a few back gardens to do so, and soon it becomes clear that Brown's measurements were out of kilter.

A succession of kings held court at Old Roxburgh, or Rokesburg as it was then called, and the Royal burgh by the banks of the Tweed became the largest wool trading center in Europe. Rokesburg competed with Edinburgh, Stirling, and Berwick as the kingdom's most influential place, but while the other three settlements survived, almost nothing remains of Old Roxburgh above ground level.

Pigs rooting in a windswept field in Dorset unearthed ancient fragments of Roman mosaic floor tiles. In addition, a Bournemouth University excavation team located some burials nearby. The farmer, Simon Meaden, has asked the Time Team to investigate further. John's geophysics survey reveals a lot of activity, and soon, multiple finds start appearing. Tony is even allowed to dig up a small beaker.