Am relatively new to the list - and just watched a episode (that I taped last Tuesday) in which the mob did a dig on a summit in Norfolk - it was the site of a Norman church and the excavation ended up revealing that the site was occupied in the Saxon period (600 onwards)
Anyway the point of this post is about the map they did up on the computer - the one which the fellow (cant remember his name) says 'is how the coast looked from the prehistoric period on' ... what I was doubting is whether this was really still relevant in the 600's!?
If so the coast was SUBSTANTIALLY different to it is today and I have never seen this referred to before in an historical map.
Wonder were you get one of these 'programs' that show you how Britain looked in the Roman or Medieval periods...
I don't know if there are any programs or websites or whatever, which show that sort of thing. What TT do is get their computer expert to superimpose information from old maps and documents, land heights etc. on to a modern map. Deep soil samples - like Henry was taking from the moat in last night's episode - can show whether the land was under the sea, under fresh water, marshy or dry, from the pollen which has survived in the mud from plants growing there when that depth was on the surface. Then that can be added to the computer reconstruction. There are computer programs such as GIS and graphics which they use, but these are just tools into which they put the information to produce the visual results like those you saw.
The land is constantly changing - we tend to think of land, sea, rivers, coastline etc. as permanent but they certainly aren't. Yes, it would have been very different in prehistoric times (but remember that prehistory stretches from the very early stone age until the Romans came to Britain), and different again in the 600s, and again in the present. Dating isn't easy but not impossible either, as we do have considerable knowledge of what the climate was doing at different times in the past.
And there are two kinds of historical map: modern(-ish) ones which try to show ancient sites and things - they usually use the modern coastline, rivers etc. The type that show the sort of detail you saw on that episode are rarer because it's only been realised comparatively recently just how much change has occurred over the centuries.
Try the Norfolk E-Map Explorer site. I don't know if it contains the sort of thing you want, but it should supply contact details for somebody who does.
you wrote: "The land is constantly changing ...it would have been very different in prehistoric times (but remember that prehistory stretches from the very early stone age until the Romans came to Britain), and different again in the 600s, and again in the present. Dating isn't easy but not impossible either, as we do have considerable knowledge of what the climate was doing at different times in the past."
And I totaly agree with you! That was my piont - TT were using a map which they said was a representation of the coastline in the 'prehistoric' period to show what was going on in the mid saxon period landscape (600's on)... erm this seemed a wee bit wrong to me!
Steffan - thanks for the link. It's an interesting site - didnt have any map like that which was on the episode I saw (which is probably an old episode because they are only the old ones that they show here in Australia)
But it doesn't change at a constant rate, so possibly they thought the coastline was still like that, or pretty similar, in the 600s.
I think the programme you're referring to must have been one of the early "live" weekend digs - was it called Bawsey St. James? If so, yes it was at least 5 years ago, as I remember watching it with my Mum who was still alive then. What I can't remember in clear enough detail was the map reconstrucion - weren't they implying the church was built on what was originally a promontory of high ground sticking out into the sea?
Whereabouts in Australia are you? There are quite a few others who also post here, some are in Melbourne I think.
If it was the Bawsey one, as Ooban says, it was a 1998 Live Dig. A lot of the pages are still there.
Bawsey (Church Farm), King's Lynn and West Norfolk 1998
* ADS Record ID: . * Time Team 99: The site reports (1999), pages 66-73. Popular account. * Norfolk archaeology: A journal of archaeology and local history 43:2 (1999), page 369. * Paper/microfilm archive: location Norfolk Landscape Archaeology.
As Steffan has mentioned, the dig was the one at Bawsey (north-west Norfolk, in East Anglia, 2½ miles E by N of King's Lynn). The 1998 Time Team Live website is still partially there, although in summary form.
You'll find there is a mass of material if you click on the various links - the nearest one to what you are looking for being (I would think) a computer-generated view of "Landmass reconstruction showing flood plain of Saxon times", which is on 'Sunday's Diary'.
This may not be what you referred to, but it's all I could find, bearing in mind that this relates to a TT programme that is now over eight years old.
You may be interested to know that there is a loose group of fans of the programme, the East Anglia Forum Friends, who meet occasionally for visits to historic buildings, museums, digs, and sites of special interest in the eastern counties of England.
Hello Ooban, Steffan and Bruce. Thanks and sorry I haven't replied sooner. Yes you are all right - it was the Bawsey Dig - our programs don’t have any 'names' (well not that I can find in the TV program anyway) Well we certainly are getting old episodes! I suppose I will have to wait 10 years to see the episodes from this season <sigh>
Ooban - "Whereabouts in Australia are you? There are quite a few others who also post here, some are in Melbourne I think."
I am a long way from Melbourne - the other end of the country in fact! I like in Northern Queensland - Tropical rainforest and hot long summers
Steffan - Thanks for the links
Bruce - "Landmass reconstruction showing flood plain of Saxon times" That is the one!
I suppose what I am asking is - is there any scientific process behind these 'reconstruction’s' or is it just all guesswork and window-dressing? If there is some science behind it then where would I be able to find more of the same? Is it a special program? Is it a special field of study within British Archeology (or some other associated academic field)?
Bruce - "You may be interested to know that there is a loose group of fans of the programme, the East Anglia Forum Friends, who meet occasionally for visits to historic buildings, museums, digs, and sites of special interest in the eastern counties of England."
Thanks Bruce - if I am ever in your neck of the woods I will definitely look you up :-)
