WINFARTHING ISOTOPES | ENGLISH ALCATRAZ | Time Team News | Episode #7 PLUS Easter Island writing

Dani Wootton returns for more Time Team News. This month, isotope analysis results reveal the likely origins of the Winfarthing lady. The team visit the ‘English Alcatraz’, Drake’s Island, at Plymouth. Plus we venture behind the scenes at this year’s Current Archaeology Live!, featuring John Gater as Keynote Speaker. Elsewhere, we look at some of the stories to recently hit the archaeological headlines.

PREMIERE: Join us TONIGHT Saturday 2nd March at 7pm GMT.

CREDITS
Current Archaeology
Dr Sam Leggett, University of Edinburgh: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/sam-leggett
Dr Helen Geake
Dr John Gater
Drake’s Island
Oxford Archaeology
Ness of Brodgar

Roman egg scan: Dr Christopher Dunmore, Imaging Centre for Life Sciences:https://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology-conservation/people/2776/dunmore-christopher-james

Winfarthing environmental CT scans: with thanks to Tom Sparrow at the ‘School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences’, University of Bradford

Drake’s Island story scripted and edited by Jonathan Boakes
3D reconstruction models created by Andy Woodhead / Matt ‘Bear’ Clark
Music courtesy of Premium Beat, Bonne Nuit and Steve Day

Discover more about Rapa Nui script in Nature journal: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-53063-7.pdf

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Coming up, Isotope results reveal the  possible origins of the Winfarthing Lady,   the team visit Drake’s Island, the  English Alcatraz and the mysterious   invention of writing in remote Rapa Nui. Welcome to Time Team News, your monthly   dose of archaeology stories and discoveries from  Britain and across the globe. Well with spring  

Just around the corner we’re gearing up to get  back out into the field for more excavations and   we’ve got some extra exciting projects on the way, we’ll be making announcements about these very   soon. So please remember to subscribe to this  channel to receive all the latest notifications  

And remember it’s thanks to your support  on Patreon that makes all this possible.  But back to this show now and I’m delighted  to report that we’re going to be taking the   show in new directions. All thanks  to you for tuning in. So here we are, 

It’s episode seven. As usual, we’ve got some  great stories lined up for you, so let’s get   started. You’ll often hear me saying that the  best discoveries are made during post-excavation,  the process that takes place after the dig  back in the lab. A Time Team evaluation  

Might last three days but often the  research continues for many months,  in some cases many years afterwards, as various  specialists present their findings informing   future research. One technique that’s  increasingly valuable in understanding   people from the past is isotope analysis as our  investigation of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at  

Winfarthing in Norfolk demonstrates. Our investigation centered on the   burial of a high status lady whose grave  goods suggested clear connections with   the Kingdom of Frankia on continental Europe. Dr. Sam Leggett of the University of Edinburgh   explains how isotope analysis works. –  So isotopes are based off the holes that  

Are premised that you are what you eat. So all of your food and drink can wear   you out. food and drink are coming from when  you metabolize, when you break down your food,   and it then starts to replace and  /or make new bits of your body. 

So those sort of chemical signatures of  the environment get locked into your bones   and teeth. So it can tell you roughly about  the environment and what people are eating   and roughly what the climate was like and  what type of geology you were living on. 

But there’s lots of areas in Europe which have  the same geology and same climates, so we can   narrow it down to those broad parameters,  but not this pinpoint on a map. We sent   a tooth and a rib sample of the lady to Dr  Leggett for analysis so that we could tell  

More about the lady’s origins and life. Dr Leggett’s isotope analysis confirms   that it’s unlikely that the lady grew up in  Winfarthing, but the results are consistent with   a child’s childhood spent in parts of Frankia. Indeed, the geological signature matches the  

Region around the Rhineland. There’s maps  that I make that are sort of really educated   mathematical guesses where the isotopes sort of  match up to known water and geological isotopes.  So you have some areas that are completely  ruled out isotopically and you’ll see that  

They’re sort of blank. And then there’s areas  that are shades of sort of salmony orange versus   the darker the green, the better the match. And that is just purely based on the isotopes   and the statistics. And around Cologne, around the  Rhine, there’s big strips of green, which means,  

Yes, it’s an isotopic match. So I think we’re  building up this beautiful layer cake of here’s   some of the material that she was buried with. Here are her isotopes from her childhood. It   all matches, which is very rare and a very nice  fit for me to kind of get that narrowing down  

Because isotopes can only take you so far and it’s  when we contextualize it with the grave goods.  And then we start to circle in with where  the bowl might be from, where the pottery is,   the coin pendants, and that narrows  us down to areas along the Rhine. 

And it’s quite clear that there are other parts  of what then becomes Frankia that are ruled out,   which also is quite nice as well. So  we are really looking at Alemannia and   areas a little bit further north up around  Cologne and heading towards the North Sea, 

Which kind of gives us the answer to how she  hopped over to East Anglia. The investigation   really was a rescue project to help us to  understand and characterise an early   part of English history before the last remaining  traces were swept away by the modern plough. 

Once we have encountered a human burial, we have  almost a duty to find out as much as we possibly   can about them, to give them a kind of new lie. You have to sort of detach yourself when you’re  

Dealing with human remains to a certain degree to  get the work done. but then when you have the data   back and you’re able to put this story together  and talk to you all about what that all means, 

I think that is the great privilege that  we have and the duty that we have to tell   that story and put her life back together and  bring that story to the fore, because without   the isotopic information we wouldn’t know. Would she be local? Is she not? How does  

She look compared to everyone else? It  does show you when you have those tiny,   tiny little bits of a person, you can  tell an awful lot about their lives,  which is the magical bit of what we do, I think.  Some of the work Helena and I have done have  

Kind of shown some of these amazing female  connections that we’re just really starting   to pick apart in fine-grained detail, and Winfarthing will be a big part   of that story. – And to hear an in-depth discussion on the post-ex,   also featuring Professor Helena Hamerow  and environmental analysis from Naomi Sewpaul, 

Please visit Patreon. In the  Pacific Ocean, thousands of   miles away from their other nearest habitation, is Easter Island or Rapa Nui. This remote island   is famous for its huge stone statues carved  from rock made of volcanic ash reaching four  

Metres in height and weighing around 12.5 tonnes. The island’s enigmatic past has long fascinated   archaeologists but one of the puzzles to  really mystify researchers is Rongorongo,   a system of glyphs whose meaning is now  lost to time and is yet to be deciphered. 

Less than 30 examples of this script survive,  carved onto wooden tablets and characterised   by pictorial representations  such as animals and human forms.  The script’s layout suggests that it’s read  by rotating the tablet 180 degrees at the   end of each line, but it’s not clear  whether this is fully-fledged writing  

Or perhaps a memory aid as part of an order. tradition. There’s debate around the origins of   the script, whether its development was informed  by outside contact or whether it was invented   entirely independently by the people of Rapa Nui. The script has no known parallels, supporting the  

Idea of a unique invention. But because  some of the tablets are made from wood   from trees not native to the island, questions remain of a potential outside   influence. Some of the tablets resemble the shape  of an oar or paddle giving rise to the theory that  

They may have been carved on oars from European  or American boats either through direct contact   or through washing ashore as driftwood. The island is so remote that the first   recorded contact from Europeans was  on in the 18th century. New research  

Led by Silvia Ferrara of the University of  Bologna has sought to settle this debate.  They radio-carbondated four tablets  held in Italy. Of these three came back   with a date of 19th century, but one  gave a secure mid-15th century date,  which predates known contact. from  Europeans and supports the idea of  

An independent invention. The research has  been published in an article by a team led by   author Silvia Ferrara in the Nature Journal. See the link in the box below. On the way to   a recent excavation some of the team stopped  off to visit Drake’s Island of Devon’s South 

Coast, just a short trip from Plymouth Harbour,  where Bear has been using photogrammetry to   document the island’s archaeology. Time Team  crew make their way out across Plymouth Sound.  It’s a short trip to the mysterious Drake’s  Island. Visible from land, the island has been  

Off limits for many decades, with local people  intrigued by what may linger on the island.  rock. We’re here, neither of us threw up  because we’re not very good travellers,   so we’re going to take that as a win for  the day. Although we do have to come back. 

Yeah, we do. We’ll be right. The weather  might have turned. Don’t say that for   me. Originally known as St Nicholas Island, it is from here that Sir Francis Drake sailed   in 15 years. to circumnavigate the globe, a  feat completed in 1580. It will be several  

Hours until the boat returns at high tide. Their only means of escape pulls away from   the jetty. Here we are, Drake’s Island.  Let’s see what we’re going to see. I’m   very excited. I’ve tried not to read up too  much about this because I just want to… 

Experience it for itself conflict and defence  have defined the atmosphere and appearance of   the island. Old stone archways lead up to  higher areas through remnants of Napoleonic   architecture So we’ve just come off the ferry. We’ve literally just gotten to Drake’s Island  

It’s crazy. I mean, but the only thing that  comes to mind for me is like a it’s got Alcatraz   vibes. It’s English Alcatraz, I guess. I have no  idea what you’re going to find up here and we’re   going up this already immediately footballing  staircase and there’s a sign here to keep out, 

So let’s not and let’s go in. Several  old buildings are clustered to the   west side of the island, including  the abandoned ablutions building,  barracks block and officers’ quarters.  quarters. World War II was an active   time on the island as nightly Nazi  bombing runs flattened areas of the city. 

These days, the empty ruins are the  victim of time and decay. As the new   island custodians valiantly uncover and clear  more of the island than ever, a huge endeavour,  which is fascinating and quite eerie to experience  firsthand. On the summit of the island several  

Huge objects are waiting to be 3D scanned. The  RML’s large rifle muzzle loading guns date from   the 1870s and make an unusual sculpture garden. Bear also scans King George II’s cannon from 1750,   marked with the King’s cypher.  The intention is to create highly detailed  

Models ready to be studied and added to the  island’s rich catalogue of virtual treasures.  Further conflicts saw the installation of  gun batteries, tunnels and defences as the   technology of war evolved. The island  was also used as a prison during the   Civil War, the deathplace of Leveller, Robert Lilburne and John Lambert,  

Imprisoned for the Regicide of Charles I. Isolated islands are effective   places of incarceration but it is unknown how  many were imprisoned or died on the island.  To wander Drake’s Island today is  to walk through several centuries   of history where wood was replaced with  stone and stone replaced with concrete. 

Sea mines, sentries and searchlights were  installed to guard the naval docks of Plymouth. On   the east side of the island, the casemates are gun  positions of multiple eras in Napoleonic onwards.  Each chamber is different to the last,  with some period metal machinery and  

Woodwork still evident to this day. The  crew enter the island’s infamous tunnels.  The tunnels are a warren of passages  from various time periods throughout   the island’s 400-year history of war and  defence. Some are narrow brick passageways like   rat runs from one room to the next, whereas others turn sharp angles to  

Small rooms and ammo lifts. The largest  chambers of a shell and cartridge stores,   part of the underground magazines. The walls are painted with flames   and grotesque imagery around them, a remnant  of when the cavern-like space was used as a  

Club with cinema and Friday night disco. The arrival of the high tide meant it was   time to leave the island. The pick-up was  most welcome. Time Team will return   another day to continue capturing, recording and 3D modelling the many   layers of history. and heritage on  Drake’s Island. What a magical place. 

Would you like Time Team to return to  Drake’s Island for more investigation?   Let us know in the comments section below.  One of the big fixtures on the UK archaeology   calendar is Current Archaeology Live!, a conference and awards ceremony showcasing   the best of British archaeology. This  year’s event was held at the end of  

February at the University College London  and just happened to feature Time Team’s   very own Dr John Gater, as the keynote speaker. So we went along to catch some of the action.   chance to have an hour-long program  to explain how geophysics works and  

This is the level that we’re portrayed at. Lots of old Time Team friends were in the   running for awards. Congratulations to the Ness of  Brodgar for its double-whammy, winning the ‘Research   Project of the Year’ award with site director  Nick Card announced as ‘Archaeologist of the Year’. 

Well, I’m a bit of an imposter here. My second  persona is Nick Card. Card. Not Nick Card once,   but Nick Card twice. And it was  actually a hat trick for Orkney,  with a Knowe of Swandro winning ‘Rescue  Project of the Year’. No, really,  

Really pleased because it is such a recognition  of rescue archaeology, of Orkney archaeology,  of archaeology from Bradford. ‘Book of the Year’ was  ‘Doggerland’ by Luc Amkreutz and Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof. Big congratulations to all the nominees highlighting the wonderful  

Wealth of archaeology going on at the moment. And finally, perhaps an Easter related story   for you now. A 1,700 year old chicken  egg has been discovered with the liquid   yolk and egg white still inside it. The egg, which was laid way back  

During the Romano British period, was  discovered during excavations of a Roman   site in Aylesbury. A recent scan revealed that  the contents of the egg were still intact.  A spokesperson for Oxford Archaeology said “It is  absolutely amazing. It may be the oldest egg of  

Its type in the world.” Well that’s all for now. As usual, all the 3D models featured in this   month’s show are available over on our Patreon  channel and remember that Time Team News is   also available as an audio only podcast  so you can listen while you’re on the go. 

And please do keep letting us know about  what stories you’d like to see featured in   this show. So thank you for watching and  I look forward to seeing you next time. Join Time Team on Patreon to  access exclusive 3D models,   masterclasses and behind-the-scenes insights.