Ask the Time Team

What were the dates of your three day project on Roanoke Island?

As a CRM archaeologist and field director, I loved the show. It's presented in a manner that shows the general public what archaeologists do -- and what is to be learned from digging into the earth. I look forward to more programs. Thank you!

I enjoyed the show immensely. I'm wondering, with some time gone by and more digs accomplished, is it still conjectured that the site shown was part of the fort or the small village? It seemed like there was a very small amount of daily life items found.

I am a veteran of Mott Farm from the summer of 1973. What are the chronologies of the glazed ware from the Fort Roanoke site? Are there any carbon dates from the post holes? I wish there had been a more detailed examination of remote sensing. Were there any further excavations at the Vineyard? Is Eric the son of Jim Deetz?

Always glad to see archaeology for the masses on PBS, though I'm sorry the tilt looks to be so Anglo-centric right out of the gate and for most of the rest of the series. Case in point, Dr. Noel Hume saying of the Roanoke site, "This is the start of America"...or something to that effect, thus, unfortunately and shamefully, perpetuating / reinforcing the impression in too many US history textbooks that the English were the first Europeans on these shores. Looks like we'll have to hope that if there is a Season 2, the series will explore the Spanish presence in what would become America - which predates the English by almost a century.

It's been 20 years since I did fieldwork, but it's good to see that "archaeologist's are (still) the cowboys of science"!

Seeing a program focussed on something other than Egypt was wonderful. Well done.

Great show, I enjoyed it very much. I have always been interested in pre-Clovis sites in America and am of the belief that the Americas were populated much earlier than the Bearing Strait land-bridge theory. Is there any chance the team could do a more modern survey of the Wind-over site in Florida?
I cannot wait for next weeks show.

He said, "This is the beginning of England in America."

Really, REALLY enjoyed the show. It was a nice twist to have the sketch artist/host --- as an artist myself I was so envious!! Excavations of 17th century America are particularly fascinating to me.

There was a comment about copper residues being found in a crucible at the "science center" - a rather grand term for a smelter. Where would copper or copper ore have been found in the colony's immediate vicinity? I'd suspect ore or metal would have more likely come from trade with the natives, who in turn could have acquired it from their trade routes to GA, SC, NC (where gold was later found)or OH or MI (where lake copper (metallic copper) could be found on the ground. Comments? Thanks.

Really enjoyed your first episode. I used to watch the British show and always enjoyed it! I am also looking forward to next week. I am originally from Allendale County, South Carolina. We used to pick up chert, arrow heads, and pottery in my dad's field and have been avidly following the Topper site dig over the last decade. It is an amazing site and Dr. Goodyear an amazing educator. Here's to a great year for Time Team America. I can't wait to see all the sites you take us too!

I enjoyed the show, especially the geophysics, and posted some remarks on my archaeological science blog (http://socarchsci.blogspot.com/).

Robert
I am Jim's son
I was looking at some of my brother's pictures from Mott Farm just the other day.
The few ceramics fragments we found were terribly small and there has been some question as to whether they were in fact 16th century. without microscopic examination many lead glazed eathenwares look similar. The one fragment of Martincamp, a Normandy stoneware, was unmistakable and that ware dates from the mid 16th to the mid 17th century.
Carbon dating is problematic for most historic sites due to the large margin of error.
The project continues. The first colony foundation archaeologists will continue to work in the area both within the park and elsewhere on the island. It's always good to hear from people who have worked with may father. cheers

What has occurred at the site after your team left?

I was curious about how the "lines" of the post holes lined up with the lines identified in the geophysical survey? Were they in relatively the same place and orientation? Or was the dicovery of the post holes sheer luck?

We were at the site the 13th -15th of May of last year. The First Colony Foundation archaeologists continued work through the following week and will continue to work at the site in the future.

Wallace
The work that continued after we left the site turned up some interesting finds. However it is still unclear if what we found is an outlying dwelling for someone like Thomas Harriot or part of the fortified town site. Work is slow and deliberate as is fitting for such a one of a kind site.
Cheers

John
As you already know there is no copper source anywhere near the coast of North Carolina. Any cooper in the area was traded from somewhere west in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. You are correct in that all of the copper would have to have been acquired from the local Indian groups. After we left the site the First Colony Foundation archaeologists recovered a copper necklace along with some European beads. The copper may be remnants of samples collected by the English for assaying. They did have an metallurgist Juaquim Ganz (I think I spelled his name correctly) who came over to assay metals for gold and silver. The copper is currently being tested to see if its source can be determined. Any updated will be on the time team website or the First Colony Foundation website. Thanks for your interest.

Delighted to see archaeology represented in such a professional manner by such a professional group.. As my grandfather used to say " Not a dullard in the bunch."

Virginia and and the Mid-Atlantic has much to offer the world in terms of connections to the pasts and inclusiveness in our histories. Keep up the good work and all I have to say is " More Jeff Brown!!!".

Thank you all for you hard work and I'm raising a glass now to you and too many more successful Time Team America shows.

Tell your backhoe guy if he's looking for work I think we can keep him busy on this side of the pond!!!

Josh Duncan

Josh,
Be sure to keep watching- and you will witness our very own Mr. Brown swinging from the cliffs of Utah, and introducing some South Dakotan quartzite to the business-end of a giant mallet.
He is a champ!

Eric's comments are very valuable. Although we do not have a final report on the origins of the copper in the necklace found, the preliminary report indicates that the copper is from continental Europe. Carter Hudgins, Jr., who is seen in the TIME TEAM AMERICA episode on Fort Raleigh talking about plow zones, directed these tests.
The copper necklace went on display Wednesday at the Fort Raleigh visitor center. Go see it soon, as the visitor center will close for renovations at end of July. You can learn lots more about archaeology of the site there from the exhibits and the National Park Service interpretive staff.

I was hoping that this series be great. I have a BA (plus graduate studies) in Anthropology from the University of Arizona and have a great love of science and especially archaeology. After ten minutes of watching this show I had to turn it off. FAIL!

Sorry. (This makes me very unhappy too)

I don't believe that is very fair. You only gave the show 10 minutes, and you call it a failure. And I didn't see anything in your post that stated why the show didn't catch your attention. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however if someone is going to post it, it would be nice to have some kind of information to back it up.

Charlie
Since this is the first episode of the first season all of the feedback is important, not just the positive comments.
What exactly didn't you like about the show? What would you have liked to have seen? We would appreciate any constructive critisism, especially from people within the archaeological community.
Cheers
Eric Deetz

Wicked interesting episode! Can't wait to view more. The story of the Lost Colony captivated my interest since I was a young girl, and as soon as I saw a promo for this episode, I immediately set my DVR for record. Cheers to you guys for preserving American history!

Two questions
The first question: could earlier Americans been from some place other then central Asia and using the land bridge theory to reach North America
I have always thought maybe they sail from either the Java or Guam area or perhaps Africa itself
The reason for this why does it seem central and South American Native American seem to be more advance in math and engineering then the Native Americans if they came from the same area in Asia

Second questions: if the English did not go with the natives of Roanoke Island could the English have been found by the Spanish recon team come up for ST Augustine FLA or could they have try to sail off Roanoke island and because of the rough weather been blow off course and sunk or even been capture by the Spanish and you know the English and the Spanish did not have a warm and fuzzy feeling towards each other

Thanks for the blog post! We appreciate anything that the scientific community can do to help us spread the word and help bring American archaeology into American TV rooms!

Karen Read
OPB National Promotions for Time Team America

(I already tried to post a reply once, linking through Facebook, and everything went kerflooey; pardon if this appears twice)

I was also wondering about the remote sensing alignment with the actual finds, and was disappointed it wasn't addressed. I would like to see future episodes disply an overlay of finds on remote sensing results, even if nothing matches up. It's interesting data either way.

Jim

Hi Josh,
The archaeologists on Time Team would obviously be better suited than I would to answer your question about the earliest Americans, but I DO know what we talk about this a lot more in the upcoming episode. In that one, we're investigating the Clovis people at the Topper site, so your question is timed well.
I hope you tune in and thank you for watching!
-Colin

Eric,

I am also a member of the archaeological community. I am not sure what irked Charlie (ten minutes were barely enough to get through the opening credits, after all), but I can tell you the show was pretty much as advertised. The show did a nice job depicting archaeology as practiced in the U.S., accurately presenting the difficulties and pitfalls of excavation and site interpretation.

Tweaks I might suggest: you have your artist, and must use him, but in this case it seemed the art was a bit for the sake of it and not especially useful. That will change with circumstance, of course, but where the artwork isn't terribly revealing, less of that and more of other things would be nice (see my other comment re: remote sensing overlay).

Otherwise, see if you can do something about slimming down those extensive opening credits!

Good job overall. Nice to see real archaeology on television in the US.

Jim

Jim-
thanks for your feedback, and be sure to check out the 'incident room' on the website. You can see all of the data collected by time team georeferenced and can click layers on and off.

Chelsea,

Thanks for pointing me to the incident room. It still doesn't look like there's a way to do a georeferenced overlay of finds on the geophysical data, but it's nice to see the data itself.

Re: the magnetic data, only the big dipole anomalies are highlighted. I've seen pin flags from previous investigations do that. I'd be more interested in the dark point anomalies that could represent hearths or firepits.

Jim

Joseph
As far as your first question
as you will see in the second episode, the populating of the Western Hemisphere is not my strong suit.
As far as your second question
There are some possible scenarios that could never be proven archaeologically but maybe through documentary research. In my opinion the ultimate answer to where they went lies in the contact period Native American sites in the area. but the first step is to locate the fort site. It could give us some insights into the nature of the English departure. Thanks for your interest
Eric Deetz

Hi Gail and Jim,

Thanks for the interest in the geophysics. Basically, although we mapped anomalies with the magnetic and GPR surveys, they are most likely to be attributed to the local geology and surface iron debris.

The linear features that we mapped in the GPR at approx 0.3-0.5 m depth did not align with the post holes, nor were they at the same depth as the post holes. These anomalies are most likely caused by migration of the sand dunes in the area.

The numerical values of the dark point anomalies that I believe you are referring to Jim do not reflect probable hearths. However, some of the dipolar anomalies may reflect historic iron, it would be great to have picked up one of the iron balls that were shown from Jamestown, but I don't think we mapped any of these, as again the strength of the anomalies we mapped did not reflect this type of potential artifact.

We did not pick up any anomalies in the geophysical data that may have reflected the post holes. Post holes are difficult features to map. I address this in my PhD thesis (where I mapped a wood henge in the UK with GPR, 0.75 m diameter post holes) and am happy to discuss this further with you and provide references that may be of interest (both magnetic and GPR survey methods in the UK and Japan).

An additional note on the magnetic survey results - the area we surveyed was covered initially with dense brush which we cleared by hand on the first day. Surveying through some of the remaining stems and trees caused occasional knocking of the magnetometer thus, slight mis-alignment of the sensors which would have introduced some noise into the data. Bryan and I are aware of this and take it into consideration on this site.

To really be able to interpret the geophysical data (especially individual point anomalies) we would have to focus excavations over specific geophysical anomalies. Which, while we do this in other episodes, the data at Ft. Raleigh did not provide a comprehensive enough picture for the main goal of our work there. It did however, provide good material for the First Colony and future site investigations, should they choose to ground truth the geophysical data.

I do believe that geophysical survey methods are effective tools for furture investigations at Ft. Raleigh. All sorts of artifacts and features (such as the fire hearths your refer to) have the potential to be mapped through these methods.

Also, regarding your final comment to Chelsea, Jim - we are working on the GIS. As this was our first time out, Bryan and I wore many hats! We have site GIS projects (that we continute to work on) for 4 or the 5 sites we did. I agree with you on the georeferenced overlay and we are working on getting that finalised! We also plan to make this a more integrated part of future programs.

Thanks again for your interest in the geophysics, keep watching we have some fantastic and exciting results in future programs!

Meg

Joseph --

There have certainly been many different opinions concerning the peopling of the New World, including ideas that Africans were one of the first groups (see information about "Luzia" proposed by Walter Neves et al about people of the New World published in 2004; Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley's discussion on Solutrean similarities to Clovis technology but also Lawrence Strauss' rejoinder). Needless to say, as our information keeps growing, so do our questions and theories. Additionally, there are many American Indian groups who say they've "always been here" and didn't come from anywhere else. Science, as it goes on, tries to find the "best" answer based on the clues we find; we can never "prove" the theories, only support or refute them.

Joe

Hi

We've found 100s of arrowheads and pottery pieces on our land. If i wanted to start digging, what would be the steps i need to take in order to do it right?

Thanks

Morris,

That's exciting. Sounds like you might be sitting on something important.

Contact your state historical society and look for an amateur archaeological society in your state. Either one or both should be able to give you the groundwork to do a good job digging and recording the site. For a site as rich as yours sounds like it might be, they might even be willing to give you a hand. Where are you located, by the way?

Jim (not affiliated with Time Team, just an interested party)

Regarding the Roanoke mystery. Awhile back, I think it was the History Channel that conducted a genealogical and DNA inquest into whether current inland inhabitants were related to those who disappeared at Roanoke, and they found that some descendants are indeed related to those who disappeared from Roanoke. The show portrayed this as indisputable fact. However, I never saw anymore about this other than what was presented during the program. Anyone have any insight on whether that was a valid study? Thanks. BTW. Great show.

That was on an episode of "Digging for the Truth" where they took swabs from people that claimed ancestry to someone who was supposedly a relative of an individual from the original settlement (I have the episode on DVD at home somewhere, can't remember the particulars). They had sent the swabs off to a DNA genealogical research organization in England. That's when they found that one resident in NC was a supposed descendant of a relative of one of the original colonists.

Upon 2nd viewing, I see that you're absolutely right, Jane, and I stand corrected...with humble and sincere apologies to Dr. Hume for the misquote, and thanks to you for the correction. Truth is, after all, what I'm trying to get to. I would still hope "Time Team" explores the pre-English Spanish presence in America next season and, at the same time, compliment the series for exploring African American archaeology in Season 1.

Coincidental to my point, the current July-August issue of Archaeology Magazine has an article about "Conquistadores in the Carolinas" about the Berry site in western NC (link: http://www.archaeology.org/0907/abstracts/north_carolina.html ). To quote: "The excavation...is providing clues about this overlooked episode in American history, when Latin America nearly reached from Mexico to North Carolina and Tennessee. While modern North Carolina and the other original 13 colonies consider themselves English in heritage, the truth is far more complicated. 'When you start with North Carolina history, you start with the Lost Colony at Roanoke,' says Beck, who's been visiting the site, which belongs to his uncle's family, since he was a boy in the 1970s. 'We believe it starts well before that.'"

Hopefully, we can explore this too often ignored aspect of America's history nest season. Here's to wishing "Time Team" a Season 2, 3, 4, 5...

Hi

Im in Edgefield County, Sc.. not to far away from the tooper site.

Do you plan to invite any of the presenters of the original Time Time over from the UK as guests, such as Tony Robinson?

how do you get hired as an archeologist. Im in the 9th grade and working on my skills with a trowel and a brush and stuff so p
lease email back thanks Darin

Darin
There are a couple of things you can do. Just about any science class could help you in archaeology as well as being a good writer. The more time I spend as an archaeologist the more I realize how many different skills go into being good at it.
I don't know where you live but try to find a dig site you can volunteer on. If you are serious about your interest in archaeology most people will take you seriously. Good luck.
Eric Deetz

The show was fine, a bit more pedestrian than it's British inspiration (but this is PBS, after all), but overall it was interesting and informative.
My problem is with the host/artist Colin Campbell. He seems a fine fellow and a competent host, but he is no historical illustrator, something a show like this could sorely use. Victor Ambrus, the artist on the British series, has an intimate knowledge of historical clothing and artifacts(something Mr, Campbell lacks)which cause his illustrations give life to the presentation.
I mean no offense meant to Mr. Campbell, who is a fine artist in his own right, but he is out of his element here.

Shout out to Eric Deetz!

I just saw you on another TV show, "Moments In Time ~ Jamestown: Against All Odds"!

Get ready to be mobbed by adoring fans, if you aren't already. :)

How does Time Team choose sites to explore?

Tad --

Time Team tries to choose sites that meet multiple criteria. First, because we do not want to excavate merely to dig, we try to find on-going projects that can use our help to answer a specific question. Second, we look for archaeolgical sites that are intriguing to us as archaeologists and are also a bit unique. Third, we try to look for geographical balance across the US in the areas where we work. Fourth, we try to work on sites from varying time periods. Fifth, we look for archaeological sites where there is REALLY good food in the area (this is really only my personal suggestion to the producers, but it doesn't seem to carry much weight). Really, the sites we finally choose meet the best of these qualities and (we hope) provide educational and entertainment balance.

Joe Watkins

I live in a the small town of Mt. Pleasant Utah. Just a short distance from Range Creek. Do you know of any sites near my town. Thank you Darin Allen

Please come to California near the gold discovery site of Coloma.This area is still a time capsule.Descendents still own large parcels of land in this area rich with history.

Thomas Stewart
(Zentgraf Descendent)

Colin: As a home/hobby/artist, find it fascinating how, with your constant curiosity, you can draw so easily what the past looked like. I get so envious! Your depictions along with your narration keep my interest glued to every minute of the program!

I just saw where there will be a two hour special tomorrow night! I'm over the moon!