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At Time Team America, the most dramatic moments of archaeology often come from the process of excavation: deciding where to dig, working together as a team, trying to beat the clock.
Still, you can't argue with the pure thrill of uncovering a very special find. We asked some Time Team America team members about their most heart-pounding discoveries to date.
Dr. Adrien Hannus The Clovis points and bone tools associated with a mammoth kill/butchering location called the Lange/Ferguson site on a ranch within the White River Badlands of South Dakota.
Eric Deetz In 10 seasons at James Fort, the site of the 1607 English settlement I was lucky enough to dig up truly amazing artifacts such as 15th century armor, Elizabethan coins, not to mention being one of the crew that found the fort itself. But the one find that really sticks in my mind is a jeton or casting counter (jetons were used to keep count much like an abacus) made by Hans Krauwinkle at the end of the 16th century. On one side was the goddess Fortuna and the other was Fama the goddess of fame. Fame and fortune - exactly what the colonists were seeking in 1607 and to a degree what we as archaeologists are seeking as well.
Chelsea Rose I love finding clay pipes. I am not sure why, they are not very rare or fancy, but is always exciting to find one. I think it may be because when you find a pipe, you not only found something someone owned and used, but something they put in their mouth. Now that is the kind of personal connection that makes archaeology so cool -- 200 year old spit.
Dr. Julie Schablitsky I have yet to have my best find. Since moving to the east coast, my dream is to find a wig curler. I am sure it is just a matter of time....I just hope I don't mistake it for a porcelain doll leg.
Dr. Meg Watters A Roman Villa in Vescovio Italy, or no, wait... a Nubian temple in Gebel Barkal, Sudan or was it the shaft tomb on the Giza Plateau??
Editors' note: She's not kidding.
Are you on a parallel wig-curler quest? Do clay pipes get you going, too? Or are you simply seeking more fame and fortune?
Post your favorite find story below or at www.facebook.com/timeteamamerica.
Photo by Meg Gaillard.
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Playing favorites can get you into trouble, but Time Team America's archaeologists tossed caution to the wind to brief us on some of their pet places.
Dr. Meg Watters Let's see... was it the pig farm? No...... must have been either the Vilcabomba Inca burial survey in the Andes, where we flew up to our high-altitude camp in an old Russian helicopter, or looking for the Manilan shipwreck carrying Ming Dynasty porcelain on the Baha Peninsula, Mexico where we putt-putted out to our site, camped on the beach, and almost ran out of food.
Dr. Julie Schablitsky It has to be the Donner Party site in California. It was truly surreal to pick up broken bits of dishes and chopped bone from around their fire hearth, knowing the suffering they endured during the winter of 1846-47.
Dr. Adrien Hannus Certainly the Lange/Ferguson site. My special focus in North American archaeology is the early peopling of the New World. Lange/Ferguson is a Clovis site at which two ice age mammoths were killed and butchered about 12,000 years ago. The site not only yielded several Clovis points, but also provided the best evidence yet recovered in the New World for a bone tool industry associated with the Clovis culture. Flaked bone tools provided the hunters with sharp and easily discarded cutting tools, thus reducing the need for stone tools.
Eric Deetz Hands down Jamestown. I spent a fifth of my life there, I met my wife there, and had the best mentor you could ask for in Bill Kelso. The archaeology was mind blowing and the crew became like family. In some cases it was family.
Chelsea Rose I have to say my favorite site ever was the Time Team dig at the Fort James site in South Dakota. It was beautiful, the archaeology was interesting, and I was constantly surrounded by giggling hoards of Hutterite children. They let me practice my German, and I taught them archaeology -- it was a wonderful arrangement!
Have you been to a site that is forever burned into your memory (for better or worse)?
Share your stories below!
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This summer I am excavating two 18th-20th century archaeological sites in Bladensburg, Maryland. Bladensburg played a pivotal role in the War of 1812 and, as part of the upcoming bicentennial celebration, the Maryland State Highway Administration is studying the historic buildings, archaeological sites, history of transportation, and the Bladensburg battlefield located along our highway right of way.Right now we are in the middle of an archaeological excavation at the Magruder House. This home allegedly served as a hospital after the Battle of Bladensburg so we are trying to find evidence of American and British troops such as munitions, uniform accouterments and buttons.
Like the excavations I worked on for Time Team America last summer, our team here at Bladensburg has a limited time to investigate the site. We are half-way through our two week excavation and have only one week of digging left to confirm that the house played a role in the battle. The good news is that we have found a late 18th century British Coin. It is not the smoking gun we were looking for, but it's a start!
Next month we begin a dig at the Market Master's House. This is the home that sat on the edge of the town's market square where enslaved people of African descent were bought and sold. Here we will gather archaeological information that will enable us to reconstruct the lives of the people who lived in this house since the 1760s.
As part of our public outreach efforts for the project, the field staff is publishing a Bladensburg blog. You can visit the web site to read more about the excavation and see what we find new each day.
Dr. Julie Schablitsky is a lead archaeologists for Time Team America. As an archaeologist with the University of Oregon and Maryland State Highway Administration, Dr. Schablitsky conducts research and publishes on historic-period archaeology sites in both the United States and the UK.
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While filming our first season, Time Team America visited sites that ranged from 13,000 year old chert quarries to a late 19th century U.S. Army fortress. Good thing we had team that could handle any challenge. 
Colin Campbell
The Team's only non-archaeologist, host Colin Campbell is also the team artist. Putting pen to paper, he helps us imagine the past. When Colin isn't traveling with Time Team America, he works as an environmental artist at video game studio Big Huge Games outside of Baltimore, Maryland.
Dr. Adrien Hannus
Our Chief Investigator, Dr. Hannus guides the team's on-site research. He has devoted his talents to working in the Great Plains region for almost 30 years. Fascinated by the theory of migration into the Americas across the Bering Strait, Adrien has researched and written extensively about Early Man in the New World.
Eric Deetz
With thirty years experience in the field, Eric can decipher the past like few others. Known as an adept teacher and excavation director, Eric believes public involvement in archaeology is paramount, and his innovative approach to speaking about history wins audiences over.
Dr. Julie Schablitsky
Dr. Schablitsky is an archaeologist with the University of Oregon. She also works as head of the Cultural Resources Section for the Maryland State Highway Administration. Her current research focuses on the Donner Party of California, 18th and 19th century sites in Maryland, and John Paul Jones' birthplace in Scotland.
Dr. Joe WatkinsDr. Watkins has a passion for preserving sacred sites of the American West. He's an expert in Native American archaeology and a member of the Choctaw tribe. Joe also has a keen interest in experimental archaeology, which uses replica tools to discover how people of the past went about the activities of daily life.
Dr. Meg Watters
Our geophysics expert, Dr. Watters helps the team see what lies underground before the shovels even hit the dirt. Her technical expertise has taken her to archaeological sites around the world including Native American, Inca and historic sites in North and South America to Nubian settlements in Sudan and Roman, Greek, and Islamic sites throughout the Mediterranean.
Chelsea Rose
As head of Time Team's excavation crews, Chelsea directs the troweling and shoveling. Born and raised in Northern California, Chelsea's passion is researching the California Gold Rush of the 1850's, including nineteenth century Chinatowns and multi-ethnic mining camps.
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Now, I want to be clear from the start -- I'm a pretty unlikely person to be hosting a PBS series about archaeology. To be honest with you before I arrived at our first site on Roanoke Island last May, I had never set foot on a dig site in my life.
As it turned out, however, not knowing much about archaeology was actually a job qualification.
On Time Team America we have some of the top scientists and historians in their fields. They are the ones doing the research. As a newcomer to the world of archaeology, my job is a little different.
I try to help make the archeology come to life for the audience. As host, I guide viewers through Time Team's intensive three-day digs by explaining what's happening and getting the experts to talk about what they are doing. As the artist, I get to imagine what life might have been like on the sites we visit, drawing the structures and tools people would have used.
The biggest challenge for me as an artist was figuring out how to translate a few bits of pottery or obscure patterns in the sand into an illustration that was as historically accurate as possible. I quickly discovered that the best way to get a lively discussion going was to get some details wrong (usually not a problem on my first drafts). Our team of archaeologists was never shy about correcting my mistakes. I ended up doing a lot of erasing and redrawing but it was a great way to uncover details I never would have known on my own.
I hope you'll join me on Time Team America and discover archaeology like I did, looking over the shoulders of top archaeologists as they investigate some of the most fascinating sites in the country.
To see the Time Team in action you can watch the full episode from Fort Raleigh on the new PBS Video Portal. And be sure to visit our Facebook page to tell us what you think about the program.
Colin Campbell is Time Team America's host and team artist. He is a 2004 graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) where he studied painting, ceramics, and computer animation. Colin works as freelance artist in Baltimore, MD, as well as an environment artist for video game studio, Big Huge Games.
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