Digging For Britain- The Tudors

I have just watched two episodes of a fantastic new BBC series called Digging For Britain. The four part series, presented by Dr Alice Roberts, follows a year of British Archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations throughout England.

The four parts of the series cover:

Prehistory – BBC Uk’s episode description:

Dr Alice Roberts continues her journey through this season’s most important archaeology, with an amazing array of finds from prehistory.

Her journey takes her from Orkney to Devon by land, sea and air.

In Norfolk, flint tools unearthed this year push the earliest human occupation back by 200,000 years, to around one million years ago.

In Orkney an early farm yields glimpses of our ancestors’ earliest religious beliefs and customs – cattle skulls buried within building walls, and tiny household goddesses.

In Devon, we find one of the oldest known shipwrecks. And a bronze age burial holds a mystery, and touching evidence of grief echoing down over 2000 years.

The Romans – BBC Uk’s episode description:

Roman finds include the mystery of 97 babies murdered by the Thames, a fabulous Roman coin hoard found in Somerset and a man buried on a layer of dead animals.

Anglo-Saxons

This is a really entertaining, informative and engaging episode that shows archaeology in action- this I absolutely love! Dr Alice Roberts scours the country for evidence of Anglo Saxon Britain. What she finds is a people very much like us today with tooth decay, friends, loved ones and family. A community and people that were much more than just barbarians in a ‘Dark Age’.

The Tudors (BBC Uk’s episode description)

In the final episode of the series, Dr Alice Roberts goes in search of the Tudor age, a time that saw momentous changes across all aspects of British life.

Along the way, Alice visits excavations at Shakespeare’s first theatre in London’s Shoreditch, where the Bard began his career and Romeo and Juliet was first performed. Alice also joins a team sifting through Shakespeare’s rubbish at his last home in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and finds revealing clues about his carefulness with money.

In a remote corner of Wales, Alice meets a team of archaeologists uncovering the brutal realities of Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, a conflict that would change the very fabric of Britain. On the muddy banks of the Thames, Alice discovers the rich history of a forgotten royal palace, which was home to the Tudor kings and queens. And she learns about a mysterious Tudor shipwreck which dates from this age of exploration and trade.

I cannot recommend this episode highly enough! Tudor enthusiasts will love watching The Tudors come to life and learning about the wealth of archaeology that exists beneath the ground.

I was absolutely amazed by how much evidence exists on the banks of the Thames! Tudor Clothes pins, pottery and much more just waiting to be recovered.

The Mary Rose provided endless clues about everyday Tudor life and a mysterious shipwreck a reminder of Elizabeth I’s age of exploration.

You can watch the episodes on The Romans and The Anglo-Saxons on You Tube but I thought I’d leave you with the Trailer to get you in the mood!

Fast Tube by Casper

Read an entry about the programme written by Dr Alice Roberts for BBC UK’s blog here.