February 9, 2021 Ancient Discoveries from the Air

The Liberty Gazette

February 9, 2021

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Time Team was a wildly popular series that aired for 16 seasons, beginning in 1994. Hosted by British actor Tony Robinson, a team of archeologists has three days to excavate significant historical locations with the hope of finding cool stuff and great stories. Often, aircraft are involved.

Photo: Time Team

In early 2006, a pilot doing aerial surveying flew across the north coast of Wales over the island of Anglesey. The photographer on board spotted something strange about the contours of a field and took a photo which revealed a massive earthwork about the length of two football fields. Until then, says Sir Robinson, “No one knew there was anything there except a few lumps and bumps.”

Some Time Team members thought the bumps and lumps could be from the Roman occupation of 61 AD. But the strange outline in the aerial photo looked similar to two other sites on Anglesey that were found to be earlier than the Roman period. Those were from the middle to late Iron Age (500 BC-332 BC). 

Perhaps the image from the aerial photo represented more than one period in history. If so, then one would likely be Iron Age, and the other sometime later, which would take it right through the time of the Druids, one of history’s most mysterious groups. 

The Roman army arrived on this island to destroy the stronghold British resistance, an insurgency led by the Druids. If the team found Roman relics here, then this could be of one of the bloodiest sites in Welsh history. The Romans massacred the Druids. In fact, the Romans so obliterated them that many people think the Druids were a myth. But there are living Druids in Wales now. Local historians say the Druids were peacemakers. They tend to be artists—musicians and poets. Whatever you’ve read about them, remember that the natives didn’t do the writing. It was the Romans telling the story of who the Druids were.

Photo: Time Team

For three days, the Time Team dug. They worked mainly on the hill because that would be a highly 
likely place to find artifacts. Sure enough, they found a grave from the Bronze Age, 4,000 years old, covered by a heap of stones. From other evidence discovered, the team concluded that there had also been a traditional Iron Age community of thatched roof round houses on top of the hill. These people would have left that earlier burial site alone, respecting it when they built their round houses there. In the Iron Age, this hill would have been a power base for an important chief who had it all, until the Romans arrived. 

Photo: Time Team

That aerial photo gave enough clues for archeologists to pull the curtain back just enough to see a place that tells a story. Signs of the excavation are still visible on Google Earth, at 53°24'19.7"N 4°23'42.8"W.

You never know what mystery you might discover from the air. A view from above can lead to past lives, as Robinson says, now hidden beneath gentle pastures.

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