Golden finds: The Sutton Hoo helmet The next time you explore our glorious countryside, keep an eye out for what may look like a discarded sweet wrapper. That’s exactly what Kevin Duckett thought he’d found in Northamptonshire in 2017. Instead, it turned out to be a solid gold figurine depicting King Henry VI, thought to … Read more
Netflix‘s The Dig has been slammed as sexist for reducing an experienced archaeologist to a ‘bumbling, deferential, sidekick to her husband’. The film depicts the unearthing of the famous Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk and stars Ralph Fiennes as self-taught local archaeologist Basil Brown and Lily James as 27-year-old excavator Peggy Piggott. Mrs Piggott was … Read more
Scraping at the dirt, earth thick under his fingernails, amateur archeologist Basil Brown came across a section of hard earth. After further excavations, he found other patches stained with rust, and iron nails and rivets spread intermittently across the site. Over several weeks, after a delicate and painsteaking operation, archologist Basil Brown saw the shape … Read more