The discovery of a Saxon prince's burial site between a branch of ASDA and a pub at Southend on Sea has been compared to Howard Carter discovering the tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt. That's a bit like calling Birmingham 'The Venice of the North'.
For me, the most astounding archeological event in my lifetime was the discovery of Richard 111's body following a tip-off by Phillipa Langley, who simply pointed to a large letter 'R' in a Leicester car park and said, 'He's down there'.
If you look up who was responsible for discovering the king's final (or penultimate) resting place, all the credit goes to the archeologists who dug him up. I dislike archeologists almost as much as I dislike architects.
Archeologists do not like gifted, intuitive amateurs. They seem to think they are made to look pedestrian and unimaginative by them, like Inspector Lestrade compared to Sherlock. Even today's police will resort to quack mediums if they come to a dead end in a missing person's case, but they have no pride.
The Time Team dug up a bit of Bath a few years ago and 'discovered' the foundation of a huge church which was bombed out and demolished during WW2. A friend of mine went to the site one night and threw in a Roman coin from his collection.
His planted coin made it onto national TV, much to his quiet satisfaction.
In Sussex it is well known that when a ploughman declares that he's been ploughing up bits of mosaic, his boss tells him to keep ploughing and shut up!
ReplyDeleteThe same with builders but more so. Here in Bath if there is a large development, the developers must have an archeological survey before building.
DeleteIt all makes one wonder what is still down there.
ReplyDeleteYes, I like that thought.
DeleteIt still will be sorted well past our time. I didn't know there was a coin toss involved in finding King R 3rd.What fun.
ReplyDeleteThe coin was not Richard 111 but another site here in Bath.
DeleteI once worked for a cycle dealer in Rochester. His shop abutted the old high street. He was having work done on his cellar and came across the course of the original Roman road through Rochester, for Canterbury to London. He quietly covered it over and got on with his refurbishment - archaeologists would have held up his renovations for weeks!
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame.
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