Time Team's Timechester: A Companion to Archaeology

by Tim Taylor (Editor), Carenza Lewis, Phil Harding

This book is centred around an innovative idea. It follows the development of the imaginary British town of Timechester from prehistory to the modern age, taking as its inspiration the wide variety of British towns which have hosted Time Team digs. As you turn the pages you will see the town grown and change, yet still with some elements remaining. The Team provide a commentary on the gradual development of the town in their familiar style, along with illustrations by the series' resident artist. Victor Ambrus. As they discover Timechester, the Team also discuss the most commonly used methods of archaeology on Time Team in an attempt to answer the many questions asked of them by viewers. The book provides an accessible introduction to archaeology for all the family and features full-colour photographs, surveys and computer graphics, from all nine series of Time Team.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Science, Reference, Historical

157 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2000

Reviews

[James Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of archaeology and the British program "Time Team" is endlessly fascinating, to me. In the series, actual archaeologist and other specialists perform digs. Each episode covers a fast 3-day dig (usually somewhere in England) to discover something expected or known-but-lost. I learned a lot about the history of England, from the prehistoric to early 20th century.

This book is from that Team. Various experts (including Time Team's resident artist) give both learned opinion and specific examples from actual fieldwork. The basic setup is an invented town (Timechester), which allows a single location that can be given a history throughout the last 452,000 years. Give or take.

Everything is based on actual knowledge of numerous locations throughout the British Isles, transferred to Timechester.

Each chapter is a time period, from the Paleolithic (450,000 BCE), which is mostly a description of the location and some fauna and nomadic peoples who used it, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, High Medieval, Post-Medieval, Early Modern, to Present Day.

This is a good book for fans of archaeology, fans of extended British history, and fans of Time Team.

A great work that will continue to be of value, for many years to come!

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book so much when I was younger. I loved Time Team so much when I was younger! So it was a lot of fun to reinvestigate this. There's sections telling the story of the development of town through the years, and there's sections explaining various archaeological techniques.

Reading it now, it made me want to watch Time Team again...