Medieval texts report that one of the most influential women of the eighth century, Cynethryth, became abbess of a monastery somewhere along the river by the contested border between the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. It’s where she lived out her final years and was most likely buried. But the monastery is thought to be ‘lost’. Now Dr Thomas wants to ‘solve this mystery once and for all’.1 They only have two weeks to dig and return the site to its original state. They need to move fast.
