Thoroughly enjoyed this: Tim's so adept at putting his bait just where the enthusiasm of Helen can strike up for it! I could [and would be delighted to!] listen to the pair of them all day. Helen's a treasure.
Helen is the Emma Thompson of Archaeology, I am completely over the moon for her, she's not aged a day since the early episodes of Time Team and I'm glad she's part of the new upcoming episodes 💙❤😊😀☺😄💙❤😊😀☺😄💙❤😊😀☺😄💙
This is a great video and chat about mosaics - totally agree with Helen in that strike while the iron is hot - get everything on display. Was rather sad that Naples museum didn't have more on display within the rather grand and beautiful Museum building from Pompeii and Herculaneum - had thought there would be a lot more on display but no - was rather shoddy for Roman items and lots of items (as well as plaster casts of bodies) have been squirreled away in the basements/ locked away on site in Pompeii. We need to have everything on show and get the youth interested with new sites, finds and information. Hope after this pandemic, the UK starts investing in local digs and encourages a new generation to look and safely dig the ground below them. Can't wait to see TT's new series later this year.
I curated the business records of a mosaic firm in the US as a graduate student and learned a lot about mosaics along the way. Roman mosaics have a special place in my heart!
When they were discussing the discovery of the shiny things being so popular, it made me think. While I love the shiny stuff, some of the discoveries that I think have been the most fascinating are things like pottery where the potter has used his or her fingers to create a crimp in an edge. Or an actual fingerprint. The marks of the actual person who made it.
Yes! Especially the few tiles or pots or hyper-course that TT has found to have dog prints--saying so much about the meaningful contexts of ancient daily life.
A HYPOCAUST is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, The delight of the find is in the doggies prints.
@@philaypeephilippotter6532 Mea Culpa. A HYPOCAUST. The most important find, however, in a well known Roman artifact of engineering, is the Footprint of a Doggie, or a Thumb Print on a rim.
One of my old friends in the UK trained back in the 1930s as a mosaicist. He told me he had actually been involved in one rescue of a Roman mosaic but never told me where it was. We probably had wandered off into a conversation about jewelry, (he was also a goldsmith and silversmith) or clearing the greenhouse( he was a gardener) or his emphysema developed from childhood asthma when he worked making mosaic fireplaces when they were all the rage and breathed in cement dust. He was an amazing man told at school he was stupid, dyslexia hadn't been diagnosed in the 1920s, so self educated.
For those of use that love good conversation, these discussions should appear after all the new time team shows to go into more detail about what was found.
I found this discussion delightful! For both the subject, and the idea of getting inside the minds and lives of Romans living in Britain. Thank you both! I’ve been wondering how they kept those big buildings warm! Any finds supporting the use of fireplaces? I’ve also been curious to know if they used rugs … Seems to me they’d add comfort and protect the mosaics?
@@TorchwoodPandP Thanks! Maybe I’m misunderstanding their use … from the villas I’ve seen excavated on Time Team one, it appears the hypocaust is usually under one end room only, and does not extend under the rest of the villa? Seems to me convection from such a set up could not possibly heat one of those multi-story buildings?
Dr. Helen Geake, I think about seeking UK Citizenship in your rural County, just so I can vote for you for Parliament. You have a rare ability to convey, to articulate descriptions of why we need to look at the "lived-context" of rural communities in early UK. YES! the villagers, villa owners within a half-day's walk would indeed reckon back to their own experience of entertaining cultural events to produce their own. The people may migrate, even by generation, or Celtics convert to Romano-Brits, but certain ingrained aesthetics remain in palce, eg. about what is funny, or delightful. Martha in Blue Skies Texas, Cultural Anthropologist
(Greek) mousa- muse (Lat). Mosaics are literally the 'thinker's work'. A picture is worth 1000 words. The owner is telling his philosophy in stone and tile.
5:44 For me I live in a county in Oklahoma, USA that only has one small city for the County Seat. Everything else is small rural communities usually named after the township they occupy.
100% on board with Helen Geake's take on digs and finds. I mean, why even bother digging, at all, if the practice is going to be just "leave it b and, in 100 years, somon with better technology can really investigate"?
I believe the most fascinating thing about Time Team is the rabbit hole journey, sometimes above ground with Stuart, that is involved. Finding a mosaic at the end of a run is lovely but chasing mosaics from the beginning kills the suspense.
Doing archeology begets archeologists. How many of today's archeologists got interested in going to museums and seeing what previous archeologists found?
I agree with Helen, the restrictions on authorized digs in scheduled sites never made sense to me. What's the technological metric for when it will be OK to dig?
Can the team depart from the planned and discuss the recent find of two gold coins, said to be minted during Edward 111 reign and abandoned because of the Black Death plague?
We only get to do archeology whilst we're alive. After we pass on, we become archeology. So by looking at the past we sorta get a glimpse of our future. lol its a strange world.
When I walk into my kitchen barefoot on a winter morning I wonder how the Romans in Britain coped with tile floors. As much as its funny to imagine a whole group of people tip toeing around the house doing the "ooh ooh ooh" noise they must have either constantly worn shoes/slippers or covered the floor with something. I also often wonder if the origins of mosaic floors were because its easier to make it level and smooth-ish by tamping it in with a piece of timber rather than large tiles, which if the thickness varies are quite difficult to do the same to.
Fascinating discussion, again. I think there is great benefit, in knowledge, in excavating. ti say it is always a destructive process is doing 'modern' archeologists a huge disservice. We go to space to learn, gain knowledge, its unlikely to do us any actual good, and has cost us unimaginable wealth...no I dont disagree with it, but learning about our past is as important, and as Helen says, why should taxpayers money go towards funding stuff that taxpayers will never see. Reveal things so they can be seen and valued by more people and the funds will be easier to come by. No, not everything, but uncover a mosaic, its pointless unless it can be seen.
"What we choose to investigate tells us more about ourselves than about the past" - well said Helen...
Helen would be a great teacher, judging by how excited she still gets about her work after all these years
Thank you, Helen, for carrying Mick’s enthusiasm on for those of us that miss him, and into the new generation of archeologists coming up. 🙏🏽❤️
Thoroughly enjoyed this: Tim's so adept at putting his bait just where the enthusiasm of Helen can strike up for it! I could [and would be delighted to!] listen to the pair of them all day. Helen's a treasure.
I could listen to Helen for hours 20 mins not long enough
Helen is absolutely ageless
Helen is the Emma Thompson of Archaeology, I am completely over the moon for her, she's not aged a day since the early episodes of Time Team and I'm glad she's part of the new upcoming episodes 💙❤😊😀☺😄💙❤😊😀☺😄💙❤😊😀☺😄💙
This is a great video and chat about mosaics - totally agree with Helen in that strike while the iron is hot - get everything on display. Was rather sad that Naples museum didn't have more on display within the rather grand and beautiful Museum building from Pompeii and Herculaneum - had thought there would be a lot more on display but no - was rather shoddy for Roman items and lots of items (as well as plaster casts of bodies) have been squirreled away in the basements/ locked away on site in Pompeii. We need to have everything on show and get the youth interested with new sites, finds and information. Hope after this pandemic, the UK starts investing in local digs and encourages a new generation to look and safely dig the ground below them. Can't wait to see TT's new series later this year.
Helene, your a joy to listen to. The kindness of your personality shines through. I think your a beautiful person.
I curated the business records of a mosaic firm in the US as a graduate student and learned a lot about mosaics along the way. Roman mosaics have a special place in my heart!
Helen is such a great role model,
When they were discussing the discovery of the shiny things being so popular, it made me think. While I love the shiny stuff, some of the discoveries that I think have been the most fascinating are things like pottery where the potter has used his or her fingers to create a crimp in an edge. Or an actual fingerprint. The marks of the actual person who made it.
Yes! Especially the few tiles or pots or hyper-course that TT has found to have dog prints--saying so much about the meaningful contexts of ancient daily life.
@@marthaberryman2019
As I'm not a _spelling NAZI_ please don't get this wrong - it's _hypo-caust._
A HYPOCAUST is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, The delight of the find is in the doggies prints.
@@philaypeephilippotter6532 Mea Culpa. A HYPOCAUST. The most important find, however, in a well known Roman artifact of engineering, is the Footprint of a Doggie, or a Thumb Print on a rim.
I feel the same when I see the cart tracks on old Roman roads
One of my old friends in the UK trained back in the 1930s as a mosaicist. He told me he had actually been involved in one rescue of a Roman mosaic but never told me where it was. We probably had wandered off into a conversation about jewelry, (he was also a goldsmith and silversmith) or clearing the greenhouse( he was a gardener) or his emphysema developed from childhood asthma when he worked making mosaic fireplaces when they were all the rage and breathed in cement dust. He was an amazing man told at school he was stupid, dyslexia hadn't been diagnosed in the 1920s, so self educated.
For those of use that love good conversation, these discussions should appear after all the new time team shows to go into more detail about what was found.
I had no interest in archeology until I discovered Time Team. I now find it fascinating!
Cheers from Alberta, Canada.
I found this discussion delightful! For both the subject, and the idea of getting inside the minds and lives of Romans living in Britain. Thank you both!
I’ve been wondering how they kept those big buildings warm! Any finds supporting the use of fireplaces?
I’ve also been curious to know if they used rugs … Seems to me they’d add comfort and protect the mosaics?
I don't know about rugs, but mosaics are super durable. Undisturbed, they are basically as permanent as rock.
Hypocausts. Underfloor heating. Survived in monstries into the 1300s.
@@TorchwoodPandP Thanks! Maybe I’m misunderstanding their use … from the villas I’ve seen excavated on Time Team one, it appears the hypocaust is usually under one end room only, and does not extend under the rest of the villa? Seems to me convection from such a set up could not possibly heat one of those multi-story buildings?
Dr. Helen Geake, I think about seeking UK Citizenship in your rural County, just so I can vote for you for Parliament. You have a rare ability to convey, to articulate descriptions of why we need to look at the "lived-context" of rural communities in early UK. YES! the villagers, villa owners within a half-day's walk would indeed reckon back to their own experience of entertaining cultural events to produce their own. The people may migrate, even by generation, or Celtics convert to Romano-Brits, but certain ingrained aesthetics remain in palce, eg. about what is funny, or delightful. Martha in Blue Skies Texas, Cultural Anthropologist
(Greek) mousa- muse (Lat). Mosaics are literally the 'thinker's work'. A picture is worth 1000 words. The owner is telling his philosophy in stone and tile.
I ❤️ Helen.
Gotta love Helen
5:44 For me I live in a county in Oklahoma, USA that only has one small city for the County Seat. Everything else is small rural communities usually named after the township they occupy.
Are you in Major County? My grandma grew up there in a German Mennonite community, in the 1920s/30s.
I enjoy Helen so much brilliant
Proud to be a Patreon patron for such thoroughly good talk as this!
Wonderful interesting!
100% on board with Helen Geake's take on digs and finds. I mean, why even bother digging, at all, if the practice is going to be just "leave it b and, in 100 years, somon with better technology can really investigate"?
I believe the most fascinating thing about Time Team is the rabbit hole journey, sometimes above ground with Stuart, that is involved. Finding a mosaic at the end of a run is lovely but chasing mosaics from the beginning kills the suspense.
For some reason I keep thinking of Petronius Arbiter's "Trimalchio's Feast."
Doing archeology begets archeologists.
How many of today's archeologists got interested in going to museums and seeing what previous archeologists found?
I agree with Helen, the restrictions on authorized digs in scheduled sites never made sense to me. What's the technological metric for when it will be OK to dig?
They probably did what 18th and 19th century aristocrats did, spend summers at the big country seat and winters in town.
Unless a senator didn't like you then you were sent to the darkest coldest region of the empire. Like today with military and government postings.
I'd like to see some good old field work
Can the team depart from the planned and discuss the recent find of two gold coins, said to be minted during Edward 111 reign and abandoned because of the Black Death plague?
We only get to do archeology whilst we're alive. After we pass on, we become archeology. So by looking at the past we sorta get a glimpse of our future. lol its a strange world.
When I walk into my kitchen barefoot on a winter morning I wonder how the Romans in Britain coped with tile floors. As much as its funny to imagine a whole group of people tip toeing around the house doing the "ooh ooh ooh" noise they must have either constantly worn shoes/slippers or covered the floor with something. I also often wonder if the origins of mosaic floors were because its easier to make it level and smooth-ish by tamping it in with a piece of timber rather than large tiles, which if the thickness varies are quite difficult to do the same to.
If you've got 2 archeologist in the room, you have at least 3 opinions..........LOL!
No you don't 😋 heehee see what I did there?
Fascinating discussion, again. I think there is great benefit, in knowledge, in excavating. ti say it is always a destructive process is doing 'modern' archeologists a huge disservice. We go to space to learn, gain knowledge, its unlikely to do us any actual good, and has cost us unimaginable wealth...no I dont disagree with it, but learning about our past is as important, and as Helen says, why should taxpayers money go towards funding stuff that taxpayers will never see. Reveal things so they can be seen and valued by more people and the funds will be easier to come by. No, not everything, but uncover a mosaic, its pointless unless it can be seen.
Dear, dear Helen. Our imaginary romance continues , unblemished by times winged chariot .......
Climate change LOL
I love Time team, but I'd like to see more digging and less commentary.
well said helen
the crown jewels were paid for by the peasants..same as every thing else.