Digging up Britain: Ten discoveries, a million years of history

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We open a door and see a new world: but all around are a hundred more doors, and we have no idea what lies behind them. His compelling, sometimes teasing, archaeological odyssey illustrates the diversity, complexity and sheer strangeness of the lives that represent Britain's past. What a fascinating-sounding book, Liz – so wonderful that there are all these advances in technology so we can understand a little more of the past. Archaeology is a complex jigsaw puzzle, drawing together everything from skeletons to swords, temples to treasure. Elsyng Palace was one of nearly 60 royal residences owned by Henry Vlll, but for centuries its exact location was unknown.

Lots of descriptions of what things look like, or how they are situated in relation to each other, etc.

Bone and teeth from every site indicate the constant presence of people who came from somewhere else. As the author says, it's a past that's not a long parade of us in funny costumes—a fascinating 5-star read. And so every year, hundreds of archaeologists across Britain go looking for more clues: who lived here, when and how?

He works backwards in time, partly because, as he says, that is how archaeologists work, because that is how we come to understand what is found. Pitts is able to take an admirable long view over most of these sites, showing how knowledge has increased and dates have gone back in time or been refined as often generation after generation of archaeologists have studied, pondered, hypothesised and published. It would have been interesting if the author had included Ireland and related the findings to the classic “Book of Invasions. His compelling, sometimes teasing, archaeological odyssey illustrates the diversity, complexity and sheer strangeness of the lives that represent Britain’s past. Archaeology series exploring fascinating periods in British history as revealed by unfolding archaeological digs.The report complements well Streetworks UK’s own survey work in 2020 around excavation working practice, and further reinforces the need to share information on LSBUD’s world class platform. However here, we’re not looking back 300 or so years to Empire, but many hundreds and then thousands of years to the waves of migration which created our country.

Mind you, we should be concerned that 500 000km of underground assets remain unregistered, particularly when the infrastructure boom – so neatly described in this Report – is now breaking over us.Digging up Britain 2023, the UK’s safe digging industry report, is back for its sixth edition, documenting the latest trends, hot topics and data from all the groundwork taking place across the UK last year.