In 1586 the English sent the first group of hopeful colonists to the New World. When ships returned three years later, the settlement was empty and colonists gone. The only clue was the word Croatoan carved in the gatepost of their fort. Our team spends three days at Fort Raleigh in hot pursuit of archaeological evidence that will put the ghost of Roanoke to rest and establish where the first colony in America was actually located.
Our team wades into the swamps of South Carolina to further our understanding of North America's first human inhabitants. Debate continues in the scientific community about when people first came to the American continent. The team has just three days to search out evidence that could shed light on the controversy. What they find could rock the archaeological world.
In 1836 "Free Frank" McWorter purchased his freedom from a Kentucky plantation owner. In Illinois, he planted roots, started a town, and purchased his family out of slavery. The local landowners, and the McWorter family want to uncover what remains of New Philadelphia. Our team joins in the search for the pre-Civil War schoolhouse where New Philadelphia's African American children learned to read and write in freedom.
The picturesque and remote canyons of southern Utah contain what remains of the Fremont Indians who lived there 1,000 years ago. The Fremonts stashed their food in clay granaries high on the cliffs, and entered their underground homes through a hole in the ceiling. They decorated rock walls with petroglyphs that remain a mystery to this day. Our team learns what life was like in these canyons a thousand years ago.
In 1865, a unit of cavalry soldiers found themselves sent west to defend pioneer settlers against angry Sioux Indians in what is now South Dakota. The soldiers built one of the few stone forts on the American frontier. The fort's quartzite walls still peek out from under a grassy field. Our team has just three days to map, dig, and uncover what remains of Fort James, and what they find tells an intriguing tale of 1865 frontier life.
PBS treats American audiences to two hours of Britain’s Time Team, and takes viewers on an energetic expedition to high-profile sites on both sides of the Atlantic. They begin at Jamestown, Virginia, where a British company's commercial enterprise planted the seeds that would become the United States of America. Nearly a million finds have emerged from the trenches at Jamestown, but far more remains to be discovered. The team retrieves piles of perfectly preserved 17th-century artifacts, traces the names and life stories of the early American pioneers, and learns why one-third of the colonists died within months of arrival.
After three days in Jamestown, Time Team travels back to England to discover what lies beneath The Queen’s famous palace gardens. Under royal pressure and spurred on by their three-day time limit, the team tears into the ground beneath the royal residences to unearth the storied past of Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. Their spectacular finds include the foundation of a fourteenth century building where Edward III honored the legendary Arthurian knights.
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