[SunkenCiv]

Warriors (Barrow Clump, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire) | Time Team | Season 20, Episode 5 | Posted August 13, 2016

[radu]

The soldiers were very moved by the discovery of a man they felt would have shared some of their experiences. They joined the excavation at Barrow Clump as part of Operation Nightingale, an initiative to help the recovery of veterans of recent conflicts, particularly Afghanistan, by involving them in archaeology. The scheme, working with Wessex Archaeology, has been so successful that several of the veterans have retrained as professional archaeologists.

The whole article is very interesting but that paragraph stood out. Very cool!

[TXnMA]

That "pattern-forged" sword and the lance-head were quite spectacular!

I assume the Brit term refers to repeated folding and forge-welding -- akin to Damascus steel. If that's the case, the survival of the sword is really special -- because such multilayer metals are commonly victimized by corrosion delamination.

Thanks for posting this!!

TXnMA

[Atlantan]

Scroll for video.

https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/our-work/operation-nightingale

[GreyFriar]

And here is an earlier Time Team dig on the Royal Army’s Salisbury Plain training area that was shown in season 8, episode 7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OnzLtyICuI

Intro by Tony (Baldrick) Robinson:
Salisbury Plain, as well as being the British Army’s biggest training ground, is one of Europe’s most extensive areas of undisturbed archaeology. Over 38,000 hectares - an area the size of the Isle of Wight - is given over to the military here.

Time Team was called in to investigate a site believed to contain the remains of settlements spanning both the Iron Age and the Roman era. The aim was to find sufficient evidence to get the site scheduled by English Heritage ¿ so protecting it for the future.