‘I found a Bronze Age settlement in my garden’
Time Team fan digs up 2,500 items
A FAN of TV’s Time Team believes his garden is the site of a lost Bronze Age settlement – after he dug up a stash of prehistoric artefacts.
Retired geologist Dr Andrew Beckly first found an arrowhead while sifting through the earth and went on to discover more than 2,500 ancient objects, including blades and axes.
He said watching Channel 4 archaeology show Time Team helped him identify the items at his home in Wellington, Somerset.
And he believes his discovery could put the West Country on the Bronze Age map.
Andrew found the first arrowhead while sieving earth for stones so he could build a wall during lockdown.
History
He said: “I said to my wife, ‘Guess what I found?’ She didn’t have a clue but it shot the history of the area back by 4,000 years.
“I knew enough to recognise an arrowhead. I was a geologist and am an avid fan of Time Team. Me and my wife rewatched them all not so long ago.We always watch Time Team.”
Andrew expanded his search to nearby fields and found more items.
He believes they are evidence that many more of our Bronze Age ancestors settled in the South West than was previously thought.
Andrew said: “There is an assumption there isn’t very much prehistory in the West Country and now this suggests there may be an awful lot more than we realised.”
The finds include microliths – small tools which date back to the time when woolly mammoths roamed around the UK. And Andrew believes they could prove continuous settlement of the area for almost 10,000 years which “nobody had noticed before.”
He added: “My gut feeling is this would have been a great location for historic hunter gatherers.”
Andrew also thinks one item – a “bladelet” similar to some found in France – could be evidence of trade and migration between England and the continent before the dawn of history.
He hopes Heritage England will carry out an assessment of the collection. Andrew said: “We could be looking at things which are previously undescribed.”