Guideline Geo : part of new Time Team episodes

Guideline Geo part of new Time Team episodes

December 1 2021

Time Team is a popular TV program that ran in the UK from 1994 to 2014and was subsequently shown in approximately40 countries around the globe. Each episode would set an archaeological research question(normally submitted by members of the public), then gather a team of archaeologists and other relevant experts, and give them just 3 days to answer that research challenge.The show is currently enjoying a renaissance with regular new content being provided to fans online and through social media channels.

The use of geophysics in Time Team was key to being able to meet the challenge of only having 3 days on site, and itwas undertaken from the very start of each episode right the way through to the close.Prior to joining Guideline Geo, our ABEM Product Manager Jimmy Adcock worked on the show for 10 years and contributed to more than 80 episodes,whilst working for Dr. John Gater, whose company acted as geophysics consultant for the show from the very first episode.

Guideline Geo's involvement withthe programcan be traced back to 1998 when a fresh-faced Jesper Emilsson (now Product Manager for MALÅ) went to a small town in the UK with an unshielded GPR to search for Roman remains acrossa numberof back gardens.Time Team geophysicist John Gater and Jesper Emilsson at Papcastle, UK in 1998with a MALÅ GPRunshielded antenna

The episode, which was then broadcast in 1999,is available online in some regions and the GPR can be seen from around 12 minutes into the film.(The team behind the show are working hard to get as much of the original series onto YouTube via their Time Team Classics channel without regional restrictions.)

MALÅreturned in 2011 (broadcast in 2012)to demonstratethe MIRA16-channelarray system, ably driven by our MALÅ Senior Applications Engineer Mike Langton (although in those days he worked for a private survey company in the UK). Theepisode focusedon another Roman sitecalled Cunetio,where a hoard of 55,000 Roman coins had been found. in the late 1970s.

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MALÅ MIRA survey results from over a mansio (the Roman equivalent of a motel) atCunetio Roman town

[Link]Theresults impressedthe production crewso much that Time Team borrowed a MIRA8-channelfor the final broadcast season which aired in 2013 and two standout results were Roman remains at a site called Brancaster, in the east of England, and a partial Prehistoric barrow on Salisbury plain in the south-central region of the UK:

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A selection of MALÅ MIRA slices from over part of a ploughed-out burial mound on Salisbury Plain and a summary time-slice from Brancaster Roman fort

To see more of the Brancaster data, click here.

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MALÅ MIRA HDR on-site at one of the new Time Team shoots

Fast-forward to 2021 and, after a very long break, in which many fans called for a return of the show, it's back. And so is the participation of boxes from Sweden!

Now an online venture, crowd-funded via Patreon, Time Team is providing a host of archaeological and historical content for old and new fans alike, including two new full episodes which will be free to watch on YouTube soon (details to be announced). And Guideline Geo are very pleased to have been able to participate in the filming of these episodes once again.

For the first shoot, earlier in the year, we provided a MALÅ GX system to help the team investigate a prehistoric fogou site in Cornwall, in the southwest of the UK.

At the second site, in Oxfordshire UK, both Jimmy and Mike attended with the latest generation of our multi-channel GPR, the MIRA HDR, in order to investigate what may be one of the largest British Roman villas ever discovered.

And finally, just this month, Mike and Jimmy assisted on a third site for the Time Team crew. However, for now, we are remaining tight-lipped about the details of this high-profile site, so keep an eye on the Time Team Social media channels for more information on that little project!

https://www.patreon.com/TimeTeamOfficial
https://www.youtube.com/TimeTeamOfficial
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialTimeTeam
https://twitter.com/thetimeteam
https://www.instagram.com/timeteamofficial