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Time Team at Emain Macha

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2022 8:46 pm
by Comyn
Time Team, Season 3 Episode 5 The Hunt For The Lost Irish Palace

Time Team is a show that ran on Channel 4 in the UK from 1994 to 2014 (recently revived online) which did archaeological investigations over a weekend at various sites (mostly in England). The team changed from week to week but it was always real archaeologists and historians who were working over a weekend to make the show happen. This episode is one of the few they did in Ireland and while its not going to reveal anything earth shattering, it does give a great feel for the local area and generally how an archaeological investigation is undertaken. Many are members of teams that work on rescue archaeology during the week (trying to salvage as much as possible before developments or road building destroys a site).

In this episode the team visited Navan Fort (Emain Macha), County Armagh in April 1995, where according to Celtic legends three palaces were built. The evidence of two have been found and the team try to find evidence of the third. Tony reads from (Kinsella's) The Tain (pron. "Toyne"), they attend a Ceile, work with a Gaelic speaking blacksmith to create a reproduction of a part of a Le Tene decorated horn that had been cast into a ritual pond near the fort. Of course they also spend three days doing geophysics and digging archaeological trenches in the sacred precincts of Emain Macha.
EmainMacha.png
Watch this episode on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m223mTZvsGo

This one isn't in their "official catalog" on Youtube. If you like the show that can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/TimeTeamClassics/videos