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Great Storm of 1901 - Editorial
Maritime Archaeology Project is runner-up in History Channel Competition
The Maritime Archaeological Project
Heroism during The Great Storm of 1901
The Great Storm of 1901
The Inga
On the Trail of Buried Treasure
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On the Trail of Buried Treasure
Location: North Tyneside
They might once have only made column inches on the back pages of newspapers, but today’s archaeological discoveries are headline news and increasingly the subject for investigation on TV.
Just the thought of unearthing some buried treasure is enough to get you reaching for your bucket and trowel. And each year, countless discoveries are made – many by chance – by people walking their dogs, ploughing fields and building roads.
Amateur archaeologists and enthusiasts are also hot on the trail of our hidden history, and together their efforts are helping to bring the past alive.
Shipwrecks finally found.
Since 2001, a team of archaeological enthusiasts, mostly divers, have been scouring the North East coastline looking for ship wrecks.
Braving the extreme cold is the least of their concerns, as murky conditions and poor visibility often make finding anything quite a challenge. But, a bit of detective work by the team helped them pinpoint the locations they needed to start investigating, and a trawl through newspapers and local archives revealed clues about where to begin.
Their research paid off and, they were to discover what they were looking for – two of the some forty ships wrecked during the 'The Great Storm of 1901, when treacherous conditions in one week in November resulted in the loss of life of over 200 seafarers. The project has become a real community effort and together with family tales of heroism and bravery, has paid tribute to the many lives lost at sea.
Arial photographs unearth mystery
A group in Boston Spa have also struck archaeological gold, when their interest in local history led to them unearthing an important discovery that’s even taken the archaeological world by surprise. If you’re looking for clues to the past, Julie Barnes from the group explains, aerial photographs are often a good starting point. Patterns in the ground – or crop marks – can reveal hidden walls and ditches that lie just beneath the surface, and the group decided to further investigate a patch of land that had caught their attention.
Day to day farming can also throw up all kinds of hidden gems, and the group were keen to pick over the land once it had been ploughed by the farmer. Scattered in concentrated clumps, they discovered massive amounts of flint, and had stumbled across a previously unrecorded site for flint production. It was the first discovery of its kind in the area, and a vital clue archaeologists were able to use in piecing together the area’s history.
But their search does not end there. Surveys of the local landscape have since revealed other areas worth investigating and the team are already on the case – keen to unearth their next historic find.
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