Pitts is able to take an admirable long view over most of these sites, showing how knowledge has increased and dates have gone back in time or been refined as often generation after generation of archaeologists have studied, pondered, hypothesised and published. The report reiterates the ‘safe digging for all’ message, and highlights who was digging, where they were digging and why they were digging.

Series 9 features historian Onyeka Nubia and archaeologists Cat Jarman and Stuart Prior in some episodes as presenters. The wandering off to talk about social history is fine, but it's a bit out of the "Who do You think you are" playbook. The massive finding here is that people have been in Britain for much longer than we originally thought.

While most of the gas network is underground and out of sight, it plays a central role in the daily lives of people across Wales and south west England. Journeying was instinctive, and inhumanities – aggression, war, despotism – arose when the virtue and dignity of travel were suppressed. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. We move from rural Staffordshire and Norfolk to the centre of London, looking at layers of Roman history as we work back – and again, here, new planning legislation allows for the appropriate time for archaeologists to check what’s under new buildings, even if it was thought that we knew everything already. These discoveries illuminate Britain’s ever-shifting history that we now know includes an increasingly diverse array of cultures and customs.

Elsyng Palace was one of nearly 60 royal residences owned by Henry Vlll, but for centuries its exact location was unknown. It is good to see that LSBUD goes from strength-to-strength in its coverage of almost 100 asset owners.

With his background in both practical archaeology and journalism (not least being editor of British Archaeology magazine for 15 years), Pitts is supremely well-placed to give us this comprehensive but also compellingly fascinating and page-turning survey of British Viking to ancient history / prehistory. Many of us have watched Time Team and various other TV archaeology shows; many of us have seen or heard of some of the sites discussed here (I was particularly pleased to find the Staffordshire Hoard featured), but how many of us have been able to keep up with the enormous strides that archaeological science has been making over recent decades? A great way to find out key information about the current state of knowledge across millennia of history and prehistory. Lucid and informative … conveys both the thrill of discovery and the painstaking, puzzling interpretation work that follows it.

There has never been a time before when so much ancient material was found, nor so much learnt about our distant history. Digging Up Britain consists of a series of ten archaeological case studies from sites shedding light on the earliest (known) occupation of these islands to the times of the Anglo-Saxon and Viking. As the author says, it's a past that's not a long parade of us in funny costumes—a fascinating 5-star read.There are many more women working in the field and whereas before women were slotted into very gender specific rolls due to the fact that the men digging believed women only fitted into certain areas.