A retired geologist claims to have found a lost Bronze Age settlement in his backyard – after learning to identify the artifacts by watching “Time Team,” a popular TV series in Britain that features experts who visit Britain. Work to uncover details about archeology and history.
Andrew Beckley, of Wellington, in Somerset, Englandhas collected a trove of more than 2,500 artefacts, including blades and axes, following an accidental discovery under his own lawn, according to the British news service, SWNS.
he picked up an arrowhead sifting soil in his backyard – and said the discovery “took the history of the area back 4,000 years.”
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He said he got it when he rewatched the popular history program “Time Team” with his wife.
“I was sifting through the soil in the back garden to get out the stones,” he told SWNS. “And during the (Covid) lockdown you couldn’t get construction material, and I was building a wall and using stones for that.”
Retired geologist Andrew Beckley is pictured in his patio with a stone ax head that he believes dates back to the Bronze Age. (SWNS)
He added, “Finding the arrowhead was the starting point. I went to my wife and said, ‘Guess what I found?'”
He said that he “knew enough to recognize such arrowheads. i was a geologist And I’m a big fan of ‘Time Team’.
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Beckley said that he and his wife “re-watched” all the “Time Team” programs some time ago.
“What I’ve found is there are repeated examples here of things that don’t show up in the textbooks.”
“All knowledge helps and you learn things without even knowing it. That, and visiting museums And having general interests – but otherwise I probably wouldn’t have known.”
Beckley wasn’t sure whether the arrowhead was a “stray shot” or evidence of something larger — so he expanded his search to nearby fields, he said.
There, they discovered other evidence.
A collection of ax heads, believed to be from the Bronze Age, as recently discovered in the Wellington region in the UK (SWNS)
He said, “I went and brought some books prehistoric flint working And got the outline (of something). But mainly I let the artworks teach me. I drew each piece in detail to scale on graph paper in the four volumes of the books. This is how I developed my knowledge of the material. As SWNS reported, I let the book do its job of educating rather than trying to fit it into what I found.
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He also said, “What I’ve found is there are repeated examples of things here (that) don’t show up in textbooks. I think it would have been a great place for historical hunters.”
Referencing the work of archaeologist and “Time Team” star Francis Pryor, Beckley said he had “good reason” to think that Wellington Hill would have been “the right place” for the ancients – partly because what is now the M5 The highway would have made for an attractive route for migratory animals to travel, SWNS said.
Beckley is shown studying one of the many artifacts found in his yard and the surrounding area. (SWNS)
He said their findings included the discovery of so-called microliths, tiny tools Lifespan of the woolly mammoth.
He added, “There’s a perception that there isn’t much prehistoric history in the West Country and now it turns out there may be something more sinister than we thought.”
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Beckley said that when he first brought his findings to heritage experts, they were rejected – before people later clearly identified them as Bronze Age tools.
The Bronze Age lasted between approximately 3,000 BC and 1,200 BC
SWNS reported that their findings can now be examined by experts in the UK to assess the collection.
Beckley has cataloged and studied a vast collection of apparent artefacts. Shown here is a portion of his collection. (SWNS)
Beckley said he discovered a “bladelet” that looked similar to specimens commonly found in France.
“There are things like this bladelet here… we may have evidence of a connection 10,000 years ago. It could tell us there was trade and migration between France and the UK, but we don’t know,” he said.
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“We are in the early stages of evaluation,” he said.
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