
Royal Burial Site Found in Southend-on-Sea - jajag
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/09/britains-equivalent-to-tutankhamun-found-in-southend-on-sea
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nik61
This was a Time Team Special in 2005 [Series 18, Episode 138], unfortunately
named the "King of Bling". The location was given as Prittlewell, Essex [on
the outskirts of Southend]. For non-Brits, Time Team has been a very long-
running series on British TV, popularising field archeology to a very wide
audience. It took a 'quick hit' approach following-up local suggestions to do
a single week's digging with good resources. It reported the week's progress
in a single, compact and well-structured broadcast. Much loved, it is now in
hiatus, if not gone forever. Why it was not mentioned in connection with this
'discovery' is hard to say...

~~~
robotmay
Because unfortunately, behind the scenes, Time Team is not well respected in
the Archaeology community. A couple of their archaeologists were good, but
overall they misinterpreted sites and caused problems when they dug (e.g.
mattocking through a skull by mistake).

This site is quite old news really, but the notable part is that they've
finished some of their analysis and are publishing, hence why it's showing up
in the news now.

Source: archaeologist partner

~~~
timthorn
I think it depends on the part of the community you speak to. Yes, they had a
very unrealistic dig schedule, but they brought resource that most sites can't
dream of to many locations that would otherwise not be investigated, and
delivered full reports as well as proper Reithian television.

Source: archaeologist mother & sister, and appeared on Time Team myself... :)

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treis
>But it has been possible. The Mola team estimates it would have taken 20 to
25 men working five or six days in different groups to build the chamber and
would have involved felling 13 oak trees.

>“It was a significant communal effort,” said Jackson. “You’ve got to see this
burial chamber as a piece of theatre. It is sending out a very strong message
to the people who come and look at it and the stories they take away from it.
It says ‘we are very important people and we are burying one of our most
important people’.”

That doesn't really seem like all _that_ much effort. Especially for an era
where there was significant downtime between harvest cycles.

~~~
sgt101
That's a 21st century perspective; every hour that was available was an hour
that could have been used to improve life, always, every day, winter was
coming.

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NeedMoreTea
I'm not one to whinge about headlines much, but with UK conditions,
"Equivalent to Tutankhamun" is one hell of a stretch. Very little gets
preserved like in dry Egyptian sand here.

Significant and fascinating, certainly.

~~~
dmix
It says as much in the article too, which is very typical:

> Sophie Jackson, director of research at Museum of London Archaeology (Mola),
> said it could be seen as a British equivalent to Tutankhamun’s tomb,
> although different in a number of ways.

> For one thing it is in free-draining soil, meaning everything organic has
> decayed. “It was essentially a sandpit with stains,” she said.

Using it's "vaguely similar to Tutankhamun" probably wouldn't get as many
clicks though.

~~~
cogman10
Probably more of a "The best and most completely preserved Britain has seen"
and less "Holy shit, there is a secret chamber here which nobody knew about
for 3000 years!"

~~~
NeedMoreTea
Yup, and the remarkable preservation of much of Tut's tomb. "essentially a
sandpit with stains" is not that, or even up there with Mary Rose. :)

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dang
Also [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-
essex-48203883](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-48203883), via
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19866621](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19866621).

~~~
oska
Also, the official site:

[https://www.prittlewellprincelyburial.org/](https://www.prittlewellprincelyburial.org/)

(which I believe only recently launched)

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dmix
I found the design of the drinking cups to be interesting. They are made from
wood in a globular design, but the edges where your lips would touch are all
covered in rounded metals to make it more comfortable than potentially sharp
wood. It also uses little metal latches to seal onto the wood which they
stylized.

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mattkevan
Fascinating story and a great bit of archaeology, but it’s very strange seeing
my hometown featured on HN.

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sizzzzlerz
I'm not sure I'd call it equivalent to Tutankhamun's crypt given the vast
difference in age, and in the number of artifacts found and their condition,
organic and non-organic, but it is a great historical find, none-the-less.

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aerovistae
This was found in 2003. I hate misleading titles.

~~~
NeedMoreTea
They spent the time since excavating and only published the findings this
week.

~~~
aerovistae
Then I feel it ought to say "Initial findings published on excavation of
Southend-on-Sea Royal Burial Site," which is what has happened.

