Digging - Time Team Style

I'm standing in a huge, flat field with golden stubble scratching at my ankles and a hot sun beating down. In front of me is an enormous hole in the ground. Time Team only got here yesterday - how did that hole happen so quickly?

It's not all spades and trowels - in this case the digger got in first.

A mound of earth sits next to it in a grumpy heap. Across the field a yellow JCB is working, carefully scooping out another hole, or 'trench'.

The JCBs are the secret weapon - Time Team have used them to do the first part of the digging, to get rid of the top layers of soil, ready for the archaeologists to move in with their trowels.

The trenches are full of people wearing great big boots. They're gazing at the soil, pacing out measurements and scraping with trowels, deep in concentration. In the corner of the hole next to me, muddy brown water swishes around an archaeologist's knees.

As he jumps out and comes over to talk to me, his boots squelch and slurp.

It's hard to tell from the pic, but believe me, those wellies were full of water! Not very showbiz...

Around the trench the film crew, holding their cameras, lighting and sound equipment, talk to the director, planning their next shot.

Tony Robinson is pacing backwards and forwards by the heap of soil, muttering under his breath as he plans what he will say to the cameras. The archaeologists don't seem to notice.

Members of the TV crew wait by the trench - not a normal part of an archaeological site, but one the Time Team diggers have got used to.

For this dig there are three trenches, all planned out to try and discover as much information about the enclosure as possible.

A little group of local experts stands watching the dig. They've been asked along in case there are any finds they can help to identify. They look as if they're itching to get their hands dirty!

More water, more mud - just another trench for the Time Team.

The most important thing about digging, whether it's by a JCB or by a muddy, squelchy-welly-wearing archaeologist, is that they're all very, very careful not to damage anything that might be waiting in the ground, waiting to be found on national telly!

(All photos © 24 Hour Museum unless otherwise stated.)