Geography

Time Team Geographer

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:03:00 BST

In May Dominic Fontana, a geographer at Portsmouth was invited to take part in a Channel 4 "Time Team" excavation at Governor's Green, Old Portsmouth. The project was attempting to locate, examine and record the remains of the medieval "Domus Dei" hospice which was one of the most substantial buildings in Portsmouth until the Tudor period. It was founded in 1212 as a place where pilgrims entering and leaving the country could find accommodation and food; it was essentially a medieval "Travel Lodge". When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries the hospice was closed and converted into an armoury during the period of heightened invasion threat from France which culminated in the Battle of the Solent in July 1545. In around 1580 the whole site was radically modified and rebuilt to provide a residence for the Governor of Portsmouth.

One really exciting aspect of the dig was that we were able to use Geographical Information Systems technology to pinpoint the locations where we should find substantial archaeological remains. The second trench that we opened revealed two walls exactly where the GIS suggested they should be along with the remains of a lost medieval road surface -- that really doesn't happen very often in archaeology. During the excavations we discovered that although the excellent Tudor maps of Portsmouth showed many of the buildings accurately they didn't quite match up with all of the archaeology under the ground. Phil Harding kept complaining about this! By comparing the archaeological evidence with the historical mapping in the GIS and combining this with data gained from a builder's estimate for the conversion of the site to the Governor's residence the team were able to discover an error in the Tudor mapmaking, thereby proving Phil Harding correct and the Tudor cartographers wrong. Portsmouth is quite unique in having so many early large-scale maps as well as the wonderful detail of the town that is shown in the Cowdray Engraving depicting the loss of the Mary Rose in 1545.

The excavations were filmed for the 2009 -- 2010 season of "Time Team" programmes and will be shown on Channel 4 and more 4 later this autumn or early winter.

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