A gold buckle was carved with snakes and intertwined animals – a piece so remarkable that the curator of British Antiquity recently fell when he saw it; jeweled shoulder hooks and belt embellishments; an elegant sleek helmet with a full face mask – an attractive look of some old hero who seems to have looked out over the centuries.
What the discovery meant
Brown’s discovery literally led to the rewriting of the history books. The ship and its contents came over from the Dark Ages, and the discovery illuminated those four centuries between the time of the Romans’ departure and the arrival of the little-known Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons who ruled over the various kingdoms of England at this time were considered a raw and backward people – almost primitive – but here elegant things were done. This was a society that valued skill, crafts and art, and traded with Europe and beyond.
And those memories of lost, lost civilization turned out just as the Nazis themselves threatened us. The chief archaeologist gave a speech to visitors to the site, and they had to shout to be heard above the Spitfire oar.
When author and journalist John Preston, owner of the book about British politician Jeremy Thorpe, A Very English Scandal, was transformed into a TV series, he discovered that Piggott, the sister of mother, having been involved in the excavation, researched the story and immediately recognized what a rich seam it was for a novelist. The Dig was published for fame in 2007. Robert Harris described it as a “true treasure of literature”, and John McEwan described it as “very elegant, engrossing, exquisitely original”.
Producer Ellie Wood, who has previously worked on a number of TV adaptations including Decline and Fall, Bleak House and The Line of Beauty, says she wanted to make a film version as soon as she read a hand -script of the novel in 2006, previously it was even published.