History was made by the bucket-load today as the Timewatch dig got under way. The eyes of the world's press were on Professors Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright, as together they broke the ground inside the famous monument. That moment, for the record, was 9.20am on Monday 31 March 2008.
Once media duties were concluded, including live TV news reports, the team got down to the serious business of archaeological discovery. The fine weather made for good progress; by early afternoon all the turf was removed from the excavation area - a 2.5m-by-3.5m rectangle.
Next, the team began to meticulously remove then sieve the topsoil, and found it "littered with nineteenth century picnic debris", according to Professor Darvill. This included fragments of clay tobacco pipes, glass and that seemingly ubiquitous blue and white porcelain. A medieval hairpin was also unearthed.
The dig is largely out of sight to the public, but a live video-feed beams the action to a plasma screen inside the visitors' marquee, affording a ringside view of a unique archaeological event. A Timewatch preview is also shown on another screen.
A good first day got even better at around 5pm, when professor Darville declared an "ace find". It was a large flake of bluestone which, he explained, shows clear evidence of having been deliberately struck from a larger stone, thousands of years ago.
Published: April 2008
Top photograph © Michael Freeman