'A Very Significant Find'
By Alan Meek

Previous: 'The Finder'

In February, filming began on a BBC show called 'Hidden Treasure,' which was doing an episode on Alan's find, including a field-walk and geophysical exploration of the site where the artifacts were found. Dan Kendall, the BBC producer, wanted Alan to be part of a scene where the geophysicist, Mark Noel, discussed his findings.

Then Dan. 'OK, Gil and Alan, we're ready for you now. What I want is - give me a few seconds to get back to the camera - then you both come in - Gil first - Mark will look up from the computer screen and greet you - sit down on the bench beside him - and Gil, ask Mark something like "so what've you got to show us then" - and we'll just let it flow from there.'

Whether it flowed I shan't know until I see it - but within seconds I was way deep in. Mark's voice, following his finger on the screen...'and you see these shadows, a row of squares - double row of squares - foundations - dwellings, do you think?' He looked at Gil, and so did I. 'Could be,' said Gil. 'Could easily be'. Well, that's pretty positive stuff. Then from Mark, 'and this double line, adjacent to the square - it's wide enough, and sort of woolly enough, and in the right place, to be a road'. 'Yes, it certainly looks a good possibility', said Gil.

'This little double row of dots?', I asked, pointing - 'post-holes?' (I'd seen similar dots dozens of times on TV, so I knew what I was talking about.) 'Look very much like it to me' said Gil. 'They're about two and a half metres apart,' said Mark. And we looked questioningly at each other.

We did it all several times, and it got, I hope, a bit more, well, flowing. There was so much to see, and it was all so new to me, that mostly, I was only really looking at where I was being pointed. But there was one 'shadow' on the screen where I think the first time we talked about will be the best.

'And this little circle, a few metres in diameter,' Mark's finger showed us, 'in a sort of, empty area, close by the road - well, if it is a road that is - does that suggest anything?' 'A temple - a circle, by the road, near the houses - temples are round - like that one is - it's got to be a temple.' That was from me, of course. I could see it - I could've drawn it. 'And, you know what, it isn't five metres from where I found my beautiful treasure.' I think I might've gulped about then - the ancient village picture I'd drawn in my mind now had people.

Mark had seen it a thousand times - but he'd never lost the thrill. 'So what do you think, Gil? What shape do temples come in, in this county?' 'Well, all shapes and sizes really, there's even a triangular one near Verulamium, where a road forks, but yes, quite often they're round, and this one is in the right place.'

'So,' pushed Mark, with me leaning heavily too, 'does it look like you might have to dig then?'

So now, it's the first day of March as I finish this - a good month perhaps to investigate how a Roman settlement lived and died. Later this week a team of diggers, archaeologists, volunteers, detectorists, camera crews - and me - will spend four days, looking at the road, the dwellings, the post-holes, the life, the history, and for me, above all, the little round shadow. I do so hope it is a temple. It would, in a way, give my finds a home.

Next: 'Maybe that's how places become sacred'