Needless to say I did not go home that afternoon.' Peggy Piggott's first discovery was not captured on camera, but this photo shows her excavating the great gold buckle, delicately clearing its shimmering, serpentine surface. 'So I had the honour,' he records, 'of carrying in the golden treasure…without any of the servants being aware of the fact. Basil Brown wrote in his diary, 'I must admit that I never expected to see so much gold in any dig in this country… All the objects shone in the sunshine as on the day they were buried.' Also like the film, Edith Pretty insisted that Brown be the one to convey the objects to her house for safekeeping. It took place on 21 July 1939 and kicked off days of jaw-dropping discoveries (compressed into hours in the film) as the burial chamber yielded its secrets. It's a magical moment that also happens to be completely true. One of my favourite scenes in the film is when archaeologist Peggy Piggott uncovers the first piece of gold from the burial – a garnet-encrusted scabbard mount. Lily James as Peggy Piggot (also known as Peggy Preston) in The Dig. It so closely resembled the photographs that I felt a little pang of emotion, realising that this was the closest that I would ever come to being there at the discovery that inspired me to study early medieval archaeology, putting me on the path to where I am today. In October I visited the set and was bowled over by the full-size recreation of the ship.
Consequently, I found myself viewing these familiar images from a fresh perspective. Their questions were completely different to those I am usually asked, aimed at understanding the excavation's physical, practical and visual realities rather than the details of what was found. They were astonished by the number of photographs in the archive and spent hours combing through them over several visits. In summer 2019 I welcomed Oscar-nominated production designer Maria Djurkovic and art director Karen Wakefield to the British Museum.
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