Timely reminder of the true cost of history

EVEN the archaeologists on Time Team have the door slammed in their faces sometimes. Not everyone welcomes the cameras as they discovered in The Wreck Of The Colossus. At the climax of this story about the discovery of, as presenter Tony Robinson said, "quite possibly the most important piece of maritime archaeology ever found in British waters", which was part of Nelson's fleet at the Battle of the Nile, they were told to go away.

The man awarded a licence to dive in the area demanded "a large sum of money" before letting the Time Team back in the water where artefacts and, more importantly, a large wooden ship's carving had been found on the sea bed. "It's a strange state of affairs when an individual is given a government licence and allowed to charge people to dive in a public place to film something that doesn't belong to them in the first place," mused presenter Tony Robinson.

The team managed to get round this hiccup, but it illustrated how cut-throat the salvage business is. History comes a poor second to financial considerations.

This was certainly an important find. The bow section of the Colossus, wrecked in 1798, was found off the Sicilies in 1974. Then, last year the Time Team received a call inviting them to view a fresh "absolutely gobsmacking" discovery. A major piece of the ship, including a huge carving, had been found on the sea bed. This gave the archaeologists, used to working on dry land, fresh challenges. Here they had to don diving suits and breathing apparatus to work underwater. Everything took much longer, from photographing finds to only being able to only make two one-hour dives each day.

That didn't make the artefacts brought up in the "finds box" any less exciting. "It's like Christmas, isn't it," enthused one team member as they rummaged through the discoveries. There was even an element of suspense when, beaten by the clock and the weather, archaeologists had to leave the carving on the bottom of the sea during the stormy winter period. They put a protective covering over it to try to prevent further damage.

The Time Team still managed to film the raising of the carving, which will be specially treated to preserve the wood. Its fate after that is undecided. The grandly-named Receiver of the Wreck has yet to value the piece. Coupled with conservation costs of almost £30,000, the asking price may be more than most museums can afford. Thanks to Time Team we can all see the discovery - and it won't cost us anything.