News of the discovery soon spreads, and Cambridge archaeologist Charles Phillips arrives, declares the site to be of national importance, and takes over the dig by order of the Office of Works.Īs World War II approaches, Phillips brings in a large team, including Peggy Piggott, who uncovers proof that it is Anglo-Saxon in origin. Prominent local archaeologist James Reid Moir attempts to join the dig but is rebuffed Edith instead hires her cousin Rory Lomax to join the project. Meanwhile, Edith struggles with her health, warned by her doctor to avoid stress.īrown is astonished to uncover iron rivets from a ship, suggesting that it is the burial site of someone of tremendous distinction, such as a king.

She supports his jobs as excavator despite them being low wage. However, he does not become unfaithful to his wife, and we see that they are an amicable couple. Meanwhile, he spends more time with Edith, a widow, and her young son Robert, finding common interest in archaeology and astronomy with them.

One day the trench collapses on him, but they dig him out in time. Working with assistants from Pretty's estate, Brown slowly excavates the more promising of the mounds. They ignore Brown, who left school aged 12, when he suggests the mounds could be Anglo-Saxon rather than the more common Viking era.

His former employers try unsuccessfully to persuade Brown to work on a Roman villa they deem more important. At first, she offers the same money he received from the Ipswich Museum, the agricultural wage, but he says it is inadequate so she ups her offer by 12% to £2 a week (approximately £120 in 2020), which he accepts. In 1939, Suffolk landowner Edith Pretty hires local self-taught archaeologist-excavator Basil Brown to tackle the large burial mounds at her rural estate in Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge. The film received positive reviews from critics and received five nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, including one for Outstanding British Film. It had a limited release on 14 January 2021, followed by streaming on Netflix on 29 January 2021. It stars Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin, Ken Stott, Archie Barnes, and Monica Dolan. The Dig is a 2021 British drama film directed by Simon Stone, based on the 2007 novel of the same name by John Preston, which reimagines the events of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England.

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