If you’re fascinated by hidden history, I have good news for you. Time Team, one of my favorite hidden history television shows, has a goodly number of episodes available for free on Youtube.

The actual Time Team is a select group of British archaeologists, geophysicists, surveyors, historians, and cultural monuments experts. Their mission is to reveal the hidden history of the British Isles from the Stone Age through World War II, with archaeological test pits being their primary investigatory method. Each historical locale is investigated in three—often three very rainy—days.

Launched in 1994, the Time Team TV show ran for twenty years and includes 286 episodes, some extremely successful (Look at all the Roman coins, glass, pottery, and roofing tiles we found!) and some not (“Maybe we found a ditch; maybe not”). Despite the locale or the intent of the dig, I find every Time Team episode fascinating, especially since the team explains the significance of the finds at the end of the show.

While Time Team is my big hidden history recommendation—and FYI, a short-lived, nine-episode PBS-sponsored Time Team America is available for purchase on YouTube—I wanted to share some other very recent hidden history revelations:

History hiding in plain sight ~ In the summer of 1777, as North Carolina forces marched through Philadelphia to meet up with General George Washington’s army, artist Pierre Eugene du Simitiere put pen to paper and began drawing. Almost two hundred and fifty years later, du Simitiere’s sketch of soldiers hung in a private home in New York, where it was seen by a curator from the Museum of the American Revolution. The curator was immediately drawn to the sketch of soldiers leading a horse-drawn supply wagon because inside the wagon were two women and a baby. Over the past year, the curator and historians have concluded that the 1777 drawing is the oldest documentation (by five years) of women and children traveling alongside Revolutionary War soldiers, information that significantly revises our understand of women’s roles during the American Revolution.

Literally hidden history ~ Years before moving picture actress Clara Bow became the 1920’s IT Girl, she performed in The Pill Pounder, a 1923 silent movie featuring Charles Murray as a distracted poker-playing druggist. This third movie of Clara’s career was “lost to history”, with no known copies in existence, until the master reel was discovered in the bottom of a box of movies purchased at a Nebraska auction last year. The restored version premiered at this month’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival, something that delighted fans of both Clara Bow and Charles Murray.

Clara Bow in The Pill Pounder. (Credit: Gary Huggins via The Washington Post)

Seemingly-Endless Hidden History ~ The fiery Mount Vesuvius volcano destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii in 79AD, hiding it under pumice and ash. Only centuries later did the memory of Pompeii emerge into scholarly consciousness, with deliberate excavations beginning in the mid-19th century. (Just curious…anyone else see the Pompeii AD 79 Exhibition in Chicago? It was both stunning and heartbreaking.) By now, over a third of the city has been excavated, and the latest discovery might be the best: the reveal of a bakery and a grand mansion with colorful, finely-articulated ceiling and wall frescoes.

Recently-revealed grand mansion dining room fresco via pompeiisites.org

And finally, Time Team was revived recently via Patreon. This new version is going strong on YouTube, which is one more bit of good news for all of us who love hidden history!