How Netflix s The Dig explores the subtlety of archeological study, of probing memory and the past The Dig reminds us that the role of archaeology is not in treasure-seeking, but in reflecting on our complex relationship to the past, and how and why we value it. The Conversation February 06, 2021 13:25:13 IST Netflix s The Dig recounts the tale of the excavation of a ship burial of an Anglo-Saxon king.
By Roberta Gilchrist
Edith Pretty was convinced that the mounds on her land in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, held important archaeological secrets. In 1939, on the eve of the second world war, she was proven right as the sumptuous ship burial of an Anglo-Saxon king was uncovered. For a nation on the brink of war and facing its own dark age, the Sutton Hoo ship burial was a source of pride and inspiration, equivalent to the tomb of Tutankhamun.