The Dig. Movie.

 Recommended: Yes, though may not be of your genre. The book could be more interesting.

Spoiler : Yes. I will mention when to stop reading.

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 real events of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/death-and-memory/anglo-saxon-ship-burial-sutton-hoo

The movie starts with excavator Basil Brown taking the boat to Edith Pretty’s land in Suffolk. It is 1939. Basil Brown is a self taught excavator discounted by his employer the Ipswich Museum for his lack of formal education. Basil Brown’s suggestion that the burial grounds at the site are older than the Viking era is ignored.

What is buried there? What happens to the artefacts ?

SPOILER ahead. 

It’s the start of WW2. Mrs Pretty is a widow with a young son. She respects Mr Brown regardless of his lack of formal education and trust his educated instincts. The digging is not easy but Mr brown unearths an artefact that he thinks could be way before the Vikings. He thinks that from Anglo Saxon era. Further digging unearths an Anglo-Saxon ship that was used as a burial. The British Museum gets wind of this and takes over the site. Mrs Pretty ensures that Mr Brown still gets to be involved in the excavation. Just before WW2 starts they find buried treasures! Mrs Pretty decides to ‘gift’ the treasures to the British museum so that the artefacts can be viewed by the masses.

The artefacts are kept safe from WW2 in an underground train station for many years. 9 years after Mrs Pretty’s death do the public get to see the artefacts.  Despite Mrs Pretty’s efforts, Mr Brown is not given credit for his discovery. It’s only in recent years that his contributions were acknowledged.