The Dig on Netlfix: The Big Changes Made to the True Story of Sutton Hoo
On 2/1/21 at 7:41 AM EST
The Dig is the latest movie released by Netflix, which is a dramatic retelling of the Sutton Hoo archeological discovery of the late 1930s, which saw amateur archeologist Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) discover an ancient burial mound full of amazing Anglo-Saxon artifacts. Real archaeology (as opposed to the whip-cracking, globe-trotting type dreamed up by the
Indiana Jones movies) is a slow and laborious process, and as such seems an unlikely topic for a starry movie. However, Netflix has decided that it is a story worth telling though they have made some typically Hollywood changes to the film to amp up some of the details.
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The True Story Behind Netflix s The Dig
How a medium helped to find buried Anglo-Saxon treasure, plus all the other stuff the film doesn t tell you Larry Horricks/Netflix
A thoughtful reconstruction of an archaeological dig somewhere in deepest Suffolk feels like quite unlikely material for one of the first big Netflix hits of 2021, but
The Dig has turned out to be exactly that.
Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James and Johnny Flynn feature in the film based on John Preston s 2007 novel, also called
The Dig, which follows the excavation of burial mounds at the Sutton Hoo estate in 1938 and 1939. What started as a small investigation into mounds on land which had been farmed for centuries turned up the most extraordinary archaeological find of the century in Britain, and added a new set of national symbols to the English imagination.
The 86ft Anglo-Saxon burial ship at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, was unearthed in 1939.
More than 260 items were discovered, including weapons, armour, coins, jewellery, gold buckles, patterned plaques and silver cutlery.
New Netflix film The Dig, starring Lily James, Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, dramatises the find and delves into the lives of those involved in the excavation.
Archaeologists Basil Brown, Peggy and Stuart Piggott and Charles Philips, as well as landowner Edith Pretty and her 12-year-old son Robert are all portrayed in the film.
The new release has received positive reviews from most critics and is popular with viewers, but just how does it match up to reality?
âFinding out about Edith Pretty was a real eye-opener,â Carey Mulligan tells British
Vogue of learning about the Suffolk landowner and archeologist Basil Brown, who together were responsible for one of the most important archeological discoveries of all time, the 1939 Anglo-Saxon ship burial excavation at Sutton Hoo. Mulligan devoured books about Pretty ahead of playing her in new Netflix film
The Dig. âReading her biography, I was just so in awe of her. She was so extraordinary. She served as a volunteer nurse in the First World War, and she travelled to Egypt and America, and lived in Paris for six months on her own. This was kind of revolutionary stuff for a woman in the time that she grew up in. I loved the idea of somebody with that capacity for learning, study and adventure.â
Netflix s The Dig has been slammed as sexist for reducing an experienced archaeologist to a bumbling, deferential, sidekick to her husband .
The film depicts the unearthing of the famous Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk and stars Ralph Fiennes as self-taught local archaeologist Basil Brown and Lily James as 27-year-old excavator Peggy Piggott.
Mrs Piggott was the wife of archaeologist Stuart Piggott - played by Ben Chaplin - who arrived at the Suffolk site with imperious academic Charles Phillips (Ken Stott).
During the dig at the burial mounds, Mrs Piggott - who was two years younger than her husband - unearthed with her trowel a small gold and garnet pyramid, the first exciting glimpse of bejewelled treasure.