It's 1939 on the eve of Britain entering World War II and the German blitz. Their threads of love, loss, and aspiration weave a common awareness of the past as something that can never truly be left behind. As the war looms ever closer, engraved gold peeks through the soil, and each character searches for answers in the buried treasure.

This fictional recreation of the famed Sutton Hoo dig follows three months of intense activity when locals fought outsiders, professionals thwarted amateurs, and love and rivalry flourished in equal measure. As the dig proceeds, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary find. Pretty, the widowed owner of the farm, has had her hunch confirmed that the mounds on her land hold buried treasure. In the long, hot summer of 1939, Britain is preparing for war, but on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind. As The Dig notes, it wasn't until very recently, long after Brown's 1977 death, that the museum righted this wrong and added Brown's name to the permanent Sutton Hoo exhibit alongside Pretty's.THE BASIS FOR THE NETFLIX FILM STARRING CAREY MULLIGAN, RALPH FIENNES, AND LILY JAMESĪ literary adventure that tells the story of a priceless buried treasure discovered in England on the eve of World War II Unfortunately, by the time World War II was over and the findings were able to be exhibited for the first time-nearly a decade after Pretty's 1942 death-Brown's name was left off the exhibit, likely because he was self-taught and not a part of the nation's more prestigious class of professional archeologists. As a reward for her status as one of the museum's most generous donors of all time, then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered her the prestigious CBE honor, but she graciously declined.Īdditionally, upon bequeathing the medieval treasures to the museum, Pretty requested that Brown receive credit for his work on the initial dig.

For one thing, after it was determined in 1939 that all of the priceless artifacts found on her land were rightfully her property, she immediately chose to donate everything to the British Museum. She was determined to give credit where it was due.ĭespite her high status and mind-boggling wealth, Pretty was truly a woman of the people.

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