Archaeologists Use Moles To Solve Mysteries Of Middle Ages' Fort

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Moles get a bad rap. They dig tunnels destroying gardens and lawns.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

They're not particularly cute or cuddly - I mean, come on, there are games where the goal is to hit plastic moles on the head.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You never know when you've got to whack a mole. It's Whac-A-Mole.

SIEGEL: Put down those mallets - we're learning that moles may be good to have around.

BLOCK: Danish archaeologist Yesper Yah-mind is working on a site where he believes a medieval manor once stood. He's not allowed to dig on the site because the land is protected by the government. But luckily, it's also home to a colony of moles - so he lets them do his dirty work instead.

YESPER YAH-MIND: On top of these mole hills there sometimes are pottery or sometimes are small pieces of bricks.

SIEGEL: Doesn't sound like much but Yah-mind says, there are mountains in those molehills.

YAH-MIND: We can see where there are the most bricks and underneath the places with the most bricks parts, there must be a building.

BLOCK: The moles are pointing the way and he isn't the only archaeologist to team up with moles. In 2010, British archaeologist Paul Frodsham had a similar idea when he wanted to learn more about a Roman military barracks. Legally, he couldn't dig but...

PAUL FRODSHAM: Moles don't have the law so they just carry on digging so they keep turning up these mole hills every year.

SIEGEL: Frodsham organized hundreds of local volunteers -humans to sift through molehills. They found all kinds of treasures - 2000-year-old coins, beads from a Roman woman's jewelry.

FRODSHAM: Which leads to all sorts of interest - you can probably imagine - all sorts of interesting interpretations on the part of volunteers - why lady's jewelry should be in a place where only men should be.

SIEGEL: Despite these discoveries, Frodsham is at best ambivalent about his furry friends.

FRODSHAM: They're a menace because they're running around and digging holes and obviously disturbing the underground archaeology so I can't pretend for a minute that they're good.

BLOCK: But Danish archaeologist Yesper Yah-mind has a more benign attitude towards the tunnelers.

YAH-MIND: Often we as archaeologists are called moles. We are moles so we have, to a certain degree, a lot of friendship with the moles.

SIEGEL: The moles may have discovered these ruins first but they don't mind sharing the credit with disruptive, two-legged diggers. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.