Tuesday 17 July 2012

Britain, archaeology and treasure

I have now watched the first episode of ITV's "Britain's Secret Treasures" (on ITV Player) presented by journalist Michael Buerk and Bettany Hughes. The opening sequence appears to suggest that there is gold under the rolling English fields (and specifically under trampled cornfields). Bettany Hughes very early on in the sequence reminds us that these treasures can be found "feet" below the surface ("all just a few feet beneath our feet") (so presumably this causal "digging" will be damaging stratified layers well below ploughing; see here).

I am not sure why a Roman "slave shackle", reportedly found near the Roman road between Winchester and Silchester, should take us to the amphitheatre ("the O2 arena of its time") at Silchester. Or does a horse boss have to have been lost on a particular day?

This is a superficial programme that suggests that there is money to be made from digging up our cosmopolitan past.

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