Archaeology subject of U.K. TV series

Press, 25 February 1987, Page 17

Archaeology subject of U.K. TV series

By

Gillian Wainwright

in Britain

Archaeology is the latest subject to come under the scrutiny of the television cameras in an ambitious eight-part series being made by an independent United Kingdom production company. The Unicorn Organisation, in a co-production with the Public Broadcasting System in the United States, aims to do for archaeology what the “Civilisation” series did for art

Chief executive Forbes Taylor says the story of the dramatic rise of archaeology as a modern science has not been told before. The budget is set at nearly $5 million. China, South America

and Russia will be among the locations for filming. The script outline is being written by Professor Brian Fagan of California University. Forbes Taylor said the approach of the series would be popular but serious. “We will tell how the process of archaeology began,” he continued. “Until recently it did not exist It really began with the antiquarians of the eighteenth century. Even then the whole idea was a dangerous one, since as far as Western society was concerned the Christian church dictated that the world began in 4004 B.C. Archaeology was very dangerous even at the time of Darwin as it opposed religious ortho-

doxy." The eight one-hour programmes will try to show how contemporary ideas owe much to knowledge acquired through archaeology. Archaeological highspots, such as the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb, wfll be covered. The series will also ask how reliable are written records and what happened to lost civilisations. “Explorers in Time,” as the series is called will study the bog people of Northern Europe, the North American Indians, ice tombs in Russia, the most ancient sites of the Sumerian civilisation, the foundation of the modern state of Israel and digging up Wild West saloons.