This week, the much-anticipated Time Team America begins its premiere season on PBS, five weeks over the summer during which public television viewers will get a first-hand look at high-tech archaeology in the United States.
Time Team America digging team leader Chelsea Rose and digging team member Jeff Brown carefully sift through the soil as they excavate at Fort Raleigh National Park on Roanoke Island. In addition to searching for artifacts, they are looking for subtle differences in soil texture that would indicate decayed wooden structures built by Roanoke's legendary lost colonists. Photo by Crystal Street
The first program, airing the evening of Wednesday July 8th (8 pm EDT, check local listings), features ongoing investigations at Fort Raleigh, North Carolina, the site of the first English colony in the American continents. The site is perhaps more famously known as the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, and its legend about Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas, and the mysterious disappearance of the colony has inspired untold numbers of American children into learning about the past.
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- See more about Time Team Archaeology
Comments
“what exact geophysical survey method is being used”
The TTA web site says they used Ground Penetrating Radar and Magnetometry.
http://www.pbs.org/opb/timeteam/sites/ft_raleigh/incidentroom.php
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Time Team America
This is what i originally wrote to PBS.
I think this program is quite interesting and has potential, and I have watched two of the series so far. But I have been doing archaeology in Oregon and Washington for 30 years, and most of the “Time Team America” presentation is just not reality or even close to what your publicity has suggested.
You have all these Time Team America “experts” who contribute nothing, say nothing, and do nothing. Its so obvious to anyone that has done archaeology, that all these “experts” regardless of their credentials, are planted.
Chelsea Rose, as attractive as she is, is just shown kneeling in a previously excavated Clovis floor. She contributed nothing, she said nothing, she did nothing. The same is true of your “expert” Julie Schablitsky. Her comment about the difficult field conditions during the recent Clovis series. . .”I’m hot!!” really says it all. She contributed nothing, she said nothing, she did nothing.
If you want reality, why not show and interview the people who are actually doing all the hard work No archaeology project I have ever worked on required more than the project director and perhaps a crew leader. The last thing we need are Time Team America “experts” standing around watching everyone else do the difficult work.
All of your Time Team America “experts” just ask questions of the true experts that are intimately involved in the project in question. So why pay all these “experts” that contribute so little. The artist is no different. No one has the money to pay for an artist to sit around and do speculative drawings of mammoths or historic fort palisades based on so littler evidence. For anyone in the profession who does measured drawings of things in context. the presence of your artist is ridiculous. Its not reality. The ground penetrating radar segments are rather silly as well.
None of my comments are things your general audience would particularly notice or probably care about. My suggestion is just do something like the History Detectives, where one or two people go about the business of reporting. Leave all these Time Team America “experts” at home. Same some money. They are really not contributing.
I love your blog Kris – just found it but I will certainly return.
I just had to comment on Robert Wenger’s comment, because I think he has misunderstood the whole concept of the show and what it intends to do. I’ve been following the original Time Team for many years and have watched every single episode (even the complete live ones – it’s true – even the parts where nothing happens). What Robert Wenger does with his comment is just to make critics based on a total misinterpretation of both the idea behind the show and what it tries to do.
When Mick Taylor, Mick Aston and Tony Robinson sat down all those years ago with an idea to make a show about archaeology for the public, they had to find a way to make it professional enough to be believed and entertaining enough for the viewers to stay with the show. It never was their intention to take over an existing dig or to do a complete dig. Ongoing projects always got 2 really big problems – time and money and they don’t have enough of either. What Time Team has been able to do is to bring in experts and equipment those projects never would have been able to afford to and to answer some few vital questions and at the same time give the project public exposure. At the same time there are many unanswered questions that has never even been looked at, and the team can go in evaluate the situation and be a good indication on what to expect from future digs or if the area should be protected or not.
I just find it so frustrating that there always are those who have to complain and bicker about everything without even sitting back and thinking it through first. It is so little constructive and only helps in destroying what others are trying to achieve.
Enough said …
Yngve Hauge
Non-archaeologist even though I know alot about it by now
I just have to correct myself as I see now that I mentioned that mysterious Mick Taylor guy – of course I meant Tim Taylor. Sorry about that …
– Yngve