Meet the Ancestors

If Time Team is Britain's best known archaeology program, then BBC2`s Meet the Ancestors must be its nearest rival. Theses two together seem to have spawned a whole host of copy cat programs and very few seem to have come close to the quality and originality of these originals. Fronted by veteran archaeologist and author Julian Richards, MTA as I will refer to the program, has the advantage of being hosted by a presenter who has the enthusiasm of a wide eyed amateur coupled with the experience of an expert. As opposed to its rival Time Team that involves a score of experts, MTA is a one man affair and it takes the following theme. Each show is based around a different ...

As a closet "in another life maybe" archeologist, I always find all of these type of programmes utterly fascinating. The chappie who talks us through this walk down the ages..(Julian...sorry, can't remember his last name)tends to project a more personal slant on the ancestor who has just been dug out of the ground;..for example: what his (or her) surroundings would have looked like.....his lifestyle/ diet/ work and so forth. The truly amazing thing for me though is how the sculptors can let us see what the person looked like......fascinating, but how on earth could we possibly know for sure when the persons been dead for yonks?? Having said that, this ...

Meet the Ancestors is a BBC2 programme which is interesting and educational. Usually based around the examination of skeleton which has its face reconstructed the programme emphasises the facts and does not use any hype or flamboyancy to promote the facts. As a result, the programme can be seen to be a bit flat, especially if it is compared to Time Team with the energetic and enthusiastic Tony Robinson. If you are interested in history and the recreation of the past it is worth watching as it is a high quality programme. If you want flamboyant archaeologists bouncing around fields this s not the programme for you. ...