Tempus Teamus (Time Team)

Member Name: steerpyke

Product:	Time Team
Date:	17/10/04 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well presented and educational, well presented and educational

Disadvantages: not representitive of archaeology, not representitive of archaeology

Months ago I wrote a review of one of the Time Team books on another site, and my thoughts and attitude towards that publication are pretty much mirrored in the program itself. Dont get the idea that I dont like the program, I am an avid fan, but I also have a lot of reservations towards it. Before I delve into those details, a brief overview of the program for those not familiar with the format.

Time Team is a program about archaeology, one of the first and certainly the most popular. It has been followed by a host of pretenders from the excellent, Two Men In A Trench to the fairly horrendus Time Flyers. Archaeology is not the most exciting of subjects to base an hour long TV show on but the resulting show manages to stimulate the subject with its mix of fast editing, snap shot histories and re-enactments, along side the trenches and pottery scrubbing.

The format is that for a three day period, a time of specialists, archaeologists, historians, architects and bone experts, are challenged to shed light on an untapped area of the archaeological record, normally at the invitation of a member of the public. These have rangedfrom Roman Villas to Iron Age earth works, through to more modern industrial sites and even a world war two Spitfire. After the three days, the team pack up and leave hopefully having added a slice of knowledge about the area in question and having enligtened the watching public about the subject along the way.

Tony Robinson is the host and only non-expert in the show, and he brings an enthusiasm and humour to a subject that by its very nature is a bit on the dry side. He also acts as the leymans advocate, asking the questions that the veiwers would themselves ask and getting the experts to explain things to us, the idiot public, in non technical language. The other members of the team are a colourful bunch. The projects are lead by Mick Aston, monastic and landscape expert, an eccentric wild haired, loud jumber wearing vegetarian. His side kicks include, Phil Harding a flint knapping obsessive who looks like a character from a Thomas Hardy book, Carenza Lewis tends to be the voice of reason in the debates and along side them a whole host of experts have come and gone, many to turn up in shows of their own as the TV stations have tried to maximise on the current interest in historical subjects.

The subject areas have been well chosen over the years from well known sites such as the Bronze Age remains of Flag Fen and the Roman site of Cirencester to the totally unknown discoveries in peoples back gardens. Although it is mainly British sites that are dealt with, some of the shows have come from the Carribean and Mallorca.

As well as revealing the history of the area in question, it is a good insight into archaeological methods. Everyone is familiar with the scraping and digging of trenches, but the reasons for the recording and the logical approach to the technique are explained. The use of geophysical surveying is something that people my not have been aware of. Various bits of machinary are used to plot magnetic alignment and other more complex natural forces in the ground to produce a guide as to the layout of the area. When this is not possible they often take to the air and with a trained eye can explain whats going on below through the layout and anomilies in the landscape. Any finds are examined by the various experts and it is amazing how much information can be gleaned from some very small objects or bone fragments. Anyone watching will probably be amazed at how much information they pick up with out realising that they are being educated.

On the down side I would say that the show does give some false ideas about archaeology. To attempt to undertake a dig in three days is a rash concept, most digs go on for years. Also the reliance on costly geophsical equipment is also a bit of a falicy. Normally the cheap option of field walking and human eye surveying would fill this role. What you dont see is the real extent of the sites in question. Often we are led to belive that the Team are working on new virgin territory, but the reality is that they have often been given a corner of an existing project, which due to clever camera shots never gets seen. But small moans aside, the program can only ever be a balance between television making and academia and manages to succeed in both areas.

Bringing such a subject to the TV is a hard task to tackle and Time Team is responsible for grabbing a whole new audience, many of which probably didnt even realise that they had an interest in such a subject. It remains the best of the bunch, certainly the most popular and although in more recent times many of the old faces have moved on, the strength of the show is based more on the subject matter that the personality and so will survive for years to come.

Although controversial amongst those employed in the field in question, it is a program that has been responsible for opening up a subject that had little airing in the past, and as a popular and mass consumption piece of television is one of the most worthy and inspiring programs of its kind. Watch it, you might learn something!

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