9th August 2006, 10:08 AM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by BAJR Host
If I get in I totally disagee If I don't .. I totally agree
What with? My point about the potental for damage or the perpetuation of the stereotypical Lara Croft/Indiana Jones ideology?
As for the first I have in mind the sort of damage that was caused in the wake of the nationwide hunt for Kit williams' silly jewelled rabbit in his 1979 best-seller Masquerade. Thousands of holes were dug all over the place by lots of people who imagined hey had cracked the "code". Residents of Tewkesbury had their gardens dug up by trespassers and Haresfield Beacon, a National Trust site near the author's Gloucestershire home, was carved up by diggers. The "treasure" was eventually dug up as the result of a number of substantial holes dug nocturnally (by metal-detector using treasure hunters) at the foot of a statue of Catherine of Aragon in a park in Ampthill, Beds. It seems to me that a televidsed version only increases the scope for such collateral damage, and as such I think its an irresponsible idea. Why does the "treasure" have to be "buried"?
And - money or no money - is it really responsible television to utilise ancient sites merely as a carrfier of "clues" where "buried treasure" may be found? Should we as archaeologists not be pressing to get over a different message on the significance of ancient sites rather than just pandering to the stereotypical "ancient mysteries/ buried treasures" malarky?
Paul Barford