Antiquities, archaeology and the public

Antiquities, Archaeology and the Public

Dr Helen GeakeFinds Adviser (Post-Roman Artefacts) to the Portable Antiquities Scheme

c/o McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridgehg260@cam.ac.uk

• What are the secrets of their success?

• How have they changed people’s view of archaeology?

• What effect have they had on archaeology as a discipline?

PAS staff in post 1997

PAS staff in post 1999

Since 2003 we have recorded finds made by members of the public across the whole of England & Wales

The database on which the public’s finds are recorded

Our funder:

He’s looking for things

She isn’t

(Portable Antiquities and Treasure Annual Report 2007, p. 9)

Metal-detectorists are a skewed demographic

In a recent survey:

• 92.4% were male

• 93.5% were over 35 years old

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The Crosby Garrett Roman helmet

How has the PAS changed people’s view of archaeology?

• Archaeology is all around us, not just on ‘sites’• Archaeologists are friendly and approachable

• BUT there’s a risk: that archaeology will be seen as being all about finds, and the more valuable the object (in monetary terms) the better

Time Team (1994 onwards)

Choosing the sites

Two things to balance:• a high chance of

finding archaeological evidence that you can film

• a good story to make a television programme about

Jim Mower, Development

Project Design for Castor, Peterborough (filmed 2010)

Schedule, Day 1 (Tottiford Reservoir, filmed 2010)

A script!

(from Llancaiach Fawr, a fortified manor house in south Wales – filmed 2010)

Some vain attempts to script the end of Day 3

It’s hard to know in advance what will be found

A camera crew

Sound man

CameramanCamera assistant

Director

Tim Taylor, Series Producer

Discussing what to do next at Sutton Courtenay Anglo-Saxon ‘palace’ site (filmed 2009)

Tim TaylorMick Aston

Victor Ambrus

From survey…

to digging…

to recording…

…Time Team projects are well-resourced, scholarly pieces of archaeological research

Challenge AnnekaBBC1, Saturday evenings 1989-1995

Changing Rooms BBC, 1996-2004

Ground Force BBC, 1997-2005

Assuming that a mass audience wants superficial content….

…is perhaps a snobbish and elitist position

Social pigeonholes

A    Professional/senior managerial

B    Middle managers/executives

C1   Junior managers/non-manual

C2   Skilled manual

D    Semi-skilled/unskilled manual

E    Unemployed/state dependents

The public face of the PAS

At a showIn the field

At a school

Television watching by social grade

Time Team in 2009 had an average of over 2m viewers

• What are the secrets of their success?

• How have they changed people’s view of archaeology?

• What effect have they had on archaeology as a discipline?

Quarry

Archaeology

(a Neolithic house)

David Starkey: • well washed• very clever• perhaps a bit forbidding

Phil Harding:• dirty but friendly