Our Top Ten Treasures

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Our Top Ten Treasures
Sutton hoo helmet room 1 no flashbrightness ajusted.JPG
Genre Documentary
Directed by Patricia Wheatley
Presented by Adam Hart-Davis
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producers
ProducerPatricia Wheatley
Original release
Network BBC Two
Release1 January 2003 (2003-01-01)

Our Top Ten Treasures was a 2003 special episode of the BBC Television series Meet the Ancestors which profiled the ten most important treasures unearthed in Britain, as voted for by a panel of experts from the British Museum.

Contents

Production

The programme was commissioned for broadcast on New Year's Day 2003 to tie in with an exhibition at the British Museum as part of new director Neil MacGregor's attempts to popularise the museum. [1]

Following the broadcast viewers were invited to vote for their favourites in a poll that was won by the Vindolanda Tablets, with the Sutton Hoo ship burial in second place. [2] [3]

Reception

Richard Morrison writing in The Times criticised the British Museum for co-operating in an, "unashamedly populist television archaeology venture," [1] and another article in the same title stated, "You may not like the idea of a league table of treasures that pits one priceless object against another, but television has its own logic." [4]

Synopsis

Every year thousands of precious things are dug up in Britain and many of them find their way here to the British Museum in London, together they represent an amazing amount of history. We've asked the museum to look out their top exhibits, both single objects and whole hoards, and we're going to go behind the scenes down into the treasure room to have a look at the top ten treasures of Britain.

Adam Hart-Davis's introduction

Hart-Davis presents the top ten treasures as voted by the expert panel in reverse order.

ImageNumberObjectDateFinderWhen foundWhere found
Ringlemere Cup detail.jpg 10The Bronze Age Ringlemere Gold Cup Bronze Age metal-detectorist Cliff Bradshaw2001near Dover
Cuerdale hoard viking silver british museum.JPG 9 Cuerdale Silver Hoard 10th centurystoneworkers1840banks of the River Ribble
Fishpool Hoard jewel.jpg 8 Fishpool Hoard 15th centuryworkmen1966 Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire
Mildenhall treasure great dish british museum.JPG 7 Mildenhall Roman Dinner Service RomanGordon Butcher, a ploughman1942near Mildenhall, Suffolk
Mold cape.jpg 6 Mold cape Bronze Age stoneworkers1833 Mold, Flintshire, Wales
UigChessKing rightfront.jpg 5 Lewis chessmen 12th centuryMalcolm Macleod, small tenant of Pennydonald, Uig1831Uig, Isle of Lewis in 1831 but originating in Scandinavia
Snettisham Hoard.jpg 4 Snettisham Hoard Celtic Iron Age 1948 onwardsoutside King's Lynn, Norfolk
Hoxne Hoard 1.jpg 3 Hoxne Hoard Romanmetal-detectorist Eric Lawes1992near Eye, Suffolk
2008-05-17-SuttonHoo.jpg 2 Sutton Hoo ship burial Early Anglo-Saxon, 7th century Basil Brown and Edith Pretty 1940 Woodbridge, Suffolk
Roman writing tablet 02.jpg 1 Vindolanda tablets Roman Robin Birley 1973near Hadrians Wall

Contributors

  • Robin Birley (Director, Vindolanda Trust)
  • Roger Bland (Head, Portable Antiquities Scheme)
  • Alan Bowman (Centre of Ancient Writing, University of Oxford)
  • Cliff Bradshaw (metal-detectorist)
  • Christine Carpenter (Historian, Cambridge University)
  • Martin Carver (Director, Sutton Hoo Research Trust)
  • Barrie Cook (Curator of Coins & Medals, British Museum)
  • Angela Evans (Curator, Anglo-Saxon Collections, British Museum)
  • Irving Finkel (Asst Keeper, Cuneiform Collections, British Museum)
  • J.D. Hill (Curator, Iron Age Collections, British Museum)
  • Richard Hobbs (Curator, Romano-British Collections, British Museum)
  • Catherine Johns (Former Senior Curator, British Museum)
  • Neil MacGregor (Director, British Museum)
  • Ian McIntyre (Metal Conservator, British Museum)
  • Stuart Needham (Curator, Bronze Age Collections, British Museum)
  • Keith Parfitt (Canterbury Archaeological Trust)
  • Jude Plouviez (Suffolk Archaeological Unit)
  • James Robinson (Curator, Medieval Collections, British Museum)
  • Leslie Webster (Formerly Keeper, Medieval & Modern Europe Dept, British Museum)
  • Gareth Williams (Curator of Coins & Medals, British Museum)
  • Jonathan Williams (then Curator of Iron Age and Roman coins (now Keeper, Medieval & Modern Europe Dept), British Museum)

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Morrison, Richard (6 July 2003). "Saint goes marching on". The Times. Retrieved 16 July 2008.
  2. Naish, John (28 December 2002). "This is treasure talking". The Times. Retrieved 16 July 2008.
  3. Beard, Mary (4 October 2006). "How people lived in Roman Britain". TLS. Retrieved 16 July 2008.
  4. "Play choice: Wednesday January 1". The Times. 28 December 2002. Retrieved 16 July 2008.