I think many of you are being unfair to Time Team / TT America.  These  
people are professional colleagues, many of whom are readers of  
HISTARCH.

It is a TV formula that works for that media type.  They promote a  
strong preservation ethic- it isn't about digging stuff up. They  
constantly connect the three-day scavenger hunt format to the long  
term research and management plans at the sites.

If anyone else has a magical and mystical source for funding and a  
pipeline connection to millions of viewers, please share it with the  
rest of us.  I'd love to know.

Concerning the three-day imposed time limit, how hard would it be for  
me to find an archaeologist with a story about "we have three days  
before the bulldozers come through!"  Or how about "We've got this GPR  
unit for five hours and then the funding runs out."  Please spare me  
the idea that you all have unlimited funds and time.  We all  
constantly make cost-benefit decisions about working within budgets  
and timelines and to pretend otherwise is insincere and borderline  
dishonest.

On the whole, I often catch myself saying, "The students in my lecture  
just don't understand how important this is"  instead of "Why doesn't  
my audience get the message I am trying to send them? How can I  
deliver this message better?"

We all begin to like the critics who complained about Margaret Mead  
writing for Redbook Magazine.

Cheers,
Tim


On Mar 11, 2010, at 3:21 PM, Mark Branstner wrote:

> I strongly agree with Barbara ...
>
> The phoney time limits that have been the "standard" device for all  
> cable TV reality shows has ruined most of them for me ...  We only  
> have a week to strip down this whole car and rebuild it!  We only  
> have a month to build this hot rod from the ground up!  We only have  
> three days to sort out the entire Topper site ... Please, what a  
> pretentious, and seriously bogus load of crap ...
>
> The real danger is that although "we" know how bad these  
> presentations are -- and what is being either glossed over or even  
> misrepresented -- the public certainly does not!
>
> Very, very slippery slope ... for the sake of "info-tainment"
>
> Mark
> -- 
>
> Mark C. Branstner, RPA
> Historic Archaeologist
>
> Illinois State Archaeological Survey
> Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> 209 Nuclear Physics Lab, MC-571
> 23 East Stadium Drive
> Champaign, IL 61820
>
> Phone: 217.244.0892
> Fax: 217.244.7458
> Cell: 517.927.4556
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
> "There's absolutely nothing wrong with Marxism, so long as you stop  
> at "A Day At The Races." If you keep on with "At the Circus," etc.,  
> suddenly, Marxism doesn't seem all that interesting and you start to  
> look for something a bit more competent, like Chaplinism or  
> Stoogeism"  - Anonymous
>
> "I hope there's pudding" - Luna Lovegood (HP5)