Britain's Secret Treasures
11 July 2012
NEWS SHOCK: Archaeologist sacrifices ex-Blue Peter presenter
Catch Britain's Secret Treasures (ITV), Tuesday 17 July 7.30pm
Swabian knot as featured in Britain's Secret Treasures
NOW HERE'S ONE I GAROTTED EARLIER...
Catch 'Britain's Secret Treasures' (ITV), Tuesday 17 July 7.30pm and see Cardiff Professor of Archaeology Miranda Aldhouse-Green showing Gethin Jones [presenter, formerly Blue Peter] and celebrity hairdresser Nicky Clarke some grisly secrets of the past, as part of National Archaeology week.
A specialist in Iron Age and Roman period ritual and religion, Miranda Aldhouse-Green explains:
‘The series celebrates special archaeological objects that come under the Portable Antiquities Scheme. We filmed in two locations: the first, on the Langstone Hoard, was shot, with presenter Gethin Jones, at the Derek Upton Centre at Magor Marsh.'
'The hoard consisted of late Iron Age drinking equipment, including a stunning tankard, used in communal feasts, and made in the early first century AD. The hoard probably represents a kind of sacrificial ritual, in which precious objects were consigned to watery places in order to communicate with the gods. Human sacrifice was also a feature of the film, and I had the privilege of 'sacrificing' Gethin by means of a club, a knife and a garotte!'
The second location was the Nicky Clarke Hair Salon in London's Mayfair. It features the Tamworth Comb, a beautiful little decorated bronze Iron Age hair-comb, made in the first century BC that was used to pin up long hair, and when it wasn't in use, it hung from a suspension hole at the waist of its owner.
The comb illustrates the increasing emphasis on personal grooming that developed in Iron Age Britain, and it would have been a high-status object. The film shows Nicky experimenting with different Iron Age hairstyles, using the comb, with evidence from ancient images and bog-bodies.
Miranda appears on the programme on Tuesday 17 July at 7.30pm on ITV1. The series is timed to celebrate National Archaeology week.