Thank you to Tim and Simon for making it clear that real archaeologists had
been working on the site and that the results of their findings will be
published soon.  I look forward to reading them.  Should, however, anyone
from potential sources of funding have watched the programme, the EMRG will
have its work cut getting more money because the programme's enduring image
was that the whole place was so highly unstable that it was set to collapse
within days of them filming.  If so, I hope that they got the aluminium,
extension ladder out!

I'm happy to accept that my ideas on mine exploration are getting dated (my
memory is more like what Rick Steward described + carbide), but I remain
unclear why people poncing about in purple, black and yellow wetsuits (like
some sort of mobile bruise) is entertaining for couch potatoes.  Their most
memorable quote must be - "look, it's definitely Bronze Age fill".  Peter
Challis might have been right about me being too apoplectic to notice the
archaeology, but I did hear something about a C14 date, saw a hammer stone
being ripped from its context and the piece of wood (about 4 inches in
diameter) which "might have been a tool" - mind you, Samson and Goliath show
that they were big guys back then.

As Martin Roe points out Extreme Archaeology did nothing to increase
anyone's knowledge of mining (in any period) at Parys Mountain.  What was
that bloody big hole behind the fancy tent?  What were those headgears in
the distance?  What shape was the ore deposit that Ug and Co. were working
in the Bronze age?  Why had Ug's workings not been consumed by the b-b hole?
etc etc.

Presumably on the (specious) basis that all publicity is good publicity,
Peter Claughton thinks that the programme increased the profile of mining
history.  Whilst the likes of Fred Dibnah's efforts have a questionable
archaeological content they do at least make the subject interesting for the
general viewer.  He speaks proper too!

I can take some comfort in Andrew Hurrell's point that it is only make
believe, but the problem remains that some people actually believe what they
are told on TV and radio.  Only last week, John Snow was telling us that
people in the south are better educated (than those of us up t'north) and
then announced (twice) that Ulverston is in North-East England (must be
something to do with Sellafield).  Similarly Radio 4 had the Appleby horse
fair in West Yorkshire (as opposed to Westmorland).  My old geography
teacher, 'Mungo' Park, would have been apoplectic too!

The verdict on the programme is still - crap, but at least it made Tony
Robinson's lot look good.

Mike Gill