Our Top Ten Treasures Explained

Genre:	Documentary
Director:	Patricia Wheatley
Presenter:	Adam Hart-Davis
Country:	United Kingdom
Language:	English
Producer:	Patricia Wheatley
Channel:	BBC Two

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.

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," 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

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

Image	Number	Object	Date	Finder	When found	Where found
	10			metal-detectorist Cliff Bradshaw	2001	near Dover
	9		10th century	stoneworkers	1840	banks of the River Ribble
	8		15th century	workmen	1966	Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire
	7		Roman	Gordon Butcher, a ploughman	1942	near Mildenhall, Suffolk
	6			stoneworkers	1833	Mold, Flintshire, Wales
		5		12th century	Malcolm Macleod, small tenant of Pennydonald, Uig	1831	Uig, Isle of Lewis in 1831 but originating in Scandinavia
	4				1948 onwards	outside King's Lynn, Norfolk
	3		Roman	metal-detectorist Eric Lawes	1992	near Eye, Suffolk
	2		Early Anglo-Saxon, 7th century		1940	Woodbridge, Suffolk
	1		Roman		1973	near 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)

Notes and References

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