Chronicle (1966)
Season 1979
Series tracing new developments in historical research.
Where to Watch Season 1979
15 Episodes
- Tomb of the Lost KingE1
Episode 1Tomb of the Lost KingGo behind the scenes with archaeologist Manolis Andronikos to explore an unlooted royal tomb discovered in Vergina. The background to the growth of the Macedonian Empire under Philip II is explored as speculation grows about the identity of the skeleton found in a gold casket. Is it Philip II? And was he murdered under orders from Alexander the Great? Re-aired 14 June 1994 - The Death of the Prince ImperialE2
Episode 2The Death of the Prince ImperialIn the summer of 1879 the much-loved son of the Emperor Napoleon III went out with the British army to fight against the Zulus. Ambushed outside a Zulu kraal, the Prince Imperial, heir to the throne of France, was hacked to death by Zulu assegai. The man court-martialled for allowing this atrocity was a Lieutenant Carey. Victorian England was shocked by the death and even more so by the establishment's attempt to make Carey a scapegoat. The precise events leading up to that fatal day are re-told at the very place in Zululand and the transcript of the court martial, only recently available to the public, is used to dramatise extracts from the trial - and reveal the dramatic outcome. Re-aired 10 December 1980 - ShipwreckE3
Episode 3ShipwreckThe Trinidad Valencera, fourth largest ship of the Spanish Armada, grounded and sank off the Donegal coast on 14 September 1588. Chronicle has followed the seven years' progress of archaeological work underwater which has revealed not the Trinidad Valencera herself, as yet, but the remains of a mighty army siege-train which was intended to batter down the gates of London. But who owns the Trinidad? The Venetians who built her, the Spanish who hi-jacked her, the English who sank her, the Irish in whose waters she lies, or the archaeologists from the City of Derry Sub-Aqua Club who found the wreck? And is the site a protected monument or a wreck? Andrew Faulds tells the story of this ship and its recovery, and the law, or lack of it, which puts at risk all historic wrecks round the coast of Britain and Ireland. - Santorini - The First PompeiiE5
Episode 5Santorini - The First PompeiiSantorini is a volcanic island in the Aegean Sea whose heart was torn out by a violent eruption around 1500 BC. Volcanic ash buried, almost intact, the First Pompeii-a Minoan city at a site called Akrotiri. Sixty miles to the south of Santorini lies the island of Crete where the Minoan civilisation came to an abrupt end around the time of the great explosion. Was it the eruption on Santorini that caused the end of that brilliant Minoan civilisation on Crete? New discoveries on Santorini provide a clue to one of the greatest riddles of Aegean archaeology. Magnus Magnusson investigates. - Lost Kings of the DesertE6
Episode 6Lost Kings of the DesertProfessor Colin Renfrew examines the forgotten city of Hatra. The programme shows how this stone metropolis retained its buildings, unlike the mud-bricked city of Nineveh, which is now just a large mound or 'tell'. Renfrew visits the reconstructed gates and figures of winged bull-men that are all that is left of Nineveh, before illustrating the extraordinary society that existed at Hatra, which was influenced by the Romans yet remained independent. - The Shadow of the TemplarsE7
Episode 7The Shadow of the TemplarsFor Henry Lincoln six years have passed since he completed The Priest, the Painter and the Devil. That strange story of an obscure French priest who was led to immense wealth by ancient parchments has drawn Henry Lincoln deep into a mysterious historical underworld. In France, England and Jerusalem, he has unearthed a strange story of secret societies and a medieval ecclesiastical mania which began at the time of the Crusades and which seems to have conceived and reared to maturity the enigmatic Order of Knights Templar. - The IncasE8
Episode 8The IncasUntil their conquest by the Spanish in the 16th century, the Incas built up a 2,000-mile empire, with cities perched on mountaintops, irrigated terraces clinging to the sides, and a network of roads carved through some of the most difficult terrain in the world - all in less than a century. Today archaeologists are digging behind the myths and legends that surround the Incas to discover how their enormous empire was actually run. Dr John Hyslop is studying the road system, probably the most extensive ancient road system in the world. Dr Craig Morris is studying the administrative centres and Dr Ann Kendall is excavating near the most spectacular of all Inca sites - Machu Pichu. But can their research do more than tell us about the Incas, can they also help to re-populate areas of Peru which once flourished, but where now only a few families live in extreme poverty? Re-aired 31 March 1982 - The First AmericansE9
Episode 9The First AmericansWhere did the first Americans, the ancestors of today's Indians, come from? From Asia - according to most archaeologists today - across the landbridge of ice that then linked Siberia to Alaska. But when? And how long did it take these people, hunting on foot with Stone Age weapons, to people the new continent? Dennis Stanford, of the Smithsonian institution, and Vance Haynes, of the University of Arizona, have been in the forefront of the debate on these questions which have been rumbling on in American archaeology. Though great personal friends, they disagree violently in their interpretation of the evidence of early man's presence in America. In the 1979 season they hoped to bring together clues from sites all over America and finally settle the debate. - The Treasure VanishesE10
Episode 10The Treasure VanishesIn the past 250 years, many of Britain's archaeological treasures have simply been lost. Where is the Witham Bowl, Britain's finest Anglo-Saxon hanging bowl, last seen in 1848? Or the Witham Dagger or the Sark Hoard, the most important collection of Gaulish harness decorations ever found in Western Europe? Also on Chronicle's missing list are a gold Iron Age ring, bronze Roman Bacchus, a medieval hunting pot and fine manuscripts. Professor Stuart Piggott discusses the missing treasures, traces where they were last seen and assesses the chance of rediscovering them. It is likely that they still exist, unrecognised, in some ducal stable, suburban cellar or even in a viewer's attic. - Digging for Rescue: The Chronicle Award for Archaeology 1979E12
Episode 12Digging for Rescue: The Chronicle Award for Archaeology 1979The study of the pill-box defences of England, built in the early 1940s for 'Dad's Army', is one of six projects chosen as finalists in this year's Chronicle Archaeology Awards. Other projects include the excavation of a Romano-British cemetery near Dunstable with its detailed analysis of skeletons and diseases; the clearing of the complex of caves that run under the streets of Nottingham; the unearthing of a Roman settlement at Kingscote in Gloucestershire; a study of the architectural history of farmhouses just north of Bristol; and a prehistoric settlement in the Test Valley in Hampshire. During the summer, all the finalists were visited by a Chronicle film team and a panel of 'Rescue' judges. Magnus Magnusson announces the judges' verdict and presents the prizes at a special ceremony in the British Museum. - The Last TasmanianE13
Episode 13The Last TasmanianThe Tasmanian Aborigines were totally exterminated last century. It is the only case on record of a genocide so complete and so swift. The British colonists in Tasmania wiped out the whole race within the lifetime of Truganini, who was the last to die in 1876. This programme follows the painstaking search of archaeologist Dr Rhys Jones to uncover the full story. - The Bridge that Spanned the WorldE14
Episode 14The Bridge that Spanned the WorldThe world's first iron bridge was erected 200 years ago by the Quaker iron-master Abraham Darby. It still spans the River Severn, near Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. It was the culmination of 70 years work by the remarkable Darby family which included the invention of coke smelting, the development of the first iron railways, and building some of the earliest steam engines. The Darbys' surprisingly modern approach to their problems lives again as Chronicle shows tub-boats moving along their canal, trolleys climbing their hillside railway, and part of the bridge being specially re-cast in the iron-works that has been on the same site since 1709. - Search for the Master CarpentersE15
Episode 15Search for the Master CarpentersNot many people develop a new art or science in their own lifetime - but Cecil Hewett has done it. He is the controversial teacher and prophet of a way of identifying and dating historic buildings. In Essex, Hewett finds the earliest-known half-timbered cottage in the country. In a Sussex church he identifies a wooden helm made in the days of the Anglo-Saxon kings. And at Salisbury he shows how the Christmas tree of woodwork inside the cathedral spire has kept it standing for over 600 years. Even ancient church doors take on a new aura when one of them is proved to have been covered with the skin of a human being. Hardly anyone believed that pre-Norman structural woodwork could have survived in this country. But Hewett now claims he has made the first discovery of a pre-Norman post that still holds up a standing building. Chronicle's specially commissioned radio-carbon dating reveals if he is right. Re-aired 28 May 1980 - The Road to HappinessE16
Episode 16The Road to HappinessThis programme tells the story of Henry Ford who, in 1911, built Highland Park, Detroit - the largest factory in the world. The man who introduced the production line and who set out with the humanitarian ideal of producing cheap cars for the people and ended up defying his own striking workers. Ford seemed to embody the American dream but bequeathed to the world, in many people's opinion, a nightmare legacy. A NOVA WGBHFilm production.