Time Team America Debuts on PBS

The British hit TV series TIME TEAM, which plays on PBS on Monday nights has spawned an American franchise. TIME TEAM AMERICA debuts Wednesday, July 8 at 8 PM, ET on PBS. Yes it must be written all in caps, that's how they are branding the name.

Much like the CSI type of experts who drive so much American prime-time TV drama, this group of specialists works 'cases' to probe mysteries in real time.

According to insiders this series has a much different feel than a typical PBS documentary. TIME TEAM AMERICA lets viewers eavesdrop on archaeologist who are grappling with the uncertainties of different excavation situations and testing different, and often conflicting theories. Here's host Colin Campbell (left) and Chief Investigator Adrien Hannus (right).



Just like the hugely popular British series, the American clone follows a team of scholars who are mostly archaeologists, geologists, geophysicists and historians of course. These people will again race against time to unearth some of America's most intriguing archaeological sites.

But its the race against time that I always found most contrived. Anybody who knows anything about time management and digging dumps and forgotten heritage sites trenches knows that the best stuff comes out of the hole at the end of the summer. It takes weeks to find proper goody veins and honey holes in any site, weeks to tell each site's story. So it seems reckless to me to cut apart these old places and not do comprehensive digs.

Check out a sneak peak here: http://pressroom.pbs.org/documents/time_team_sizzle_doc

Preview the full premiere episode, "Fort Raleigh, North Carolina," on the new PBS video portal at: http://pressroom.pbs.org/programs/time_team_america

The History Detectives on PBS

Dumpdiggers love everything about The History Detectives television series on PBS. From the Elvis Costello soundtrack to the state of the art investigative science and technology, this show is a model for grade A infotainment.

The History Detectives concept is the logical extension of what I call 'object fantasy' and that's the precognitive notion that some diggers get when they pick up an item in the bottom of the hole and wonder, what pivotal role in history did this x play? Was this Wilfred Laurier's toothbrush? or perhaps those gin bottles were drained by Sir John A MacDonald? This kind of thinking is how the History Detectives came to exist. Imagine a temporal detective agency comprised of experts, with each member of the elite task force willing to put in the time, researching, digging in municipal archives, or doing chemical analysis in labs. Eventually these scholars determine the probability of truth.

For Dumpdiggers guarding priceless relics, History Detectives is where subjective fantasy meets objective reality.

So imagine my surprise when I opened my Dumpdiggers email yesterday and discovered that Amy R. Baroch the Sr. Project Manager at PBS Engage wrote Rob AT Dumpdiggers DOT com a letter asking for help spreading the message that her publicly funded enterprise is featuring History Detective, Tukufu Zuberi, as part of the ongoing blog series called “Five Good Questions.”

The series features a PBS celebrity or insider and asks visitors to send in questions to be answered the following week. The engage blog series is thrilled to have Tufuku as their feature this week, coinciding with a special episode of History Detectives next Monday, February 23 (9pm local time) dedicated to African-Americans’ impact on history and society.

Here's a chance for Dumpdiggers to ask any questions they want about American history, anthropology or what it’s like to explore and solve some of histories most fascinating mysteries, myths, and folklore. Twitter: amyPBS

Finally, the best thing about the History Detectives website on the PBS site, is the chapter on Investigative Techniques - here's a glimpse at their arsenal of tools and the processes by which they divine an artifact's true identity, point of origin and potential role in history.

The list includes Item Appraising, Ballistics, DNA Analysis, Document Examination, Forensic Anthropology, Geological Analysis, Historical Research, Paper Analysis, Patent Searches, Property Searches, Textile Analysis, Timber Dating and Weapons Dating.

Watch History Detectives Monday Nights at 9pm on PBS.