Most of us TV viewers have seen the various shows that purport to search for fascinating discoveries, such as “The legend of Bigfoot/Yeti” “Who is D.B. Cooper”? “Where did Captain Kidd hide his treasure”? ”Where is the lost City of Atlantis”? and many other such unattainable fancies of fiction and folklore. Speaking of “Atlantis” my mom and I were watching such a “Search” show about 50 years ago when the searchers came across what looked like broken pots and tinker toys at the bottom of whatever body of water they happened to be in and claimed it (could) actually be “Atlantis” ??? On the other hand, it was probably just broken pots and tinker toys.
While I like to poke fun at these type of TV shows (and pretty much everything else) I do still watch them from time to time, hoping that eventually one of them will actually find…something, anything to justify the hour I’ll spend…hoping. Which brings me to a new series dedicated to seeking to solve the above mentioned mysteries and many others as well. The host of the show is affable enough, photographs well and “finds himself in some pretty strange situations” (as the tagline goes) the only criticism I have is, just like all the other shows I’ve seen on this subject, he rarely finds anything he is looking for. Except when robbing graves, which (to me) begs the question, when does grave robbing become archaeology? Is there a definitely time limit, if so, what is it? 300 years (watch out founding fathers) 400? (luckily Sir Francis Drake was buried at sea, unluckily, the aforementioned TV host looked for Sir Francis’s corpse and guess what…he didn’t find it) 500? 1000 seems to be the magic number when it is ok to rob peoples graves.
While watching just such an excavation during one of these presentations, the digging crew and the host became excited when they unearthed human remains (wait for it) in the grounds surrounding an 800 year old Church. Apparently the diggers were unaware of the term cemetery!! Also known as a burial ground, also not known as a “let’s dig these people up later ground.”
To give credit where credit is due, there was an episode where an ancient warrior/King’s burial site was found, As you probably know, these grave sites usually contain the dead person’s weapons, possessions and other items, such as horses and dogs. These last two items are more than somewhat disturbing, I’m assuming that the horses and dogs were not consulted on their participation in the ritual, otherwise, they would have run away as fast as their legs would carry them. Just imagine being a horse, minding your own business, eating some hay, contemplating a leisurely gallop in the nearby field, when suddenly three eagerly smiling mourners of the deceased King approach the horse from the front, while a large man with a large wooden club sneaks up from behind. The horse, who has witnessed this preparation for burial once before, bides his time until the man with the club is close enough and then ..WHAM, a rear hoof flashes out and turns the large club man into the Queens new guard. Unfortunately, this probably didn’t happen and the horses and dogs were “sacrificed” for the greater good of the warrior/King.
As I said, I’ve been watching these types of TV shows for many years and the most disturbing aspect of this latest version is that they ignore any research that doesn’t fit their current interpretation of their ‘facts”. One such episode had to do with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and what may have happened to them other than being killed in South America. They produced evidence that someone claiming to be Butch showed up years later. The host of the show claimed that the evidence was “inconclusive” even though this “evidence” had been proven completely false due to comparing a known photo of Butch to the imposter and noting that the shape of the head, eyes, nose, ears and chin were completely different and even modern day plastic surgery could not have achieved these changes, never mind the kind of surgery that was available 100 plus years ago. The show also omitted the evidence of a Russian investigation that pointed to an avalanche most likely causing the 1959 deaths of hikers in the Ural mountains. This contradicted the shows conjecture that the deaths were caused by the mythical “Yeti”, much more provocative than an avalanche.
Tofu Dogs for all !! 