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.
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.
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."
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 The Bronze Age Ringlemere Gold Cup Bronze Age metal-detectorist Cliff Bradshaw 2001 near Dover 9 Cuerdale Silver Hoard 10th century stoneworkers 1840 banks of the River Ribble 8 Fishpool Hoard 15th century workmen 1966 Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire 7 Mildenhall Roman Dinner Service Roman Gordon Butcher, a ploughman 1942 near Mildenhall, Suffolk 6 Mold cape Bronze Age stoneworkers 1833 Mold, Flintshire, Wales 5 Lewis chessmen 12th century Malcolm Macleod, small tenant of Pennydonald, Uig 1831 Uig, Isle of Lewis in 1831 but originating in Scandinavia 4 Snettisham Hoard Celtic Iron Age 1948 onwards outside King's Lynn, Norfolk 3 Hoxne Hoard Roman metal-detectorist Eric Lawes 1992 near Eye, Suffolk 2 Sutton Hoo ship burial Early Anglo-Saxon, 7th century Basil Brown and Edith Pretty 1940 Woodbridge, Suffolk 1 Vindolanda tablets Roman Robin Birley 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)
See also A History of the World in 100 Objects Britain's Secret Treasures
References