Iron Age

ocailleagh · Tue May 20, 2008 9:18 pm

I've just watched a programme on BBC4 in which they revisted participants from a 1978 show called 'Living in the Past' which, for those of you unfamiliar with it, was a sort of Iron Age Big Brother featuring a group of people-mainly married couples and a few families-living in a field in Dorset in roundhouses and the like for 13 months.
I think it would be extremely interesting if they were to remake this show now, following the same principles of choosing people who will mostly get on, and living as closely as possible to how our Iron Age ancestors would've done. Society today is so different in many respects to how it was in the late 70s, it would be intriguing to see how people coped.
So, if you're reading this BBC TV, get on the case!

Post: # 104410Post **MKG** » Tue May 20, 2008 11:05 pm

Agreed - it would be interesting. Except this time, maybe they could take into account that every Iron Age person would have known from a very early age exactly what Iron Age technology was all about, rather than watching the poor sods in the programme struggle to discover how things were done. The programme as it was gave the distinct impression that life was dirty, exceptionally hard and totally suck it and see. It wasn't like that.

However - Iron Age chavs - now that would be fascinating.

glenniedragon · Wed May 21, 2008 8:51 am

I'm a first century re-enactor (Iron age/roman invasion) and this has been a discussion in our group for a while. The second attempt at this experiment was a complete failure as they brought 20th century folks with 20th century attitudes with them, for it really to work they have to fully educated about the environment around them and the skills they need to survive, and if done well can flourish as our ancestors did with good food, ale and songs around the camp fire! I am also lucky enough to know one of the chaps involved in setting up the first 70's camp, he did the bees and he kept his pictures of the woven baskets they researched and used for the programme and I am currently working on a duplicate based on his recreation.
Heres our group The Vicus we do quite a lot of living history stuff as well as the fighting!

Kind thoughts
Deb

Thurston Garden · Wed May 21, 2008 9:37 am

I do remember the programme - it was an excuse to stay up past my bed time as a child because of it's educational value

Must have a wee look for the revisited programme on BBCiplayer.

Bluemoon · Wed May 21, 2008 10:53 am

I'd love to do this......though for considerably longer than 13 months.

mybarnconversion · Wed May 21, 2008 11:12 am

I remember it from childhood as well - ahh, the 1970's iron age!

Bluemoon wrote:I'd love to do this......though for considerably longer than 13 months.

That would be one of the problems to live and love such a simple existence then be wrenched from it to the current day would be a massive psychological tear - I guess real damage could be done...

Post: # 104484Post **MKG** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:49 am

Mmmmm ... don't know about simple existence. Apart from language and local warfare, there wasn't a great deal of difference between what those people did and what most people in Britain did up until the Industrial Revolution - and, fittingly enough, what a lot of Ishers are tring to do now. It was a case of "How do I feed my family with this much land, that amount of animals and this many crops?". On the other hand, they didn't have to worry about Planning Regulations ... yeah, maybe you're right ... simple

eztiger · Post: # 104510Post **eztiger** » Wed May 21, 2008 2:21 pm

6 days left to watch it on iplayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/ ... d=b00brj51

Amaranth · Post: # 109275Post **Amaranth** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 5:58 am

There's a replica of a Pompeii Brazier here that I would like to learn how to make. It looks as though it would be very versatile for cooking.
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/Apiciu ... rowse/7511
(I believe you will need to join the group to see the photos.)
and there are some of it in use at
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/Apiciu ... rowse/14dc

ina · Post: # 109282Post **ina** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:24 am

MKG wrote: On the other hand, they didn't have to worry about Planning Regulations ... yeah, maybe you're right ... simple

And Health and Safety regulations... Somehow can't imagine how the BBC would get around all these rules and regs nowadays!

Imagine - brewing beer NOT in stainless steel, and without being able to disinfect the vessels in between - help!

The Prehistorian · Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:41 pm

I think that the best recent reenactment program (and there have been some real turkeys) was (if I remember the name correctly) Tales from the Green Valley. Rather than pitching in a load of Big Brother rejects into an unknown situation and awaiting the fire works (like the dreadful Welsh one) they used a group of historians and archaeologists who had a good handle on the theory, if not the practise! They did theirs as a middle-ages farm house.

I also remember the '70s Butser experiment. Although I was quite young at the time I loved it. Must try and track down a copy of it some time.

But the problem with these things is that we can got back and use the same subsistence methods as the people from past times but we can't live like them. Even if we can work out how they understood the world around them we can't understand it in the same way as we've all got too many years of modern western socialisation drummed into us - we can talk about the Iron age habitus but can never experience it. Past...foriegn country and all that.