The Great British Dig as Public Mortuary Archaeology
Can we consider The Great British Dig as public mortuary archaeology? As part of my broader explorations of the public archaeology of death, I’ve critically evaluated television documentary representations of the human past and its mortuary practices and also TV documentaries exploring the archaeologists and archaeological investigations of the human past. Here I turn to the Channel 4 series The Great British Dig: History in Your Garden (2021-) (hereafter GBD) in which the presenter – comedian Hugh Dennis – together with a team of archaeologists led by a trio of project directors conduct excavations amidst modern residences in cities, towns...