Chronicle (1966)

The Swan Jewel from Dunstable, medieval bronze from Barnard Castle, weird stone heads from Celtic Yorkshire... These treasures and many more, all acquired in the past year, are now, thanks to the efforts of the public from coal-miners to school-children, part of the national inheritance in our museums. Nicholas Thomas and Magnus Magnusson tell the story behind their discovery with the help of the finders, the curators, and the objects themselves.

At about the same time as their attack on England the Normans invaded Sicily. Tonight John Julius Norwich tells the remarkable story of their hard-fought victory over that rugged island defended by a fierce Saracen enemy. The Normans set up a great dynasty which has left dazzling achievements in marble and gold.

The ancient Greek city of Sybaris even to its contemporaries was synonymous with luxury and high living, but the actual city itself has disappeared almost without trace. Now there is fresh hope of finding it with the help of a new electronic instrument, developed in England the proton magnetometer.

How can you possibly diagnose an illness suffered 2,000 years ago? Dr. Charles Newman, Harveian Librarian of the Royal College of Physicians, can do this from one of the most remarkable finds of recent years-nearly 200 wooden carvings of the Roman period. Many show details of ill health and were brought to the source of the Seine by pilgrims in search of a cure. Lady Brogan, an authority on Roman Gaul, discusses with Magnus Magnusson what these carvings also reveal about daily life then.

This film by the Danish Television Service examines the strange case of the incredibly well-preserved bodies found in the Danish peat bogs. Why should the victims have been strangled and then thrown naked into moorland pools 2,000 years ago?

The recent announcement of the existence of 700 drawings of mechanical inventions by Leonardo Da Vinci has caused a furore among scholars. Charles Gibbs-Smith, of the Victoria and Albert Museum, examines this important discovery and the new light which this sheds on Leonardo's missing years.

In ancient legend Lake Avernus on the Bay of Naples was the site of the entrance to Hades. Could it have been the rather sinister complex of tunnels which Dr. Robert Paget has found nearby?

How much history? How much romance? How much nonsense? An enquiry into what is really known about King Arthur, what has been added through the centuries, and what the latest excavations at South Cadbury, the reputed stronghold of Camelot, have revealed.

On a hot night in July A.D. 1500 a series of savage murders decimated the Baglioni family. The story of the downfall of this handsome and ambitious Renaissance family is told tonight in the actual palaces and streets of Perugia where it happened.

No medieval dragon trailed greater clouds of misunderstanding than the great reptiles of a hundred-million years ago. Dr. Alan Charig of the Natural History Museum, London, describes to Magnus Magnusson his recent expedition to find dinosaur remains in Lesotho.

On a stormy night in October 1707, Sir Cloudesley Shovell, victorious Admiral of the Fleet and national hero, ran his flagship on to the rocks of the Scillies. For three years a naval officer has been trying to pinpoint the site of this great disaster. Magnus Magnusson investigates whether the recent finds of cannon and other trophies mean he has at last succeeded.

Since the building of the Aswan High Dam, the rising waters of the Nile have drowned forever the ancient temples of Nubia. Chronicle reports on the ingenious method used to save the most famous - Abu Simbel.

Silbury Hill is the largest artificial mound in western Europe. Professor Richard Atkinson and Magnus Magnusson discuss what is known about this unique and extraordinary prehistoric monument.

One of the most difficult recent problems facing British archaeologists was how to preserve the lines of the great Anglo-Saxon treasure-ship of Sutton Hoo. Chronicle reports on the ingenious solution finally adopted.

An American expedition to Arabia has recently been looking for archaeological evidence to verify the existence of the Queen who came to test King Solomon's wisdom.

The story of the seabed exploration by Dr. George Bass of the Pennsylvania University Museum of a rich Byzantine merchant ship which sank off the coast of Turkey 1,100 years ago and was the first underwater wreck to be excavated in a truly scientific manner.

John Julius Norwich tells the dramatic story of the fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, followed by the rise of the Ottoman Turks in the 15th Century. Using monuments in Istanbul to show the formidable artistic and intellectual achievements of the Byzantines, Norwich vividly describes the last scenes of Greek Orthodox Christianity from within the Hagia Sophia. Norwich describes the calamitous scenes of the last progress of the sacred icons around Constantinople (Istanbul).

A first film report on the excavation beside the Danube which has spectacularly revealed the earliest village in Europe.

Leslie Alcock describes the latest stages of the excavation of this great hill fort in Somerset.

Was the legend of the Minotaur inspired by the worship of bulls at Knossos on Crete? Does the volcanic island of Santorini provide clues about the fabled city of Atlantis? Magnus Magnusson investigates through a detailed tour of Knossos and its archaeological finds, which date from 1700 to 1380 BC. He also explores the extraordinary life of Sir Arthur Evans, the archaeologist who discovered Knossos and the Minoan civilisation.