Channel 4 - Lost Worlds :The Story of Archaeology (2000) Part 6 The Future of the Past

This six-part series presents the definitive history of archaeology, a 250-year worldwide odyssey that began with the unearthing of the ruins of Pompeii buried beneath the ash of Mt. Vesuvius. In a short time, archaeologists started pursuing very different objectives: some were treasure-seekers hoping to plunder antiquities of the ancient world; others sought to prove theories about the origins of civilization or the historical accuracy of Homer or the Bible; still others focused on humans themselves, trying to determine the age of the species. The series also looks at how archaeology has been misused as an instrument of foreign policy and where the study is going in the future with new technologies and methods.

Part 6: The Future of the Past

What are the concerns of archaeology today? How will improved methods and scientific technology shift perspective on the past? The last episode of this series looks at the shift from excavating grand palaces to discovering and learning more about some of the earliest communities, such as at San Jose Magote in the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico, where evidence has been found of human habitation dating back 3,000 years. The program also interviews Professor George Bass of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in Texas, the father of underwater archaeology, who has discovered and cataloged numerous shipwrecks off the coast of modern Turkey, some dating from the Bronze Age.