OXFORD, Miss. – The American version of Britain’s hit archaeology show “Time Team” premieres Wednesday (July 8) on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and other PBS stations, and a University of Mississippi geophysics specialist has a featured role in the series.
Bryan Haley, coordinator of remote sensing applications in the UM Center for Archaeological Research, is among nine experts on “Time Team America.” The show airs at 7 p.m. Wednesday, with repeats airing at 8 p.m. Friday, 1 a.m. Saturday and 2 a.m. July 13. New episodes debut each Wednesday for five weeks.
The series opens on Roanoke Island, N.C., the site of Fort Raleigh, England’s first settlement in North America. In 1587, the English sent a group of colonists to the site, but they had vanished when a supply ship arrived three years later. Many people have speculated about what happened to the “Lost Colony,” but the fate of the colonists remains a mystery.
“It’s a really good mystery story,” said Haley, a Kentucky native who earned his master’s degree in anthropology at Ole Miss. “Lots of folks have looked for this thing, but we were called in to use some of the new toys we have in our archaeological toolbox now.”
Without giving too much away, Haley said the team did find new evidence at the site, but more work must be done to confirm the findings.
“What we were looking for is kind of like a needle in a haystack archaeologically, because the colonists were there such a short time,” he said.
Haley, 36, is one of two geophysics specialists on the show, which also features diggers, a pencil artist and archaeologists specializing in different historical time periods. He focuses on remote sensing technology, the use of high-tech applications to gather information on objects that the team may not be in direct contact with, such as underground archaeological structures.
The show follows in the footsteps of the original British series, which is in its 16th season. On the show, archaeologists use new technologies to attempt to answer historical questions within a span of three days. Other sites to be featured on the show include the Topper site in South Carolina, which may provide evidence of people living in America 50,000 years ago; Range Creek, Utah, which was home to the Fremont culture from about 700 to 1250 AD; and New Philadelphia, an Illinois town founded in 1836 by a freed slave.
Haley’s camera time in the premiere is limited, but he has a larger role in subsequent episodes.
“As an experienced geophysicist, Bryan is a very important member of the team,” Graham Dixon, senior producer of “Time Team America” who has been with the British show since 1992. “He brings a vast amount of experience carrying out geophysical surveys on many different sites. We depend on him to work well under pressure and use his skill and experience to get results that can help us target our investigation.”
Producers have not decided whether to do a second season of “Time Team America,” but Haley is hopeful.
“I’d be excited to be a part of a second season,” he said. “It’s a great, quality show, and it’s exciting to have a chance to show people how archaeology really works.”
For more information about “Time Team America,” go to http://www.pbs.org/opb/timeteam/ . To learn more about education and research in the UM Department of Sociology and Anthropology, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/soc?anth/