Christopher Stevens: The diet of an Iron Age fashion queen – meat, milk, scurvy… BBC’s Digging For Britain Archaeologists have found signs of malnutrition in the bones of a Celtic princess
dig for england
evaluation: ****
Romantic Getaway
evaluation: ****
Humans don’t change. Even if the technology was different than it was in the Iron Age 2000 years ago, vanity people loved fad diets as much as they do today.
Professor Alice Roberts found signs of malnutrition when examining the bones of a Celtic princess discovered by archaeologists from a Dorset village for Digging For Britain (BBC2).
The lady, who died at the age of about 25, was buried with riches such as shining bronze mirrors and colored glass beads. Her wealth was so prominent that historians believe that her tribe, Durotrigues, was of her matrilineal lineage and was ruled by royal women.
This princess was too gorgeous for five times a day. She seems to live on meat and milk and does not eat fruits or vegetables. She suffered from scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency that weakened her bones.
Professor Alice Roberts (pictured) takes viewers on a historic Iron Age journey in a Dorset village on British excavations.
These days, people on low-carb, high-protein diets can also suffer from vitamin C deficiency. It’s strange to think that despite centuries of progress, fashion can make you sick.
Professor Alice’s sacrifice to the fashion gods isn’t so dangerous. She was blonde when she visited the Durotrige dig site for the first time 13 years ago. Her hair is pastel pink now.
Her vivid phrasing helps bring history to life in every era. Bishops of Hertfordshire In her Roman excavations at Stortford she comments on elegant military brooches and hairpins:
At Cookham, by the Thames, where an Anglo-Saxon monastery was being excavated, she described the hearth and rows of ovens as a “medieval Gregg setup.”
Her imagination really went to work at the former Royal Mint at the Tower of London. Around the walls of the count house were ludicrous paintings of vengeful angels and tormented demons, not subtle reminders of the eternal punishment that awaited those who tried to disrespect the king.
The Professor (pictured) visited the Old Royal Mint at the Tower of London
Professor Alice looked up at St. Michael on the scales of justice and shuddered. Just imagining the king’s wrath made her sweat, she said.
The king’s money keeper (yes, the word) also sweated and hammered precious metals into his coins. Working on the furnace bellows was hard work and allowed 10 pints of beer per person per day. That must have caused the runaway swelling of the waistline.
We learned how, despite the threat of eternal ruin, Henry VIII undermined the entire British economy by ordering silver in his coins to be mixed with cheap copper.
A quick guide for Tudor-style counterfeiters followed, showing how easy it was to mint counterfeit coins using fire, tongs, and a hammer. This must have been his sixteenth-century version of quantitative easing.
Professor Alice called it an “industrial scale fraud”.
Technology has evolved, but human motivation remains the same. Heist sitcom, Romantic Getaway (Sky Comedy). Your heart might sink at the casting, with stars Romesh Ranganathan and Katherine Ryan appearing in every panel game and celebrity quiz on any channel you watch.
Romesh Ranganathan and Katherine Ryan Star in Heist Situation Comedy Romantic Getaway Sky Comedy
But as actors, they compete fiercely and push each other for bigger laughs. Produces incredible chemistry.
Johnny Vegas is loud as a smug, drunken bully who throws tantrums when his employees treat him to packets of biscuits out of petty cash, but imagine them trying to steal his fortune. I can not do it.
The story is strong, the gags are good, and frankly, I liked it more than I expected.
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