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Private Notes
The Order of St John is our last direct link with the Crusades. For over nine centuries the Order has cared for the sick - from the earliest times of the pilgrims to our own day, when that ideal is still carried on by the members of the St John Ambulance. John Julius Norwich tells the extraordinary story of the Knights of St John, filmed on the island of Rhodes and in Malta where the great confrontation with the Turks was to reach its climax when the Order held off the huge armies of Suleiman the Magnificent in the siege of 1565, and saved Western Europe for Christianity. Re-aired 9 December 1979
The Parthenon of Athens, one of the world's greatest monuments, is on the verge of collapse. It is certainly unique - but what is it really worth? How much are we prepared to sacrifice in order that future generations can enjoy the treasures we take for granted? Twentieth-century life is rapidly destroying the fragile remains of the world's ancient civilisations. A year ago Unesco appealed for funds to save the monuments of the Acropolis - to save them from damage from tramping tourists and from a corroding network of ancient steel slowly expanding inside the historic marble which has turned the buildings into potential time-bombs. Chronicle reveals how the Greeks are using gamma rays, space rocket technology and their finest brains to tackle problems which are beginning to affect historic buildings in every industrial country in the world. Will the Greeks be successful or is the Acropolis doomed? Re-aired 2 December 1979
A place called Glozel in France is the setting for what must be either the most extraordinary discovery in the history of archaeology - or a monstrous fraud. Weird pots and phallic idols and magic writings are the bones of contention between archaeologists who have declared for more than 40 years that Glozel is a modern fake and some physicists who have been saying for the past four years that everything they have tested with their 'glow-curve' dating method is at least 2,000 years old. Chronicle has been following the case since 1974 and reports tonight with a round-up of all the latest evidence on the unsolved mystery that still surrounds Glozel.
The Greek Goddess Aphrodite - 'Venus' to the Romans - was born out of the sea off Cyprus but her famous statue, the Venus de Milo, was discovered on the island of Melos. It was made about 2,500 years ago when civilisation on Melos was already 2,000 years old. Professor Colin Renfrew's ten-year excavation reveals the social mechanism whereby the island became a thriving commercial power and relates this mechanism to the development of Greek civilisation as a whole. Re-aired 18 November 1979
One of the most remarkable revolutions in the world of art took place in Florence in the early 1400s. It was primarily the work of three men: the architect Brunelleschi, the painter Masaccio and the sculptor Donatello. Across the gulf of 500 years their work still speaks to three contemporary British artists who, in the light of their own work, discuss the significance of their predecessors. Featured in the programme are many of the three artists' surviving works in Florence, and two which can be seen in Britain.
The Golden Isle is Galveston, Texas. A remarkable city with a remarkable history. During the mid-19th century as the English cotton trade boomed, so did the port of Galveston. Almost overnight the city became one of the richest in the United States. Yet in its very expansion were sown the seeds of its great decline. Today, because of that decline, Galveston possesses a range of Victorian buildings unique in the United States. Buildings that are being restored to their original splendour and grandeur as a working monument to the opulent past. King Vidor, doyen of the movie directors and resident of the city, helps tell its story.
Every year on sites and fields all over Britain enthusiasts brave winter mud and summer flies to excavate and record aspects of our heritage which might otherwise be destroyed. Tonight the Prince of Wales sees the films of the work of the six amateur groups selected for this year's final and presents the Chronicle Archaeology Award for 1978 to the winner. The subjects for the films range from the discovery by a former RAF pilot of a vast series of prehistoric tribal boundaries in the East Midlands to a lecturer and his wife who spend their holidays and weekends recording ancient cider-making equipment in the West of England. Magnus Magnusson introduces the programme which will also present the winners of other awards organised by RESCUE, the British Trust for Archaeology.
Magnus Magnusson introduces a new Chronicle award. It is being given to amateur archaeology groups for local rescue projects which have saved threatened sites or buildings, and which have contributed to a greater understanding of the community heritage. More people are becoming aware of the threat to our archaeological heritage and their interest has led them to preserve a Roman Bath House under a motorway, locate Neolithic sites before they disappear into gravel pits, survey the 14th-century houses of East Sussex and chart the length of the largest Anglo-Saxon monument in this country - Offa's Dyke on the Welsh border.
Twenty-two groups entered for the award and Chronicle shows the work of the six finalists. The award is presented by HRH The Duke of Gloucester in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Joan of Arc, a village girl from the Vosges, was born about 1412, burnt as a heretic in 1431 and made a saint in 1920. Why did it take the Roman Catholic Church nearly 500 years to change its mind about her? What were her voices? Why do some believe she was not burnt at all? Why did she fascinate de Gaulle? Because of the detailed records kept at her trials, we know a great deal about Joan's life and personality, the very words she spoke and what her friends thought about her. But subsequent generations have ignored this information, created new images of her and turned her into one of the most potent myths of the 20th century.
Cleopatra's Needle finally came to rest on the Thames Embankment 100 years ago. Presented to the British Nation in 1819 by the Viceroy of Egypt, Muhammed Ali (no relation), it took 50 years to get here. In the process, six men were drowned and the needle temporarily abandoned in a storin in the Bay of Biscay. Needles exist throughout the world: New York, Paris, Rome, Istanbul. And only five are left in Egypt. But why were they built? What is the significance of their shape? What do the hieroglyphs on their sides say? And why, for 2,000 years, has every aspiring empire felt the need to possess one as some kind of Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval? Chronicle tells the story of their erection in the service of the Egyptian sun god and their removal by pharaohs, emperors, popes and Victorian engineers. Re-aired 13 July 1983
