Landscape Mysteries
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- Episode
- The Tower People of Shetland
- Broadcast Info
- 2003 (29 mins)
- Description
- Professor Aubrey Manning seeks to solve some of the enduring mysteries of the British landscape through clues in geology, archaeology and natural history.
On the remote Shetland Isles, a series of monumental towers, or Brochs, once dominated the landscape. Aubrey sets off to discover what sort of community built the Brochs towers and for what purpose.
The latest clues are coming from a major archaeological site at Scatness in the southern mainland of Shetland. Here the remains of a Broch settlement are helping to build a picture of the life of these ancient Iron Age people. New studies of the foundations of the Broch suggest a much earlier date for the structure than previously thought. It means the Brochs were built centuries before the Romans advanced up the British coast. Their function seems to have been as a home for the elite of the society.
Shetland Isles Brochs towers Scatness archaeological site Iron Age people Bradford University archaeologists - Genre
- History; Geology; Natural History
How to cite this record
The Open University, "Landscape Mysteries". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/6747 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)