An archaeological research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has been featured on the BBC2 programme ‘Digging for Britain’.

This AHRC funded collaborative research project ‘The Beaker Isotope project: mobility, migration and diet in the British Early Bronze Age’, based at the University of Sheffield, was featured in episode 2 of Digging for Britain. Broadcast primetime on the BBC the programme has Dr Alice Roberts following a year of British archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations the length of the country.

The programme went behind-the-scenes to look at the laboratory work underpinning the project, which has taken samples from 250 skeletons associated with Bell Beaker material in Britain, and tested them for evidence that these people had moved significantly during their lifetime

Pilot isotopic studies in Germany and Britain have indicated that certain people who used Beakers were highly mobile, in one case even crossing Europe to settle in Britain. The aim of this project is to resolve the `immigration versus local development´ Beaker problem in Britain and, in doing so, transform our understanding of economy and society at the time of Stonehenge by studying mobility, diet and health.

You can watch this episode on the BBC iplayer now and for another fortnight.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tkz4j

The AHRC project is featured at the 32 minutes mark for 10 minutes. Digging for Britain is averaging 2.75 million viewers an episode and is the 5th most popular programme on BBC 2.

You can read a little bit more about the Beaker Isotope project here http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/research/beaker-isotope

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Media Contact:

Jake Gilmore, AHRC Communications Manager; T: 0797 099 4586,
E: j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk

Notes to Editors:

Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £112 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.