Episodes
| Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | The Legless Women Of Creswell Craggs | 20080203 | 20080901 (R4) 20100503 (R4) | Archaeologist Dr George Nash explores five of Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites. His journey begins with extinct animals and strange female forms in Church Hole Cave in Derbyshire. Who created this prehistoric graffiti, and why? Producer: Chris Eldon Lee A Culture Wise production for BBC Radio 4. Archaeologist Dr George Nash explores Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites |
| 02 | Graffiti Gorge | 20080210 | 20080902 (R4) 20100504 (R4) | Archaeologist George Nash explores five of Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites. Today he risks his neck in Northern Portugal's Coa Valley to see Iron Age carvings of beasts and warriors. But why are they engraved directly on top of earlier art in such dangerous places? And what drives modern day graffiti artists to risk their lives to the same end? Producer: Chris Eldon Lee A Culture Wise production for BBC Radio 4. Dr George Nash muses on why prehistoric and modern art can be found in dangerous places. Archaeologist Dr George Nash explores Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites |
| 03 | Irish Illusions | 20080217 | 20080903 (R4) 20100505 (R4) | Archaeologist George Nash explores five of Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites. George visits County Meath in Ireland where strange patterns adorn the walls of the Fourknocks Passage Grave. What do the patterns mean? George finds himself being stared at by a very odd cartoon-like face inside a 5000-year-old Irish tomb. It's a very early example of what we now call 'graffiti' - and around it are hypnotic patterns of concentric circles, horizontal zigzags and strings of diamond shapes. Strangely similar carvings occur in Wales, Brittany and the Iberian peninsular. So who created them? What do they all mean? And who was copying who in Neolithic times? George teams up with the modern-day Muslim graffiti artist Mohammed Ali to study these patterns for their spiritual significance, which may just lie in the fact that they are not as perfect as they seem. And he considers the possibility that Stone Age Man may well have been 'stoned' when he created them. Producer: Chris Eldon Lee A Culture Wise production for BBC Radio 4. Dr George Nash on the hypnotic carvings in Fourknocks passage grave in County Meath. Archaeologist Dr George Nash explores Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites |
| 04 | The Master Of Paspardo | 20080224 | 20080904 (R4) 20100506 (R4) | Archaeologist George Nash explores five of Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites. George visits the prehistoric art of northern Italy's Val Camonica. Carved into the rock is one of the world's first maps, images of some of Europe's earliest houses and scores of Iron Age warriors. He asks if these fighting figures could be the work of just one artist. Producer: Chris Eldon Lee A Culture Wise production for BBC Radio 4. Could these scores of the carvings of Italy's Val Camonica be the work of just one artist? Archaeologist Dr George Nash explores Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites |
| 05 | Architecture Of Death | 20080302 | 20080905 (R4) | Archaeologist George Nash explores five of Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites. George and fellow archaeologist Adam Stanford document the Neolithic carvings at Barclodiad y Gawres on Anglesey and make a tantalising discovery on the mainland. But what does all this prehistoric graffiti mean? Producer: Chris Eldon Lee A Culture Wise production for BBC Radio 4. Dr George Nash and Adam Stanford document the Neolithic carvings at Barclodiad y Gawres. Archaeologist Dr George Nash explores Western Europe's most remarkable rock art sites |