It has caused some ruptions within some parts of the the archaeological community - although I have to say that the comments coming from several archaeologists seem to say more about their own egos than anything about this fictional drama that was made for the purpose of entertainment rather than as a genuine teaching tool. The archaeologist who advised on it, Mark Horton, has recieved one or two particularly vicious attacks from one or two archaeologists who take themselves much too seriously (one of which I think is on a particularly sticky wicket when he has a go at this fictional series given the state of one or two of the 'academic' works that he has published).
It does seem that Mark Horton is the new anti-christ. Despite only being the technical adviser on the series he is being blamed for everything that is wrong with it - "a disgrace to archaeology" one noteable archaeologist has labled Horton.
Of course, there are also many archaeologists who actually have a slightly better grip on real life and recognise that this has as much to do with archaeology as Miami Vice has to do with police work, CSI has to do with forensics, the X-Files has to do with government conspiricies, Star Trek has to do with NASA, Black Adder has to do with history, etc etc and treat it as what it is: a drama that just uses archaeology as a back drop and happily changes the rules of archaeology to improve the story (so not that different to the odd episode of Time Team then
)
whether or not it is entertaining as a drama is another question altogether.
Having said all of that: the older of the two main blokes in the series - I've definatly met that character a few times
But I shall continue watching it 'cos it's vaguely entertaining in its reworking of many archaeological techniques. Although I think that it is trying to be Dr Who too much with its mysterious underlying theme about her mother and excaliber (haven't quite decided if the sword comes from the fairies or space aliens yet though). but the plots really are naff!
