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Hello. On 'Archaeology Today' tonight I have with me Professor Lucien Kastner of Oslo University.
Good evening.
- How tall are you, professor? - ... I beg your pardon?
- How tall are you? - I'm about 5 foot 10.
And an expert in Egyptian tomb paintings. Sir Robert... are you really 5 foot 10?
Funny, you look much shorter than that to me.
Are you slumped forward in your chair at all? Extraordinary.
Sir Robert Eversley, who's just returned from the excavations at El Ara,
and you must be well over 6 foot. Isn't that right, Sir Robert?
Yes.
- In fact I think you're 6 foot 5, aren't you? - Yes.
Oh, that's marvelous.
I mean you're a totally different kind of specimen to Professor Kastner.
Straight in your seat, erect, firm.
Yes. I thought we were here to discuss archaeology.
Yes, yes, of course we are, yes, absolutely, you're absolutely right!
That's positive thinking for you.
You wouldn't have said a thing like that, would you? You 5 foot 10 inch weed.
Sir Robert Eversley, who's very interesting,
what have you discovered in the excavations at El Ara?
Well basically we have found a complex of tombs...
Very good speaking voice.
...which present dramatic evidence of Polynesian influence
in Egypt in the third dynasty which is quite remarkable.
- How tall were the Polynesians? - They were...
Well, they were rather small, seafaring...
- Short men, were they...? All squat and bent up? - Well, I really don't know about that...
Who were the tall people? Who's that very tall tribe in Africa?
- Well, this is hardly archaeology. - The Watutsi! That's it - the Watutsi!
Oh, that's the tribe, some of them were 8 foot tall.
Can you imagine that. 8 foot of Watutsi!
Not one on another's shoulders, oh no - 8 foot of solid Watutsi.
That's what I call tall.
- But it's nothing to do with archaeology. - Oh to hell with archaeology!
Can I please speak! I came all the way from Oslo to do this program!
I'm a professor of archaeology.
I'm an expert in ancient civilizations.
All right, I'm only 5 foot 10.
All right my posture is bad, all right I slump in my chair.
But I've had more women than either of you two!
I've had half bloody Norway, that's what I've had!
So you can keep your Robert Eversley! And you can keep your bloody Watutsi!
I'd rather have my little body...
my little 5-foot-10-inch body...
- Bloody fool. Look what you've done to him - Don't bloody fool me.
I'll do what I like, because I'm 6 foot 5
and I eat punks like you for breakfast.
I'll get you for that, Eversley!
I'll get you if I have to travel to the four corners of the earth!
The dig was going well that year,
We had discovered some Hittite baking dishes from the 5th dynasty,
and Sir Robert was happier than I had ever seen him.
Today I hear the robin sing
Today the thrush is on the wing
Today who knows what life will bring
Today...
Why,
a Sumerian drinking vessel of the 4th dynasty.
Today!!!
Catalogue this pot, Danielle, it's 4th dynasty.
- Oh, is it... ? - Yes, it's... Sumerian.
Oh, how wonderful! Oh, I am so happy for you.
I'm happy too,
now at last we know there was a Sumerian influence here in Abu Simnel
in the early pre-dynastic period,
2000 years before the reign of Tutankhamun,
Today I hear the robin sing
Today the thrush is on the wing
Today who knows what life will bring.
All right Eversley, get up out of that trench.
Don't forget... I'm 6 foot 5.
That doesn't worry me...
- Kastner! - Here, Lord.
Up!
- 11 foot 3! - I'm so tall! I am so tall!
Danielle!
11 foot 6 - damn you! Abdul
15 foot 4! Mustapha!
19 foot 3... damn you!
And there we end this edition of 'Archaeology Today'.
Next week, the Silbury Dig
by Cole Porter with Pearl Bailey and Arthur Negus.