''History Cold Case'' is a British

documentary television Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

series in which scientists use modern forensic techniques to investigate ancient remains. Two series of ''History Cold Case'' aired on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

between 6 May 2010 and 21 July 2011. The television series is recommended for age 17 and above due to graphic images and maturity.

Overview

Anthropologist Sue Black and her team at the Centre for Anatomy & Human Identification (CAHID) at the

University of Dundee , mottoeng = "My soul doth magnify the Lord" , established = 1967 – gained independent university status by Royal Charter1897 – Constituent college of the University of St Andrews1881 – University College , ...

investigate human remains. They use forensic science, including

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

, DNA and isotope analysis, to find out about the life and death of each set of remains, which range in date from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

to the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...

. In some cases, they search through historic records to try to locate a name. In each episode, the team travels to a different location in Great Britain and set up a mobile lab to do their work. At the conclusion, they present their findings, including facial reconstruction, to the local community.

Cast

* Sue Black, forensic anthropologist * Xanthé Mallett, forensic anthropologist and criminologist * Caroline Wilkinson, anthropologist who creates facial reconstructions *

Wolfram Meier-Augenstein Wolfram Meier-Augenstein is a professor at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK, a registered forensic expert advisor with the British National Crime Agency and a member of the Advisory Board of the journal ''Rapid Communications in Mass Sp ...

, expert in

isotope analysis Isotope analysis is the identification of isotopic signature, abundance of certain stable isotopes of chemical elements within organic and inorganic compounds. Isotopic analysis can be used to understand the flow of energy through a food web, ...

(series 1)

Episodes

Series 1 (2010)

Series 2 (2011)

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, id=1642373, title=History Cold Case BBC reality television shows 2010 British television series debuts 2011 British television series endings British documentary television series Television series by Endemol English-language television shows Archaeology of the United Kingdom