Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992 TAG: 9202010402
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICIA BRENNAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CIVILIZATION'S CRADLE ROCKED AND FILMED IN SIX-PART `LEGACY'
When Michael Wood was in Iraq last year making an installment of his six-hour PBS series "Legacy," he got caught in the beginnings of the Persian Gulf war.Trying to film Iraq's Marsh Arabs, who live in rush huts on land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, he found that he was in the middle of military operations. "The enemies of Saddam Hussein were in the marshes, and the Republican Guards were trying to flush them out," Wood said.
What bothered him most was that "the old way of life looked like it was being ruined."
After all, to make his series, Wood had to film in Iraq. "What we're talking about is civilization, which arose first in Iraq 5,000 years ago," he said.
Iraq was the site of one of the five great civilizations that gave the world the important underpinnings of organized government and religion, cities, international trade, scientific systems and written language that made mass communication possible, the concepts that continue to shape the world.
The coalition of forces that bombed Iraq was careful to avoid destroying key historical sites, Wood said. "The allies formed a committee, and Colin Powell was given a list of 100 key sites that were not to be damaged," Wood said. "They were told under no circumstances were they to bomb these sites."
But he said many of the treasures have been damaged or destroyed by their own caretakers, the Iraqi government. "This is a minority, Saddam Hussein's party, but this is a tragedy."
Crucial to Wood's historical documentary, Iraq was home to the Mesopotamian and Babylonian empires, and to cities such as Uruk, the first city on earth; Arbil, the world's oldest continually occupied city; and the rich and fabled Baghdad.
Much of the series features Oxford-educated Wood, 43, an academic historian, walking the streets (or deserts or jungles) and talking about patterns of life and culture and key moments in the history of that place. In most scenes Wood, a tall, blond Englishman, is literally head and shoulders above the crowds.
Certainly he is in the installment on India, which follows Iraq Sunday night (the series starts at 8 p.m. on WBRA-Channel 15). There he, director-producer Peter Spry-Leverton, and associate producer-researcher Chris Ledger filmed some of the 15 million people who gathered for the festival of Kumbha Mela at Allahabad, bathing at dawn in Ganges, 600,000 people each hour. "Only a country like India could have organized it," he said.
Monday night Wood takes us to the country with the world's largest population, China, whose civilization was shaped by Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and whose Eighth-century poet, Li Po, is still popular.
Then it's on to Egypt, home of the legendary Nile River, where the world's first unified state was formed about 3,000 B.C. and then overlaid with Greek and Muslim cultures.
In the concluding installment Tuesday night, the series goes to Central America, where Aztec and Mayan civilizations rose independently of the Old World, and finally to Western Europe and the New World, where the descendants of the Saxons, Goths and Franks settled.