One of my guilty pleasures is watching reruns of old documentaries. My particular favorites include Time Team (UK) and Digging for the truth (US), both fun to watch and remarkably campy at times. I don't mind a little frivolity in the name of commercialization, but bad data really bugs me.
Recently, I watched an episode where Josh Bernstein, supposed archaeology wunderkind, tried to track down a connection between Jesus Christ and the Merovingian royal line - a premise first introduced to the American public via The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown). The idea of a connection between the two lines is interesting, and Brown wrote a convincing story. But when "Digging for the Truth" went looking for verification, they dug in the wrong spot.
Bernstein went jetting all over Europe and Middle East to get DNA samples for comparison. He chose a number of people from present day Galilee and Jerusalem, then went looking for the Merovingian connection. The only identifiable body from the Merovingian crypt was that of one Queen Aregund, wife of Clotaire. "Digging for the Truth" spent a lot of time and money getting DNA samplings and testing for this project, but I could have told them not to bother. Aregund married into the Merovingian line. She was not a descendent of the line, but a spouse. So of course, her DNA did not match. Apparently "Digging" didn't have anyone on the staff who knew anything about DNA, genealogy, or common sense. But then, it's only meant to be entertainment, right?
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