Archaeologist Mark Horton believes popular TV series are just as valid a way as books to share what he knows

Mark Horton, an archaeologist at Bristol University, is behind a major exhibition commemorating Scotland's failed attempt to establish a colony three centuries ago in the jungles of what is now Panama.

"It was an idea ahead of its time, the vision of a free-trade entrepot where goods could be transported across the isthmus," said Dr Horton, head of Bristol's department of archaeology and anthropology.

"But [the death toll from] disease was horrendous and the Spanish viewed the territory as theirs and weren't going to allow what they considered a bunch of Scottish pirates have a city there."

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He first helped excavate the site of the Darien project in 1979, as a fresh Cambridge graduate. He spent four months on the mosquito-ridden jungle coast with the Scientific Exploration Society's Operation Drake, locating the site of the colony.

He returned in 2003, heading an international team of archaeologists, along with a BBC Scotland film crew making a documentary on the colony. The exhibition displays artefacts excavated during both expeditions, from shoe buckles and Scottish coins to musket balls and a pocket sundial. "There were vast quantities of brandy bottles. They were obviously completely sozzled," Dr Horton said.

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More recently, he was one of the presenters on BBC Two's Coast series. "As publicly funded academics, we have a responsibility to share what we know with the wider world," he said. "Making TV programmes is part of the same mission as writing a book and giving lectures."

But academics' work is restricted by the research assessment exercise. "I wrote a book on excavations in East Africa, which sold 350 copies before being remaindered. Was it better to do that or a TV series watched by 5 million people?"