Scenes From Prehistoric Life

Bronze Age wreck sites – usually consisting of dumps or spreads of bronzes on the seabed – have been found all along the south coast. Some 400 bronzes have been found on the seabed near the Eastern Arm of Dover Harbour, by Dover Sub Aqua Club.14 This material dates to 1100–1000 BC; it was probably scrap that originated in France and was on its way

imagine being here at Tomnaverie in moonshine, with the white light reflecting off the coloured stones. Those stones would also have affected the acoustics of the place, muffling some sounds, but amplifying what was being said, sung or chanted within the stone circle. We noticed the powerful muffling and enhancement of sound in the reconstruction w

I can remember being very moved by the fact that the more recent footprints in the muds of the Severn were made by men, women and children and when I visited the site I could imagine Mesolithic families out for a stroll along the foreshore. But what we now realize were the earliest footprints in Europe, at Happisburgh, were probably left by a famil

We ate our sandwiches with lanoline-covered fingers and our clothes reeked from that moment on, but my sheep-keeping had now acquired a new dimension: instead of just my friends and helpers, my mind’s eye could see, smell and hear people in Bronze Age clothes, all with the same smelly fingers and slices of crusty bread. Certain tasks are timeless –

there is increasing evidence that in common with the chamber tombs of Neolithic times, more than a millennium previously, greater emphasis at many ceremonial sites was placed on rituals associated with the midwinter solstice (21 December).

The Romans undoubtedly brought to Britain some very important technical innovations, ranging from the first use of new ploughs that actually turned the soil over (earlier ones had simply cut deep channels in it), to the introduction of cement and plaster, bricks and tiles. The Romans also introduced writing and efficient systems of governance suita

In the early post-medieval period (i.e. after about 1550), the upkeep of roads was the responsibility of the cities, towns and parishes they passed through. So inevitably they would have carried out repairs and maintenance work on those stretches of road that were most used by local people going about their daily work. But as long-distance travel g

The more we learn, the more we realize that prehistorica communities were extremely adaptable and were able to settle in a number of very different landscapes, some of which we might view, even today, as being quite challenging, if not actually hostile. This was done by keeping in regular touch with other, often quite widely separated, groups of pe

the physical measures needed to keep animals are far more prominent than those for growing crops: gates, byres, droveways and markets last longer in the archaeological record than a few ploughshares, millstones or plough-scratches at the base of the topsoil. That is why our first two decades of research at Fengate, and later at Flag Fen, placed so