Product Description

An authoritative and radical rethinking of the whole of British history before the coming of the Romans, based on remarkable new archaeological finds. So many extraordinary archaeological discoveries (many of them involving the author) have been made in the last thirty years that our whole understanding of British prehistory needs to be updated. So far only the specialists have twigged on to these developments; now, for the first time, Francis Pryor broadcasts them to a much wider, general audience. Aided by aerial photography, coastal erosion (which has helped expose such coastal sites as Seahenge) and new planning legislation that requires developers to excavate the land they build on, archaeologists have unearthed a far more sophisticated life among the Ancient Britons than has been previously supposed. Far from being the barbarians of Roman propaganda, we Brits had our own religion, laws, crafts, arts, trade, farms, priesthood and royalty, the stories of which Francis Pryor tells with passion, wit and intelligence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9577 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 488 pages

Review
'There are enough curious facts, contentious theories and bizarre hypotheses here to hold the interest of anyone concerned with the unique and peculiar story of these islands.' Independent on Sunday Praise for Francis Pryor's television series 'Britain B.C.': 'Fascinating!the evangelical Pryor paints a vivid portrait of pre-Roman society that tackles received wisdom about what was going on here in the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages.' Daily Telegraph 'Pryor leaps about the country at a cracking pace, his big personality making sure we never get bored by the scant and rarefied scraps that are his stock-in-trade.' Observer

From the Inside Flap
Traditionally, British history has been regarded as starting with the Roman Conquest. Yet this is to ignore half a million years of prehistory that still exert a profound influence on British and Irish life today. In Britain BC, Francis Pryor sets the record straight.
Aided in recent years by aerial photography and costal erosion (which has helped expose such sites as Seahenge), and by advances in scientific techniques such as radiocarbon dating and wood analysis, archaeologists have discovered compelling evidence for a much more sophisticated life among the Ancient Britons than has been previously supposed. Far from being woad-painted barbarians, the earliest inhabitants of the British Isles had developed their own religions, laws, crafts, arts, trade systems, farms and priesthood long before the Romans' brief occupation.
Examining sites from the great ceremonial landscapes of Stonehenge, Avebury and the Bend of the Boyne to small domestic settlements, and objects from precious ritual offerings to the tiny fragments of flint discarded by toolmakers, Francis Pryor, one of our leading archaeologists, has created a remarkable portrait of the life of our ancestors, in all its variety and complexity. His authoritative and radical re-examination of Britain and Ireland before the coming of the Romans makes us look afresh at the whole story of our islands.

About the Author
Dr Francis Pryor, author of the acclaimed 'Seahenge', 'Britain BC', 'Britain AD' and 'Britain in the Middle Ages - An Archaeological History', has spent thirty years studying the prehistory of the Fens. He has excavated sites as diverse as Bronze Age farms, field systems and entire Iron Age villages, as well as barrows, 'henges' and a large ceremonial centre dating to 3800 BC. In 1982, while working in a drainage dyke at Flag Fen, on the outskirts of Peterborough, he discovered the waterlogged timbers of a Bronze Age religious site. In 1987, with his wife Maisie Taylor, he set up the Fenland Archaeological Trust, which opened Flag Fen to the public. He is President of the Council for British Archaeology, and frequently appears on Channel 4's popular archaeology programme 'Time Team'. In 2003 he wrote and presented a two-part television series on 'Britain BC', and in 2004 made a three-part series on 'Britain AD'.

Customer Reviews

why the antagonism?
This is a landmark book in terms of understanding Britain(ie the British Islands) in prehistory. All this talk of "missing celts" and "making Britain = England" is kind of missing the point somewhat. There WERE no celts in this period. No Welsh. No Scottish. No Cornish. Just BRITONS. Just lots of tribes and family groups living on this island. It wasn't until the Romans shut the Northern Britons off behind Hadrians wall that you get a notion of a "Scottish" country, land of the Picts. It wasn't until later again when the Saxons forced the Britons into the west, that you get a notion of Wales (Walas included modern-day Wales, Cumbria and Cornwall back then). As such, the notion of "celts" is a subject for Britain AD. They simply didn't exist in Britain BC. "Celt" is style of art of the period, found all across Europe. Not a type of people.

Francis has, and is doing, brilliant work in this field, this book should be required reading for anyone doing British history and/or archaeology. Also should be read by anyone with an interest in "celtic" spirituality and religion - everything the ancient Britons do has a religious aspect, and Francis is making the connections no-one else seems to be making (even though they seem obvious after he explains them)

Debunking Bad History
Francis Pryor's Britain BC is not a book for those who cling on to old ideas concerning the prehistory and early history of Britain. This is an adventurous book written to bring daring new ideas based on data from archaeological fieldwork. If the old stories of waves of invaders replacing one after an other don't work for you - from Neolithic revolutionaries, to La Tene Celts - if you ever suspected that there was something funamentally wrong with the traditional depictions of the Ancient British past - then read this book!

The author, backed by years of fieldwork experience as a professional archaeologist based in the East of England argues for the case for continuity - that there was no Neolithic Revolution, no invasion of Beaker folk, no mass arrival of continental 'Celts'. Francis Pryor is clearly passionate in his views that modern Britain owes more to prehistoric Britain than is generally accepted. Rome is portrayed as an alien empire that suppressed and stifled the self-identities of a growing and developing prehistoric Britain. Pryor suggests that far from being sparsely populated by painted savages - Late Iron Age Britain, following centuries or even millenia of metal-working, art, monument-building, and agriculture - was thriving and in the process of developing high art forms, tribal federations, trade and cultural links with the Continent, kingdoms, and Oppidi (sprawling ruralised towns) based on age old indigeneous traditions and identities.

Francis Pryor leads you through a series of prehistoric landscapes - the world of the Pre-Anglian Glacial hunters of Boxgrove, hunter-gatherers crossing the Great North Sea Plain, the vast open ritual landscapes of the Neolithic, the diversity of the archaeology of Iron Age Britain and Ireland. An excellent introduction and revision of prehistoric Britain and Ireland.

An impassioned look back
Pryor is candid about his intentions. He wants to understand the society of his homeland. To gain that understanding, he's dug more holes than "found in Blackbourne, Lancashire". He's also swept the literature of prehistoric Britain to learn what his colleagues have revealed in their work. The result is a compelling narrative of how Britain, in the years before the Roman invasion, lived, worshipped and died. He's gone a step further in trying out the life for himself. It all boils down to what might be an exercise in chauvinism, but Pryor's too professional to sink into that morass. Instead, he's given us a superb overview of the roots of the British Isles. He also provides an superlative insight into the workings of modern archaeology.

The title reflects Pryor's view that too much attention has been paid to the Roman era. Christianity's invasion on Roman skirt-tails, of course, has diverted attention from the beliefs of pre-Roman peoples. He wants to set that record straight, and does so thoroughly and admirably. Drawing on a wealth of resources, he casts away the "invasion" foundation of British pre-history to build a new structure. Sweeping hordes give way to a society that spread cultural innovations through limited, but far-reaching mobility. Instead of defensive fortresses, the British Isles are pocked with "henges", religious centres reflecting a stable, ancestor-worshipping society. Henges, he reminds us, totally lack defensive features. Weapons are found as often in bogs and streams, or buried with owners. They aren't the detritus of battle.

Pryor's start is the now-famous site of Boxgrove. His account of the finds there, a stone tool preparation site nearly half a million years old, is nearly as vivid as Mike Pitts' own. The site reflects the changing nature of archaeology - more attention is now devoted to assessing what the environment was like in that distant time. Weather, soil, forest or field, are among the many elements now assessed in building a picture of ancient humanity's life. Instead of racks of museum collections, tools, weapons and jewellry now form images of what our ancestors considered important. If Pryor delves into speculation in his depictions, it's clearly an informed conjecture. Details, hidden in time, may remain hidden, but much more is now available to consider than earlier researchers had at their disposal.

Pryor demonstrates how modern research has discerned Neolithic paddocks and trackways. Faint lines in crops or discontinuities in the soil exposed by aerial photography have led to amazing finds. His descriptions of discoveries, digs exposing ancient structures and artefacts reveal a wealth of new information while imparting Pryor's own love of the science. That affection carries over into his accounts of how his ancestors lived. To him, this information is intensely valuable. If nothing else, it shatters long-held, but false myths about what comprises the British peoples. People today will understand themselves better if they understand their ancestors better. If that reduces aggression, bigotry and dogma, that's all to the good. In Pryor's hands, archaeology becomes more than an arcane science removed from society. Instead, the research becomes a force for positive thinking and, hopefully, action.

With such an outlook, this author has produced an immensely readable book. His fondness for the work and the discoveries is apparent. He exhorts you to share it all with him. He draws the reader into the questions his research seeks to answer. His enthusiasm is contagious - you want to be there at the various digs and museums with him. If you can't arrange that, he provides a multitude of drawings, maps and photograph sets to help convey what he's seen. There are the dead, their possessions, sometimes their dress. Different conditions, he explains, preserve different things. Where they haven't been preserved, he reconstructs them. The wattle and thatch house at Fengate is built to verify how it was done. With all these elements assembled in one book, it becomes clear that Pryor has created a lasting volume. British focus aside, this book should be a feature on any shelf. It's about you.