#francis pryor

[bibliophilicstranger]

"Even if I had the most powerful microscope in the world, I would not be able to locate my interest in an iron age round house."

Guy de la Bedoyere

[thewritingpossum]

Three emergency burial grounds were designated, one at East and two at West Smithfield. All have received some archaeological attention, but most information came from extensive excavations at the East Smithfield cemetery in 1987, where 753 out of 2400 skeletons were unearthed. There were two types of burial: conventional single graves, and long straight trenches in which bodies were arranged side by side, in places up to five deep. The point to make is that these burials were arranged with some care. The grisly Hollywood image of deep black pits filled with the putrefying remains of bodies, into which new victims were pitched higgledy-piggledy from rickety carts seems altogether wide off the mark.

Britain in the Middle Ages: an archaeological history, Francis Pryor.

[uwlmvac]

Bill Gresens’ Archaeology Book Review for August 2019

The Way, the Truth and the Dead by Francis Pryor (four trowels)

British archaeologist Alan Cadbury returns to the Fen Country to discover the truth behind the grisly death of his old friend Stan Beaton, who had been conducting a large-scale archaeological survey of Fursey Estate. Read the entire review at:  https://mvac.uwlax.edu/book-review/way-truth-dead/

[djohnhopper]

FAVOURITE BOOKS:

Writer: Francis Pryor.

Title: Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans (2003).

An authoritative and radical rethinking of the history of Ancient Britain and Ancient Ireland, based on remarkable new archaeological finds.

British history is traditionally regarded as having started with the Roman Conquest. But this is to ignore half a million years of prehistory that still exert a profound influence. Here Francis Pryor examines the great ceremonial landscapes of Ancient Britain and Ireland – Stonehenge, Seahenge, Avebury and the Bend of the Boyne – as well as the discarded artefacts of day-to-day life, to create an astonishing portrait of our ancestors.

This major re-revaluation of pre-Roman Britain, made possible in part by aerial photography and coastal erosion, reveals a much more sophisticated life in Ancient Britain and Ireland than has previously been supposed.

[vervedoff]

Stonehenge: The Story Of A Sacred Landscape ~ Francis Pryor

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[speeshblog]

Britain AD: Romano-Saxon site found in eastern England

Britain AD – Francis Pryor

I was just the other day updating the review for Francis Pryor’s ‘Britain AD,’ where one of his main themes was showing that the Saxon ‘invaders’ weren’t invaders as we normally think of them. That there wasn’t a short period after the Roman legions left, where huge fleets sailed over from (what is now) northern Germany (Saxons) and Denmark (Angles, Jutes), and…

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[speeshblog]

Review: Britain AD: A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons - Francis Pryor

Review: Britain AD: A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons – Francis Pryor

Britain AD: A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons by Francis Pryor My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just when you thought you had the early history of Britain straight:

Celts living peacefully fighting with each other. Romans invade and rule and civilise. Romans go back to Rome, leave some Romanised British and other troops here. Civilisation declines, cities are deserted, fields overgrown,…

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[exeterdown]

Francis Pryor - Britain BC and AD

A look at the so called ‘Celts’ and their history in Britain specifically, from the perspective they were as much a civilization as any, just not an empire.

Made for TV, the series can be a little repetitive, and dated, but much of this is saved by Pryor’s enthusiasm. If you enjoy it, it doesn’t matter. I’ve found the whole series quite interesting for thinking about the way the concept of Empire was exported from central Europe, and how we still export it today.

Full playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9D51008419A520D1

In this visually stunning series, best-selling writer and archaeologist Francis Pryor offers an inspiring new view of Britain before the Roman invasion. He shatters the received wisdom that we were a relatively uncivilised bog people inhabiting a misty island, just waiting to be taught how to live by the invaders. Travelling from North Wales to the Orkneys, the cliffs of Dover to the Western Isles of Scotland, Stonehenge to Maiden Castle, Pryor lifts the lid on what really made the ancient Britons tick and how what we were informs what we are today. Traveling more than a thousand miles north to Orkney and the Western Isles, he explores an amazing array of stone circles, henges and round tombs, revealing that how the ancient Britons worshipped their ancestors and brought death into their homes. Moving down to the big daddy of ancient British sites, Stonehenge, Pryor and other leading archaeologists reinterpret the whole spiritual landscape of pre-Roman Britain - as a passage of a whole community from life to death, expressed in an array of foreboding, impressive wood and stone monuments. By the end of his quest, Pryor convinces Britains to cast aside the national denial of their own ancestors, to embrace them as the remarkable people they were.