Prehistoric Cumbria by David Barrowclough

Working your way through the prehistory of Britain can be somewhat tiresome when almost all the information is based on archaeology. Saying this however, it was still a delight, and a requirement to read the prehistory of my own County. Unlike in the later history of Cumbria, the prehistoric evidence is rife, with some of the best preserved cairns and stone circles in the entire British Isles. With a low population and hilly terrain many of the prehistoric sites have remained intact. Only the west coast was industrialised, and much of the area is unsuitable for arable farming, preserving the sites and making the area one of the most important to archaeologists.

The book, although tedious in its quantity of finds, taught me a great deal about prehistoric life and culture which could not be found in Francis Pryor’s Britain BC. My initial thoughts when I had finished the first two chapters were a little negative as it felt as if the book was fleshing out its pages by including a chapter on the history of Cumbrian archaeologists themselves, along with other superfluous data. As I progressed I was proved wrong in this negativity, and by the end I was considerable more informed on the ritualistic behaviour of the ancients, and the meanings behind their impressive structures. It was particularly interesting to learn that many of the Stone Circles were in fact made up of coloured stone, with each colour naturally having a different meaning. Red would mean blood, while the colour white for example has been interpreted by archaeologists to represent fertility, due to its association with the semen. The rocks would aligned in patterns that were designed intentionally to track the sun rise and sun set, including the changes in the suns positioning over the months; making stone circles a form of early calendar. The author also mentions that stone circles are usually found at intersections where two of three rivers meet so that the nomadic people of the time were near to a water supply during their travel to and from a circle. However I think that is more to do with the transportation of the stones, as is the reason for Stone Henge’s position on a peninsula. This would also correspond with the diversity of stone used in the circles, as it would potentially come from many different parts of Britain.

This book is exceptionally well wrote and comprehensive. It covers just about every angle and includes, in some cases, too much information for your average history enthusiast. If you are specifically into pre-history and don’t mind reading endless pages about the quantity of finds and descriptions, then the pages will turn a lot faster. Admittedly there were times when I was forced to exhale when reading about the precise details of patterns found on every side of a horde of 50 vases, but one has to accept that this is prehistory, and so physical items left behind are just about our only way of interpretation. I will finish by saying that this book is well worth a read for anyone who is native of Cumbria; the breadth of knowledge I have gained has further enriched the love I have for the Lake District.