Another archaeologist that was frequently named in Francis
Pryor’s ‘Britain BC’ is Llyod Liang, of which I have three of his books in my
pre-Saxon collection. ‘The Origins of Britain’, ‘Celtic Britain’ and
‘Anglo-Saxon Britain’. I have to say, that this is probably the best book I
have read thus far on Prehistoric Britain. Initially I was exhaling at the fact
I was going to put myself through yet another book that recites the list of
pottery that was found in each dig site, but in fact it was much more exciting
than this.
In much the same style as David Barrowcloughs ‘Prehistoric
Cumbria’, ‘The Origins of Britain’ opens with a chapter that focuses on the
history of the archaeologists themselves, except this time I was thoroughly
intrigued in the development of technology and method of analysis. Piltdown man
for example was the hoax of a fossilized early human which was likely placed in
a quarry by Charles Dawson in 1912. The parts turned out to consist of
Orangutan teeth and mandible, as well as the small skull of a human along with some
early flint tools. What’s amazing about the Piltdown hoax is that it remained unexposed
for 41 years. The most fantastic part of the history of archaeologists however,
is that of General Pitt-Rivers, who inherited 29,000 acres of land through
marriage. He then set about conducting his own archaeological digs on this
land, contributing many new innovations in archaeology, and even conducted a
dig at the Grimes Graves flint mines.
The book is very concise and well-illustrated, making it a pleasure
to turn each page, and once you get to the later part of the Stone Age then the
information becomes particularly delightful. To return to the Grimes Grave
flint mine, it is located in Norfolk and the shaft goes down 12.8m, which leads
to a gallery that has many subsidiary tunnels that were dug in speculation of finding
flint seams. The mine is so sophisticated that it had archaeologists thinking
for years that it was perhaps dug in the Elizabethan times, when in fact it was
dug around 2500BC to 2200BC. More amazingly, one of the tunnels which failed to
turn up any flint was converted by the miners into a chamber for worship, in
which the archaeologists found a fertility statue sitting on a ledge, in the
very same place it was left thousands of years earlier.
The next piece of captivating information came in the Bronze
Age comes in the form of the ‘Wilsford Shaft’, which was a thirty metre deep shaft
used to make offerings to the gods, and it appears to have been kept open for
around 2000 years during which time it was being filled in with pottery,
daggers and other such materials. The period in which the shaft was in use is
known by the fact it took two years to excavate, in which time Roman pottery
was found at the top and early Iron Age pottery and wooden offerings were found
at the bottom. However, the true element of surprise about the Wilsford shaft is
the level of mathematics involved in its construction; apparently the people
who constructed it dug the shaft in sections. When the section was dug
incorrectly, the margin of error was worked out and then corrected in the next section.
Additionally it is noted that at 1600bc the spoil could have only been removed
with winching gear and that after only a small number of metres the bottom of
the pit was pitch black. It took a fifteen minute trip for the archaeologists
to climb to the bottom once it had been fully excavated.
As in previous posts about prehistory, I once again go back
to the Orkney Islands. This time it is in relation to the ‘Maes Howe’ Barrow,
which is described as the best preserved chambered tomb in the whole of north-west
Europe. There is a fourteen metre entrance which must be crawled through in
order to get inside, in which the tomb is almost perfectly preserved and the
brickwork being so fine that a knife can apparently not be slid in-between many
of the gaps. The only damage done to the tomb comes in the form of Viking Runes
which were inscribed into the wall when the Orkneys was invaded and conquered. Apparently
the Vikings found many great riches inside the tomb, which is incredibly
unlikely; they will most likely have just found piles of assorted bones.
As we progress into the later part of the Bronze Age, we start
to discover evidence of immigration and more advanced Pagan worship. The Beaker
people who landed in Britain are said to come from many parts of Europe, but in
Llyod Liang’s book he describes them as coming from Spain. Interestingly he
says that Beaker people can be identified by their more rounded skulls, as
opposed to the native Britons, who had longer and thinner skulls. This isn’t
just a piece of Victorian pseudo-science either, as Liang and Francis Pryor say
that this interpretation is just as valid now as it was then. The most
interesting aspect of the Beaker people is that they are said to have worshiped
a sun god, which is made clear by their neck-ornaments known as ‘Lunula’. I
found this fascinating, as it’s the first solid evidence of some sort of
religious practice outside of the hitherto ancestral worship made apparent
through Barrows, Cairns, Henges etc.
There was also a period in the Bronze Age, dating from
around 1800bc to 1400bc where gold became a symbol of power, and chieftains
started emerging; particularly in Wessex. This is known to have created the
‘Wessex Culture’ although outside the introduction of gold and advanced power
structure, there is little to suggest there was any real separate culture from the
rest of Britain. What the most interesting part of this period is is that
almost all of the gold ornaments found from this period were created by a
single craftsman around 1800bc. These were then handed down through the ruling
families, and by around 1400bc all of the objects had been buried with their owners
to accompany them to the afterlife. Around this period there was also unearthed
what is known as the ‘Mold Pectoral Gold Cape’ which is noted by the fact gold
capes only appear in one other place, Ancient Egypt. This had led some people
to believe the Britons were descended from Egyptians. As an additional thought
about Pagan Rituals of prehistoric Britain, I happened to be reading the part
of this book about the ‘Bromley Horn Dance’ just at the exact time in which it
was being annually conducted. This is every year on the Monday after the first
Sunday following September the 4th, in which the horn dance is acted
out using ‘Antler Frontlets’. The Frontlets currently in use are said to have
been brought over by the Vikings, but the ritual itself is said to have been
conducted every year unbroken since it was started in the Stone Age.
This is possibly the best book I have read so far on the
prehistory of Britain. It includes so much information that hasn’t appeared in
any of the other books I have read, and it spares the reader of any of the
tedium of endless pottery or metal work findings. I could literally go on for much
longer with this post on the amount of interesting stuff which I learned, and
so I will leave you with one last nugget that I believe requires more attention
of my time in the future. In Barry Cunliffe’s ‘Iron Age Communities in Britain’
he mentions that the Phoenician’s possibly visited an island off the coast of
Britain to acquire tin through trade. In Llyod Liang’s book he gives a name to
the island, which is ‘Ictis’. Although the likelihood of the Phoenician’s ever
visiting Britain is unlikely, it is still an area which may require more
attention in the future.
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