Early Britons - BBC

[Brian G Turner]

Might be worth watching later today, or on iPlayer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33963372

Have we underestimated the first people to resettle Britain after the last Ice Age? Evidence from a variety of sources suggests that early Britons were more sophisticated than we could have imagined.

Archaeologists once thought that the story of the early hunter-gatherer Britons was lost to the mists of time.

The hunter gatherers left almost no trace of their nomadic existence behind.

As a result, the stone-age settlers of ancient Britain were thought of as simple folk, living a brutal hand-to-mouth existence.

But now, evidence is emerging that turns those assumptions upside down. Archaeological sites all over the UK and northern Europe are producing evidence that paints these people in a very different light.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Might be worth watching later today, or on iPlayer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33963372

And just to counter-balance the positive up-beat tone of that article - so perhaps no golden age either! :

http://www.theguardian.com/science/...-ancient-european-farming-community-neolithic

Conflict and violence come along with us from the start as well.

It's not Britain, but it's not that far away and we do know that people would have travelled long distances - think the Amesbury Archer who originally came from the alps. I also do remember seeing a programme about a prehistoric battlefield or siege somewhere in south Wales - they had discovered hundreds of arrowheads and other bits of debris that suggested a very big and violent action. However perhaps this really started when people stopped moving around and started claiming land as theirs.

 

[svalbard]

And just to counter-balance the positive up-beat tone of that article - so perhaps no golden age either! :

http://www.theguardian.com/science/...-ancient-european-farming-community-neolithic

Conflict and violence come along with us from the start as well.

It's not Britain, but it's not that far away and we do know that people would have travelled long distances - think the Amesbury Archer who originally came from the alps. I also do remember seeing a programme about a prehistoric battlefield or siege somewhere in south Wales - they had discovered hundreds of arrowheads and other bits of debris that suggested a very big and violent action. However perhaps this really started when people stopped moving around and started claiming land as theirs.

I also remember that. I think it was Barry Cunliffe talking about it. It was fascinating.

 

[J Riff]

I don't believe a word of it. I'm sure it was much more exciting. )

 

[Ray McCarthy]

"May you live in interesting times."
Exciting sometimes is OK if it's someone else having it?

 

[J Riff]

We are the Britons, and I am your King! Gather ye at Stonehenge, for the (censored) rites of (deleted) and let's figure out a way to make our primitive savage ancestors look smart n' civilized. No Giants allowed.