Digging Up Britain

Digging Up Britain
Author: Mike Pitts
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2019-12-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0500774811

Britain has long been obsessed with its own history and identity, as an island nation besieged by invaders from beyond the seas: the Romans, Vikings and Normans. The long saga of prehistory is often forgotten. But our understanding of our past is changing. In the last decade, astounding archaeological discoveries have shed new light on those who have gone before us, radically altering the way we think about our history. This book presents ten of the most exciting and surprising of these discoveries. Mike Pitts leads us on a journey through time from the more recent and familiar to the most remote and bizarre, just as archaeologists delving into the earth find themselves moving backwards through the years until they reach the very oldest remnants of the past. At each of these sites we hear from the people who found and recovered these ancient remains, and follow their efforts to understand them. Some are major digs, carried out to record sites before they are covered over by new developments. Others are chance finds, leading to revelations out of proportion to the scale of the original projects. All are extraordinary tales of luck and cutting-edge archaeological science that have produced profound, and often unexpected, insights into peoples lives on these islands between a thousand and a million years ago.

Ancestors

Ancestors
Author: Alice Roberts
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2021-05-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1471188035

An extraordinary exploration of the ancestry of Britain through seven burial sites. By using new advances in genetics and taking us through important archaeological discoveries, Professor Alice Roberts helps us better understand life today. ‘This is a terrific, timely and transporting book - taking us heart, body and mind beyond history, to the fascinating truth of the prehistoric past and the present’ Bettany Hughes We often think of Britain springing from nowhere with the arrival of the Romans. But in Ancestors, pre-eminent archaeologist, broadcaster and academic Professor Alice Roberts explores what we can learn about the very earliest Britons, from burial sites and by using new technology to analyse ancient DNA. Told through seven fascinating burial sites, this groundbreaking prehistory of Britain teaches us more about ourselves and our history: how people came and went and how we came to be on this island. It explores forgotten journeys and memories of migrations long ago, written into genes and preserved in the ground for thousands of years. This is a book about belonging: about walking in ancient places, in the footsteps of the ancestors. It explores our interconnected global ancestry, and the human experience that binds us all together. It’s about reaching back in time, to find ourselves, and our place in the world. PRE-ORDER CRYPT, THE FINAL BOOK IN ALICE ROBERTS' BRILLIANT TRILOGY – OUT FEBRUARY 2024.

Digging Up Armageddon

Digging Up Armageddon
Author: Eric H. Cline
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691166323

Preface : "Welcome to Armageddon" - Prologue : "Have Found Solomon's Stables" - Part I. 1920-1926. "Please Accept My Resignation" - "He Must Knock Off or You Will Bury Him" - "A Fairly Sharp Rap on the Knuckles" - "We Have Already Three Distinct Levels" -- Part II. 1927-1934. "I Really Need a Bit of a Holiday" - "They Can Be Nothing Else Than Stables" - "Admonitory but Merciful" - "The Tapping of the Pickmen" - "The Most Sordid Document" - "Either a Battle or an Earthquake" - Part III: 1935-1939. "A Rude Awakening" -- "The Director is Gone" - "You Asked for the Sensational" - "A Miserable Death Threat" - "The Stratigraphical Skeleton" - Part IV: 1940-2020. "Instructions Had Been Given to Protect This Property" - Epilogue "Certain Digging Areas Remain Incompletely Excavated" -- Cast of Characters: Chicago Expedition Staff and Spouses (alphabetical and with participation dates) - Year by Year List of Chicago Expedition Staff plus Major Events.

The Tale of the Axe

The Tale of the Axe
Author: David Miles
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-09-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0500051860

How the New Stone Age shaped our world Approximately 12,000 years ago, early humans in western Asia and Europe who had been itinerant foragers, subsisting on what food they could find, slowly began settling in one place. They farmed and domesticated animals, created new tools, built monuments, and began preserving and storing food. What brought about this shift? What difference did it make to the overall population? And what effects did this Neolithic Revolution have on generations to come? The Tale of the Axe explores the New Stone Age—named for the new types of stone tools that appeared at that time, specifically the ground stone axe—taking Britain as its focus. David Miles takes the reader on a journey through Neolithic Britain by way of its ancestors, geographical neighbors, and the species from which humans emerged before turning an eye to the future and those aspects of the Neolithic Revolution that live on today: farming, built communities, modern man, and much more.

Digging the Trenches

Digging the Trenches
Author: Andrew Robertshaw
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2014-08-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 178303369X

This comprehensive, illustrated survey of the latest in battlefield archaeology reveals “intimate insight into the realities of life” during WWI (Current Archaeology). Modern methods of archaeological, historical, and forensic research have transformed our understanding of the Great War. In Digging the Trenches, battlefield archaeologists Andrew Robertshaw and David Kenyon introduce the reader to this exciting new field and explore many of the remarkable projects that have been undertaken. Robertshaw and Kenyon show how archaeology can be used to reveal the positions of trenches, dugouts and other battlefield features, as well as what life on the Western Front was really like. They also show how individual soldiers are coming into focus as forensic investigation is so highly developed that individuals can be identified and their fates discovered. “An excellent introduction to the subject…Digging the Trenches is essential reading.”—Gary Sheffield, Military Illustrated “What a splendid book this is.”—Neil Faulkner, Current Archaeology

Bodysnatchers

Bodysnatchers
Author: Suzie Lennox
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2016-09-30
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1473866561

The grim history of England’s bodysnatching trade: “Lennox’s thorough exploration is riveting” (Naomi Clifford, author of The Disappearance of Maria Glenn). From the string of murders committed by Burke and Hare, a pair of ghouls who are still the stuff of pop culture legend, to the lesser-known but equally gruesome grave-robbing exploits of Henry Gillies, William Patrick, and Joseph Grainger, here is the fascinating true chronicle of England’s “Resurrection Men.” During the winter months of 1742–1832, selling fresh cadavers to anatomists up and down the country, all in aid of medical advancement, was the surest way to earn a living for desperate men. After all, anatomy schools would pay high prices for corpses to dissect—the fresher the better. And they asked no questions as to their origins. This resulted in the criminal underworld of the “Sack ‘em up Men” who left behind disinterred churchyards and burial grounds, and spread fear and horror throughout the United Kingdom. In Bodysnatchers, Suzie Lennox unearths the truth behind the macabre tales, separating fact from folktale, and setting the record straight about Britain’s gruesome, often forgotten history.

Digging for Richard III: The Search for the Lost King

Digging for Richard III: The Search for the Lost King
Author: Mike Pitts
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2014-11-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0500772053

The story of the archaeology behind the dig that found Richard III, told through a fascinating array of photographs, diagrams, and firsthand accounts In August 2012 a search began and on February 4, 2013 a team from Leicester University delivered its verdict to a mesmerized press room, watched by media studios around the world: they had found the remains of Richard III, whose history is perhaps the most contested of all British monarchs. History offers a narrow range of information about Richard III which mostly has already been worked to destruction. Archaeology creates new data, new stories, with a different kind of material: physical remains from which modern science can wrest a surprising amount, and which provide a direct, tangible connection with the past. Unlike history, archaeological research demands that teams of people with varied backgrounds work together. Archaeology is a communal activity, in which the interaction of personalities as well as professional skills can change the course of research. Photographs from the author’s own archives, alongside additional material from Leicester University, offer a compelling detective story as the evidence is uncovered.

The Great British Dig

The Great British Dig
Author: Chloë Duckworth
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2022-03-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1844866254

The Great British Dig brings history and archaeology closer to home than ever before. Each week a team of archaeologists (led by presenter Hugh Dennis) descend on streets and gardens the length and breadth of the country to discover the treasures we have been living right on top of without realising. In this official tie-in book, on-screen expert Dr Chloë Duckworth digs deeper into the sites the show visited, as well as giving practical tips and advice for anyone who wants to have a go themselves. Uncovering a lost world of human stories just a few shovelfuls beneath our feet, Chloë explores the team's techniques in fascinating detail, offering new insights and explanations about the discoveries made. As well as revealing the actual frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain, the Tudor palace of an Elizabethan spymaster, a revolutionary Victorian prison, a Second World War military base, and a prehistoric village under a school playing field, Chloë includes lots of information for anyone wanting to give it a go themselves. The book is packed with features, tip boxes and practical advice about digging in your own back garden, researching your local area for clues about what might have been there centuries ago, and dating things you may find. Highly illustrated, the book includes images never seen on screen, as well as archive photos and illustrations that bring history to life, and identification guides to bones, pottery, tools, coins and other things you might come across yourself. Foreword by Hugh Dennis, presenter of The Great British Dig.

Secret Britain

Secret Britain
Author: Mary-Ann Ochota
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2020-09-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0711253463

In this beautifully illustrated book, anthropologist and broadcaster Mary-Ann Ochota unearths more than fifty of Britains most intriguing ancient places and artefacts and explores the mysteries behind them.