The Prehistory Guys

Hope you'll find it in your hearts to excuse the clickbaity title - but then again it is a truly valid use of the word 'alien'. The rocks in question are certainly not where they belong and pose a genuine mystery as to why they are where they have been found - down near Avebury henge in Wiltshire, 280 miles from their origin. We hope you enjoy our discussion, but rocks aside, we're very glad to have this additional leverage into discussing the importance and purpose of the West Kennett palisades and indeed the prehistory of the whole Avebury landscape. We feel we're just lifting the edge of the carpet ... 😊

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This is the audio from a Prehistory Guys YouTube video released in March 2022. https://youtu.be/ubMqZv_eozY

Back in February we received an email from whoever deals with Tim Darvill's press releases with an embargoed link to his new paper: 'Keeping Time at Stonehenge'. We felt honoured to be included in a trusted circle - and normally would have done something about it by now, but, as you know, circumstances have been difficult lately and so we're a bit late to the game with this one. 

Anyway, here is our breakdown of Professor Darvill's hypothesis that Stonehenge (in Stage 2 - 2,500BC) was constructed to be a monumental perpetual calendar whose purpose was to keep in pace with the solar year. We hope we add some clarity to other reports that have been in the press and that you end up with enough information to make a judgement for yourself about the strength of this idea.

LINK TO THE ORIGINAL PAPER AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journa...

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Dr. Lee Clare is the research co-ordinator and archaeologist in charge of the excavations at Göbekli Tepe. He took on the position of research coordinator of the DFG long-term project at Göbekli Tepe in 2015, and in 2019 moved to the DAI’s Istanbul Department where he is now acting consultant for prehistoric archaeology.

The image of Göbekli Tepe in the wider world has become a bit distorted over time as far as we can tell and has not kept up with the most recent discoveries and interpretations. We thought we’d go straight to the source and talk to the man who can give us the very latest on the excavations and current views one of the oldest megalithic site in the world.

We truly were thrilled to be able to talk with Lee (from his home in Istanbul) and are very excited at the prospect of one day being able to visit the site and expand our knowledge further.

There is an extended version of this interview with more questions answered available to Patreon supporters here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/gobekli-tepe-dr-62006084

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We talk with archaeologist Sue Greaney, Senior Properties Historian with English Heritage and Editor of PAST, the newsletter of the Prehistoric Society about her passion for archaeology and her responsibilities at Stonehenge and other sites managed by English Heritage.

The main reason we wanted to get her on, though is that Sue is the author of a fantastic new piece of research on the Mega Henge complex at Mount Pleasant in Dorset.

We're very proud to bring you our interview with Professor Alice Roberts - anatomist and biological anthropologist, author and broadcaster and Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.

Alice will need no introduction for many of you, but to understand why we were so thrilled that she agreed to be on the show, as per Rupert's intro:

Before becoming a writer and presenter, Alice’s career began as a medical doctor, she went on to become a university lecturer, teaching human anatomy, developing a particular expertise, and doing a PhD in paleopathology (the study of disease in ancient human remains). Through a circuitous route, this led to her working as a bone specialist with the renowned archaeology series Time Team and then on to presenting SEVERAL OF her own land mark television series.

She has won numerous awards, perhaps most notably being the first recipient of the Royal Society David Attenborough Award in 2020. Her books are always a joy to read and her latest title, Ancestors, The Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials is so relevant to everything the Prehistory Guys are about, that it seemed the perfect time to get her on to talk about that, along with her thoughts about many other aspects of her work.

We hope you enjoy our chat as much as we did…

Our second interview with Tim Darvill and a riveting first-person deep dive through prehistoric archaeology from in-the-moment practical concerns of current practice, through to the more philosophical concerns confronting the modern day antiquarian. 

We talk about Stonehenge, long barrows, bluestones, emerging narratives for the Neolithic, prehistory in the press ... and much more!

This time:

• Pythagorian geometry in Mesopotamia 1,000 before Pythagoras

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This is ground breaking research from the Balkans where researchers are piecing together the apparently widespread use of cosmetics as far back as six and a half thousand years ago.

Tiny ceramic bottles have been excavated across a wide region of the Balkans and Transdanubia, and as long ago as the 1930s it was suggested that they might be for cosmetics or medicines. So Bine Kramberger from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Christoph Berthold and Cynthianne Spiteri from Eberhard Karls University at Tübingen in Germany have analysed a number of pots from various locations, to try to identify exactly what these tiny vessels contained.

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30,000 years ago, close to the banks of the river Danube, it seems that the saddest of events occurred to a family living there during the Paleolithic period. Michael and Rupert bring you some of the background to this story emerging from the latest aDNA study of remains found in the town of Krems in Austria.

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🔵 BUY ME A COFFEE: If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription, you can make a on off donation by following the link below. NOTE: all single donations are going forward to production of a new film next year: STANDING WITH STONES 2! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys

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Welcome to another prehistory guys interview, introducing you to archaeologists and historians, all too often hidden behind the scenes, finding out what they’re up to while the world isn’t watching.

This time we're talking with Dr Lee Bray, lead archaeologist for the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, south west England.

Lee started out in geology before making the move into archaeology, and to Exeter University where he gained his doctorate in Romano British Iron production on Exmoor.

Dartmoor is a special place for us, so we were very much looking forward to this conversation with Dr Bray, who has possibly the best job archaeology can provide.

He didn't disappoint.

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