The Prehistory Guys

We do try to bring you wide ranging areas of study and this month we’re delighted to be joined by Professor Duncan Garrow of Reading University

We met Duncan at the Landscapes of the Dead conference back in November 2019 and knew we had to get him on the show. Apart from being a great speaker, he is another frontline archaeologist who makes you reconsider all sorts of things you thought you knew.

Duncan Garrow teaches later European prehistory (with a particular focus on Britain) and archaeological theory. His research interests include the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition; long-term histories of deposition; burial practices; the interpretive potential of radiocarbon dating; the integration of developer-funded and university-based archaeology; archaeological theory; and interdisciplinary approaches to material culture.

In this interview, we grill him about Neolithic 'argonauts' and migrations across the Channel and the western seaways, Rupert's favourite: crannogs - and the amazing UK Grave Goods project he is involved with in assocation with the British Museum.

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In December 2019 reports began to appear in the media about the discovery of an anomaly in the Callanish landscape on Lewis that pointed to a 5,000 year old lightning strike being the inspiration for the famous monument.

The discovery was made by the Calanais Virtual Reconstruction Project, a joint venture led by the University of St Andrews with standing stones trust Urras nan Tursachan and the University of Bradford and supported by funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise. They were not on the hunt for ancient lightning strikes however. The anomaly was thrown up by a magnetometry scan of one of the Callanish sites - Airigh na Beinne Bige, otherwise know as Site XI.

Can we infer that the whole Callanish site was erected because of a lightning strike? It's a nice idea - but can it withstand the merciless glare of investigation by The Prehistory Guys? 

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A couple of podcasts back, we interviewed Professor Bruce Bradley - he of the Solutrean Hypothesis in Paleolithic America. Truth be told, the impetus to contact Bruce Bradley came about because we'd noticed that an outfit called 'Seven Ages Research Associates' in the States had just published an interview with him. It was a bit "if they can - why don't we?" - so we did.

Well, one thing led to another and one day we got an invitation from Jason Pentrail, one of the three associates, to hook up and produce some back-to-back interviews with each other. They'd interview us for their podcast and we'd interview them for ours. Here's our side of the deal!

Although their remit is very much broader than ours (histrory, archaeology, science and culture) it turns out we are very much on the same page as far as communicating what may be going on behind the scenes in academia within our spheres of interest.

If this chat is anything to go by, there is much for us to exchange and we feel that we've barely scratched the surface as far as us talking to each other is concerned. Watch this space.

In this brief chat, we talk about their various areas of interest, Bruce Bradley, bridging the gap between amateur and professional archaeologists and their favourite archaeological sites in the USA and more. Enjoy.

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In 1980, archaeologist Julian Richards was invited to direct the 'Stonehenge Environs Project' which had been conceived to better understand the landscape surrounding the monument and to work out ways in which it could be better managed and preserved for the future. Part of the work involved the partial excavation of a small henge on Coneybury Hill, to the south-east of Stonehenge. This proved fruitful in many ways and the Coneybury Henge now stands as a significant monument in its own right.

However, lying just outside the henge, the magnetometer survey revealed an 'anomaly' which turned out to be a large pit, 2 metres across and 1.2 metres deep containing a huge collection of Neolithic pottery, animal bones and flint tools, deposited around 3900BC, over a thousand years before the henge was built.

The sheer volume of the deposits is intriguing, but the unique mix of lithics and animal bones in the pit perhaps tell the story of one particular event that happened in this landscape one day, six thousand years ago.

The paper from which we have taken our information “A Meeting in the Forest: Hunters and Farmers at the Coneybury ‘Anomaly’, Wiltshire can be accessed at Cambridge University Press.

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Though we say this ourselves, this interview with Professor Timothy Darvill OBE, should be required listening for all serious students of archaeology and fascinated amateurs alike. From his own early childhood beginnings in the discipline, to his thoughts on the purpose and future of archaeology, Tim delves into the detail of his work on the Cotswold Long Barrows, the Neolithic Isle of Man, the Preseli Bluestones and, of course, Stonehenge itself.

We were privileged to record this interview with Professor Darvill in his home in Bournemouth where he is Professor Of Archaeology And Director Of The Centre For Archaeology And Anthropology at Bournemouth University. We are so pleased to be able to share this intensive journey across the landscape of British prehistoric archaeology of the past decades in the company of one of its foremost influencers. 

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Specially for patrons at the STONE $3 and above levels, here is the first in a new series of exclusive podcasts for your enjoyment. 

"Every week we’ll be choosing a megalithic site that’s maybe a bit off the beaten track - perhaps some of the slightly less known or less visited ones, giving them a few minutes in the spotlight, doing what we can to create a little portrait for you of what they’re about and some of the impressions we’ve taken away from them".

First site we've chosen is a little favourite of ours from Dartmoor in Devon. Fernworthy Stone Circle (also known as Froggymead). It seems to have undergone a bit of a change of character recently as we know it as an enclosed, wooded monument, but recently the plantation trees have been cut down and now the site is open - more like it was back before the 1930s. 

Whichever way, it's a special place and we hope we do it justice in this short pice (16m 38s)

N.B. In the podcast we only mentioned two cairns associated with the circle. There are in fact five. 

ABOVE: Fernworthy (Froggymead) circle located by the red pin.

ABOVE: As the site appeared in 1907

ABOVE: As the site appeared to us filming in 2007

ABOVE: Part of the stone row to the north of the ring, showing the tiny stones. The ring can be glimpsed through the trees. Again, this is from 2007.

We have to confess we are not as knowledgable about American prehistory as we would like to be. But how could we have done better to begin educating ourselves than to talk to celebrated American archaeologist, Professor Bruce Bradley?

Until recently Emeritus Professor of Prehistory and Director of the Experimental Archaeology Masters Programme at the University of Exeter, Bruce has a remarkable c.v., having involved himself with stone-age technologies and experimental archaeology, the archaeology of the North American Southwest and Great Plains, the Upper Palaeolithic of Russia and France and is currently focused on the early peopling of the Americas.

He is one of the foremost flint knapping experts in the world and the insights into prehistoric lithic working practises perfectly placed him to formulate the 'Solutrean Hypothesis', his controversial theory that some parts of the North Eastern coast of America could have been populated by migrating people from the region of the Pyrenees and Northern Spain during the last glacial maximum.

We talk to him about his career, his current work and outline the story of Clovis and Pre-Clovis culture in the Americas as it is currently understood. We then turn to the idea for which he is best known, the 'Solutrean Hypothesis'.

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