This book was without a doubt interesting. But it was also bogged down by technicalities and I really found myself pretty confused by the conclusion. After not talking about individual freedoms well, at all, he concludes the book by saying that individual freedoms were the greatest legacy of prehistoric Britain. er, what? ( )

The first time I encountered Pryor was when he appeared on Time Team (of which I am an unashamed fangirl) so full of enthusiasm and ideas and energy about his work that the television practically shorted. To my delight he writes as he talks, I have rarely encountered a person more able to explain niggly details of archaeology as well as ponder the big picture in way that resonates with profound and always open-minded thinking. This is a person who, literally and figuratively, will always pick up a rock, no matter how sure he might be of what it signifies, and turn it over and over examining every angle. He begins with the Neolithic (post glacial period, Doggerland still connecting Europe to Great Britain) and so lots more coastal areas, thoroughly drowned now and moves up the centuries and millenia into the 'proto-historic' period of the Roman occupation (about the ultimate value of which for British cultural development he is skeptical, except maybe for drains), stopping there. Pryor's thesis is that a separate culture developed for thousands of years that had far less tendencies to tilt vertically with the elite at the top and a greater respect for individual freedoms and communal decision-making. (Albeit he makes it clear that the Euro was and still is a better idea than the pound.) Along the way he shows what changes from the Neolithic to the Bronze and Iron Ages, and more importantly what does not change, what lasts and lasts, even through the Roman era -- certain ritual customs (tossing votive objects in rivers and lakes), living in round houses in communities that show little to no sign of having a 'big man' in charge or any particular hierarchy whatsoever, fairness in allocation of arable land (everybody in a community appeared to get a bit of wet, a bit of very good for crops, a bit of higher land for grazing). Too, there is little evidence of fighting amongst each other, indeed, boundaries are made sacred in all areas of life, between individuals, communities, the living and the dead. Arts and artifice (as in making weapons, tools) were excellent and often sublimely good, clothing was brightly dyed and well-woven. The Romans had to make up reasons to trash the British, so they cooked up the savage story, just as 'we' folk from Europe did to the native people here, and the English did to Ireland, India etcetera. Pryor does find it hard to fathom the British (although he propposes it was to justify their own empire building) swallowed the Romans schtick that they were civilized and no one else. Oh well, I'm babbling and giving the wrong impression because a huge amount of the book is about specific discoveries, the neolithic chambers, the henges, the hill forts, and lake houses, the brochs and burial practices, the field systems and the treasure, the glorious finds! For me this was a ten-pages-a-night read so I feel a little bereft! ***** ( )

Francis Pryor, a sometime contributor to Channel 4's Time Team, presents us with a highly readable, fascinating study of Britain's prehistory, from the Stone Age right up to the Roman occupation of AD46. What is revealed is far from the savage tribes that conventional history would have us believe (we are still taught that the Romans brought 'civilisation' to us, conveniently ignoring the complex, sophisticated culture that these islands already possessed). Pryor traces the development of the Britons through the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages, putting forward persuasive theories about the role of religion, death and the landscape in our ancestors lives. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of this land and its peoples. ( )

This book provides a superb background into Britain's pre-Roman past. The only mention of this period of history that I remember, in my entire schooling, was at infant level when we were made to feel superior to those dullard cave dwelling primitives.

I have not given this vast chunk of time a great deal of consideration since then and so, I have subconsciously held on to this view. Francis Pryor, clearly a great advocate for early Britons, effortlessly re-writes my perspective of early Britain. In three sections, which I believe to have been linked to a television series, which I managed to miss, he takes us from what is known of the earliest settlement to the Roman invasion.

Reading a work like this gives a real insight into our changing views upon early Homo Sapiens and how we dealt with near cousins who were around at the same time. It seems that we were created as a war like beast and may even have consumed some of our rivals for the title of dominant strain.

Well worth a read. ( )

I'd only add to the existing reviews this observation. Pryor at one point commends a fellow archaeologist for doing a meticulous excavation and documenting it superbly without making any assertions about what it might signify. Pryor on the other hand is essentially using this book to talk about what archaeology in the British Isles signifies. This isn't a contradiction, but it is a distinction. Sometimes, working through this very readable (and admirable) book, the reader is challenged to tease apart the observation from the observations. But for all that, highly recommended. ( )