Ancestors: A prehistory of Britain in seven burials

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This is a book about belonging: about walking in ancient places, in the footsteps of the ancestors . It requires imagination, as well as scientific expertise, to read the “stories written in stone, pottery, metal and bone”. This theoretical viewpoint means that Alice Roberts has to address the ways that contemporary roles in society have been projected backwards onto archaeological remains. Alice Roberts argues in Ancestors that we need to consciously set aside our own bias and try to evaluate archaeological remains on their own terms.

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. But in Ancestors , anthropologist, 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. Together with two stone wrist guards, or bracers, they formed the largest collection of bronze age archery equipment ever found. Ancestors is a carefully thought out and well-expressed argument for a new way of doing prehistory -- trying to prevent the shape of present-day society from dictating how we understand the past.

Photograph: Christopher Jones/Alamy View image in fullscreen Bryn Celli Ddu, a Neolithic passage tomb on Anglesey. This is a good thing, because it means she has to paint word pictures of the burials, and her writing is beautiful. She is certainly not recommending that we try to fit those remains into 21st century gender categories, but uses that as an example to show how 19th and 20th century ideas of gender and class have affected archaeological theories from those times. 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.

There is such a scope of knowledge between the covers of this book that you feel like a better and more knowledgeable person having read it. 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. For example, one chapter revolves around the ways in which the presence of Stonehenge has distorted our theories about the surrounding landscape -- every settlement turns into "where the builders of Stonehenge lived"; even Mesolithic remains are evaluated in the context of their proximity to Stonehenge! Indeed the grave itself contained nearly a hundred items – including copper knives, gold objects, boars’ tusks and a shale ring – making it the most richly furnished grave from the period that had ever been discovered in Britain.Roberts is a prolific TV presenter, and Ancestors skilfully deploys the arts of screen storytelling: narrative pace, a sense of mysteries being unfolded. One thing that did surprise me that Alice Roberts did not mention particularly when talking about women warriors and even gender fluidity was the Scythians as she does mention the Yamnaya culture "“Yamnaya (from the Russian for pits: yama) and has long been recognised to have connections with the Bell Beaker phenomenon in western Europe. e 1-star, the author's atheist/ anti-church droning and never missing an opportunity to inject wokeness. Alice has been a Professor of Public Engagement with Science at the University of Birmingham since 2012.

The content was accessible but more importantly, I was gripped by the way she challenged accepted ideas, inviting the reader to engage with a different way of thinking. But in Ancestors, anthropologist, 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. In her book, Roberts takes seven different prehistoric burials and explores who they may have been and what they reveal about their communities.

Had she been able to infuse the whole of the text with this compelling style, I would have given the book five stars. But, would the pre-archaeology topic have piqued public interest for a hundred years to advance the study to modern standards?