Ancestors: A Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials

I have always enjoyed watching her on the television and now find I enjoy reading all about the digs featuring the pre -Roman period.a delightful to read.

If you are considering buying this book, you will presumably be expecting an analysis of burial rituals and what they may or may not tell us about our ancestors. The main topic is covered in sufficient for the armchair archaeologist and is accessible without descending into a dry, academic, study.Stylistically, Alice Roberts seems to be trying to plot the middle ground between an erudite discussion and an easily digestible format. A difficult task and not one in which I am sure she has entirely succeeded. Interesting as the content was, the fluidity with which (in places) she shifted from technical analysis, to dialogue, to whimsy made it difficult to enjoy.I was able to forgive these shortcomings however, when in the final chapters, she discussed Pitt Rivers. 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. Had she been able to infuse the whole of the text with this compelling style, I would have given the book five stars.

A reading pleasure so very interesting and informative would recommend

A very informative and thought provoking book. Today just visited the Dolmens of Antequera and really did make me reevaluate what i thought of the historic burial chambers.

So many of the Amazon reviews describe Alice Roberts' book as woke or foolishly trendy in its attitude to gender, that I was put off buying it for several months. I was wrong. It is not woke or trendy. However, it is rather different from Alice's other books.On the surface, this is a book about a few selected burials in the area that is now the UK. The burials are described in detail, as is the history of their discovery, excavation and the theories around them. There are very few pictures in the book -- really just a few paintings by Alice Roberts herself. This is a good thing, because it means she has to paint word pictures of the burials, and her writing is beautiful.The thing that makes Ancestors different from Alice Roberts' older books is that she writes about the history of the discoveries and the ideas around them. This makes it quite a theoretical book, in that it addresses the ways that prehistory derived from archaeology gets it wrong. 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!This theoretical viewpoint means that Alice Roberts has to address the ways that contemporary roles in society have been projected backwards onto archaeological remains. In the 20th Century, society was largely defined by a division into male and female, and property ownership was the key to social class. Archaeologists opened a tomb, found items they thought of as gendered (jewellery/mirrors versus weapons/chariots) and assigned gender to the human remains on that basis. Then they would evaluate graves according to grave goods and assign social class. They ended up recreating prehistoric societies which mirrored their own, largely down to circular arguments.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. 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.(As an aside, not in her book, I note that social gender categories often follow linguistic gender categories. Linguistic gender is the way that words are tied together by categorising the things they represent, thus nouns are tied to pronouns by gender, and both are tied to adjectives in many European languages. The language of the Beaker People was a variant of Proto-Indo-European, which had two linguistic genders -- animate and inanimate. Perhaps the important divide for the Beaker people was into animate/singular and neuter/collective, rather than owned wealth or male/female?)Those reviewers who class Alice Roberts' book as 'woke' have misunderstood it. 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.

Crypt was an excellent read from start to finish. Perhaps as a doctor I find the history of illness/disease interesting and can relate it to my own modern day practice. This however drags a little. A decent editor would have pared this down by about 25% and nothing would have been lost. There are too many attempts to debunk past theories but then just adds in a modern day theory, which she then admits may not be true either. Many sentences are related almost word for word later in a chapter. The chapter on gender had me rolling my eyes to the back of my head - tedious in the extreme. Bad examples of abnormal sex chromosomes are given - XO and XXY will still have female and male characteristics respectively. Perhaps talking more about CAH would have been more appropriate as this can cause diagnostic confusion to this date in some cases. And again, AR admits that her or her colleagues thoughts may not be correct either. A little better proof reading is also required eg the dates about Pitt Rivers buying a house and his death don’t add up. But, if you just stick to the facts then there are some interesting chapters about Stone Age and Bronze Age British burials and how they may be related to changes occurring in a wave across Europe. Just be prepared to skim read a few pages here and there.

Great Book

Although this isn't my usual reading material, I really enjoyed this book. Her style of writing paints a good picture of what she saw and what it meant. To my surprise, I found the subject of prehistoric burials to be fascinating.

well laid out

Professor Roberts writes in a very accessible style to bring the reader right up to date with current research directions on British prehistory. This is a subject about which she has been involved as broadcaster and author for many years and about which she is both authoritive and a great communicator.

The book is well researched and well written. Its for amateurs, like me. The subject matter is fascinating. However, about 3/4 thru, the author, while telling us not to impose current societal norms and issues on ancient cultures, goes on and on about the possibility, with no evidence whatsoever, of trans men and women living thousands of years ago. It may be possible but the only reason it was brought up was because of current events. She imposed her personal belief/understanding of current societal issues on the past. Exactly what she said to not do. That was disappointing and reduced her credibility. The fact that gender roles were fluid at various times is not proof of fluid sexual identity. I'm sure there were gay men, lesbian women and more. But, illustrate that with science. If there is no science then why bring it up?