The Prehistory Guys

PODCAST #29 | Mike Allen | Snails, Stonehenge and Prehistoric Landscapes

The Prehistory Guys talk to environmental archaeologist and conchologist (snail expert) Dr Mike Allen, lecturer at Oxford University and research fellow at Bournemouth University. Help support us and join our Patreon community

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PODCAST #28 | Lightning Strikes at Callanish?

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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PODCAST #27 | Seven Ages Research Associates INTERVIEW

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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PODCAST #26 | The Coneybury Anomaly at Stonehenge

 

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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PODCAST #25 | PROFESSOR TIM DARVILL | Stonehenge, Bluestones & Barrows

 

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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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PODCAST #24 - Solutrean Hypothesis | PROFESSOR BRUCE BRADLEY

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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PODCAST #23 - Neolithization of Britain | Dr. ALISON SHERIDAN

The Prehistory Guys are very proud to share with you this fantastic interview with Dr. Alison Sheridan, recently retired Principal Archaeological Research Curator at the National Museums of Scotland.

As you'll find out in the first minutes of this podcast, Alison's C.V. is simply spectacular. If there's such a thing as an A-List archaeologist, she is a prime example of what that looks like - not only in terms of her output and influence, but in the extraordinary breadth of her study.

Her special area however, is the crossover period between the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in Britain and Ireland. In this interview you'll find out what makes her thesis on how the Neolithic 'package' made it across from the continent 6,000 years ago both compelling and controversial and discover her passion for the life archaeological!

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PODCAST #22 BEER in the Neolithic | Merryn & Graham Dineley

 

Ancient craft and brewing specialist Merryn Dineley, together with her brewing expert husband Graham join us to discus how the general unawareness of the way beer is brewed leads to the evidence for it in prehistory being overlooked. Once the process is understood, then the existence of large vessels, like the Grooved Ware pot from Durrington Walls above, suddenly makes sense, as do some of the details inside many excavated ancient and Neolithic buildings up and down Britain and beyond.

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