Buried: An alternative history of the first millennium in Britain

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An archaeology that – as technology advances almost into the realms of sci-fi – increasingly doesn’t need words inscribed on wax tablets to tell the stories of humans who lived thousands of years BCE. But you've asked another question, which is about how scientists get information across to people and whether that's been done particularly well over the course of the pandemic. And I think it's very difficult because what we've seen over the last 18 months is that it's become incredibly political. And it's actually very difficult to tease apart the politics from the science and of course, every individual scientist – scientists aren’t apolitical, but I think the important thing is that they know that that they know, in their professional life, they strive for objectivity. And I think that's, you know, what we really need in a time of pandemic is those scientists that, you know, bring that objectivity of their professional discipline to bear on the evidence that we can see in front of us. The reduction of history to simple dualities - Romans versus indigenous Britons, civilisation versus barbarism - does no-one any favours. The past was more complicated than that, and the political choices we face in the present are, too. Missing from many of these oversimplified debates is any discussion of economies - as important in the Roman Empire as it is in modern Europe - and the distribution of power. The Roman administration brought benefits for some in Britain, threatened others and for some, made very little difference at all. For certain people, in certain areas of Roman Britannia, at particular times, it may have felt like living under an oppressive regime enforced by a military occupation. Others may have seen their horizons, their lifestyles and their incomes expanding. For others again, it may have been almost an irrelevance in the context of daily life. And so often, we either forget or gloss over the reality that slavery was the fuel which kept the cogs of the Imperial machine turning - and, indeed, powered Iron Age societies beyond the Empire. Of course, that didn't stop as we enter the medieval period, either. Moving onto the steamy heat of the industrial revolution, fossil fuels drove an economic boom for some nations, though slavery remained integral to the production of high-value foods and minerals. Longevity and quality of life have improved on average, around the world, in the last century and a half. Scientific and technological advances can be thanked for that improvement. But still, it's very unequal. I think all of us that write and read books know very well that there are people who, still, will never - can never - read our words.

Chapter 8 looks at how archaeological DNA analysis (aDNA) is allowing archaeologists to ask and sometimes answer questions that couldn’t previously have been answered with such certainty: Perhaps one of the problems – certainly when it comes to British prehistory - is the paucity of written accounts before the arrival of highly literate Romans on our isle.I love Alice Roberts, her enthusiasm, the depth and breadth of her knowledge and expertise, and the gift she has for bringing the past to life. It's fascinating how modern analysis techniques have transformed archaeology. Old bones and artefacts can now tell us far more about our ancestors and the way they lived (and died) than ever our very recent predecessors would have thought was possible. But that doesn't mean that we have to invent things to fill in these gaps. And we have this brilliant tool called science, which can help us to explore these gaps, but also actually to accept that science probably won't be able to tell us everything, and that we still don't need to invoke supernatural entities. And yeah, so I think for me, it was quite a long time after I became an atheist, that I realised that actually what described my approach to the world best was humanism, because of the way that we view the world as a natural place and our position in it is a natural phenomenon, that we are an evolved species just like any other. So that came through very strongly from me studying biology. But there's some really profound bigger picture stuff as well. It's quite a disruptive technology at the moment, because it's coming along and providing answers that we didn't even know were possible 10 years ago. But I think it will get to the point where it becomes an almost standard thing to do when you're analysing human remains, in the same way that we use radiocarbon dating to work out the date of any organic remains. I think that we'll be seeing genomes used much more frequently and much more widely. About the Author: Professor Alice Roberts is an academic, author and broadcaster, specialising in human anatomy, physiology, evolution, archaeology and history. In 2001, Alice made her television debut on Channel 4’s Time Team, and went on to write and present The Incredible Human Journey, Origins of Us and Ice Age Giants on BBC2. She is also the presenter of the popular TV series Digging for Britain. Alice has been a Professor of Public Engagement with Science at the University of Birmingham since 2012.

I also formed the impression that this was not the polished book that Roberts might have hoped to complete, as some of the genome research has been delayed by prioritising Covid-19 work, and reports for other excavations have not yet been completed. However, this does not detract from the book, and makes one appreciate all the more that archaeology is a developing subject and not static. At one point Roberts memorably describes excavating Beaker pottery, like that found in the grave of the Amesbury Archer. It was, she writes movingly, “a gorgeous object”, one that allowed her to feel a profound connection across time to those involved in the burial: “Human experience is built of moments – and here were two, linked together across millennia. The moment I lifted the bowl out of the grave, my hands earthy from digging; the moment the potter (the mourner, the parent?) held the bowl in their hands, making that corded pattern, their hands covered in clay.”Although Roberts does draw on genomic evidence to show the migration of peoples in prehistory, what is so fascinating about this book is the way it weaves together scientific and cultural interpretation. Detailed archaeology – trowel work – as well as historical imagination are still essential to understanding the past. We need to be as objective as possible in our approach to history and archaeology while recognising that our interpretations will always be coloured by our own political and cultural perspectives. " It's a shame that the book is marred in this way. One expects something more impartial from an academic author, even in a popular book. Highlights importance of using an interdisciplinary approach when attempting to understand history. Particularly the last chapter around the current divisions we have in society and attitudes to migration and 'otherness'.

This is the archaeological culture war: in one corner, culture-history, massive migrations and population replacement; in the other, cultural diffusion, a dissemination of ideas while the population stays put. Like any culture war, it's much too polarised and too clearly defined. History - people - are much messier than that. The answers are much more likely to lie somewhere in the middle. They sure as hell won't be simple - and each 'event' would also have been different and unique. And we're only just starting to get the data we need to understand these transitions.Except she did this in her previous book, too--archaeogenomics is very exciting! Much potential! Such answers! Wow! The first time she brought it up in this book I got excited, thinking that now we were finally going to get some of those results that she'd teased in her previous book. But no. Still coming! So ground-breaking! Much soonly! Very answers! And I think the first thing that we feel when we read about this, or even see the remains, as I've done, is a sense of quite intense disgust, actually. Which I think is reasonable, because we don't tend to go around eating each other nowadays. But again, we need to be objective: we need to think, right? Was it abhorrent to them? It obviously wasn't that abhorrent, because they're doing it. And you've got to think about all the reasons why somebody might have been eating someone else, you know. It could be nutritional, it could be that they're starving. I think the skull cups goes against that a bit. And there's also a bit of engraving on a radius too, so there's something more going on than just food. Choleric readers may find themselves spluttering at this last aspect of the book – the insistence that old bones cannot simply be studied, but must also be empathised with. One chapter – which begins with another mutilated child, possibly chopped to bits to save the mother’s life during a breech birth – is accompanied by a full-blown trigger warning, suggesting that sensitive readers may wish to skip it entirely. But this is the 21st century, like it or not. And Roberts’s legions of fans will find themselves delighted by a book that is both accessible and expert, wears deep learning lightly, and provides a solid introduction to an often murky age in Britain’s early medieval past. In summary, I was disappointed. I read Ancestors in the hope of learning more about prehistoric Britons. In the event, I mostly learned about British archaeologists, who are, in broad outline, pretty similar to American molecular biologists or German physicists, or academics anywhere.