Francis Pryor

A journey through the evolution of Britain's prehistoric landscape, and an insight into the lives of its inhabitants, in fifteen scenes.

From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans

Scenes from Prehistoric Life

Traditionally, British history has been regarded as starting with the Roman Conquest. Yet this is to ignore half a million years of prehistory that still exert a profound influence on British and Irish life today. In Britain BC, Francis Pryor sets the record straight. Aided in recent years by aerial photography and coastal erosion (which has helped expose such sites as Seahenge), and by advances in scientific techniques such as radiocarbon dating and wood analysis, archaeologists have discovered compelling evidence for a much more sophisticated life among the Ancient Britons than has been previously supposed. Far from being woad-painted barbarians, the earliest inhabitants of the British Isles had developed their own religions, laws, crafts, arts, trade systems, farms, and priesthood long before the Romans' brief occupation. Examining sites from the great ceremonial landscapes of Stonehenge, Avebury, and the Bend of the Boyne to small domestic settlements, and objects from precious ritual offerings to the tiny fragments of flint discarded by toolmakers, Francis Pryor, one of our leading archaeologists, has created a remarkable portrait of the life of our ancestors, in all its variety and complexity. His authoritative and radical re-examination of Britain and Ireland before the coming of the Romans makes us look afresh at the whole story of our islands.

Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans

Britain B.C.

Leading archaeologist Francis Pryor retells the story of King Arthur, legendary king of the Britons, tracing it back to its Bronze Age origins. The legend of King Arthur and Camelot is one of the most enduring in Britain's history, spanning centuries and surviving invasions by Angles, Vikings, and Normans. In his latest book Francis Pryor—one of Britain's most celebrated archaeologists and author of the acclaimed Britain B.C. and Seahenge—traces the story of Arthur back to its ancient origins. Putting forth the compelling idea that most of the key elements of the Arthurian legends are deeply rooted in Bronze and Iron Ages (the sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake, the Sword in the Stone, and so on), Pryor argues that the legends' survival mirrors a flourishing, indigenous culture that endured through the Roman occupation of Britain, and the subsequent invasions of the so-called Dark Ages. As in Britain B.C., Pryor roots his story in the very landscape, from Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, to South Cadbury Castle in Somerset, and Tintagel in Cornwall. He traces the story back to the 5th-century King Arthur and beyond, all the time testing his ideas with archaeological evidence, and showing how the story was manipulated through the ages for various historical and literary purposes, by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Malory, among others. Delving into history, literary sources—ancient, medieval, and romantic—and archaeological research, Francis Pryor creates an original, lively, and illuminating account of this most British of legends.

A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons

Britain AD

A Quest for Life and Death in Bronze Age Britian

Seahenge

This is the changing story of Britain as it has been preserved in our fields, roads, buildings, towns and villages, mountains, forests and islands. From our suburban streets that still trace out the boundaries of long vanished farms to the Norfolk Broads, formed when medieval peat pits flooded, from the ceremonial landscapes of Stonehenge to the spread of the railways - evidence of how man's effect on Britain is everywhere. In The Making of the British Landscape, eminent historian, archaeologist and farmer, Francis Pryor explains how to read these clues to understand the fascinating history of our land and of how people have lived on it throughout time. Covering both the urban and rural and packed with pictures, maps and drawings showing everything from how we can still pick out Bronze Age fields on Bodmin Moor to how the Industrial Revolution really changed our landscape, this book makes us look afresh at our surroundings and really see them for the first time.

How We Have Transformed the Land, from Prehistory to Today

The Making of the British Landscape

The story of how Francis Pryor created a haven for people, plants and wildlife in a remote corner of the fens. A Fenland Garden is the story of the creation of a garden in a complex and fragile English landscape – the Fens of southern Lincolnshire – by a writer who has a very particular relationship with landscape and the soil, thanks to his distinguished career as an archaeologist and discoverer of some of England's earliest field systems. It describes the imagining, planning and building of a garden in an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile place, and the challenges, setbacks and joys these processes entail. This is a narrative of the making of a garden, but it is also about reclaiming a patch of ground for nature and wildlife – of repairing the damage done to a small slice of Fenland landscape by decades of intensive farming. A Fenland Garden is informed by the empirical wisdom of a practising gardener (and archaeologist) and by his deep understanding of the soil, landscape and weather of the region; Francis's account of the development of the garden is counterpointed by fascinating nuggets of Fenland lore and history, as well as by vignettes of the plantsman's trials and tribulations as he works an exceptionally demanding plot of land. Above all, this is the story of bringing something beautiful into being; of embedding a garden in the local landscape; and thereby of deepening and broadening the idea of home.

Creating a haven for people, plants & wildlife

A Fenland Garden

a time traveller's tales from British prehistory

Home

An illustrated, evocative narrative of the nature and history of Stonehenge that places the enigmatic stone megaliths in a wider cultural context. Perched on the chalk uplands of Salisbury Plain, the megaliths of Stonehenge offer one of the most recognizable outlines of any ancient structure. Its purpose—place of worship, sacrificial arena, giant calendar—is unknown, but its story is one of the most extraordinary of any of the world's prehistoric monuments. Constructed in several phases over a period of some 1500 years, beginning in 3000 BC, Stonehenge's key elements are its “bluestones,” transported from West Wales by unexplained means, and its sarsen stones quarried from the nearby Marlborough Downs. Francis Pryor delivers a rigorous account of the nature and history of Stonehenge, but also places the enigmatic monument in a wider cultural context, bringing acute insight into how antiquarians, scholars, writers, artists–and even neopagans—have interpreted the mystery over the centuries.

The Story of a Sacred Landscape

Stonehenge

Drawing upon on a wealth of knowledge, discovery, research, and technical advances, this historical book dispels the common misconception of the "Dark Ages" as an era of chaos and violence. Redefining everything from the role of the Vikings to the supposed rigidity of the feudal system, this eminent archaeologist demolishes many of the myths about medieval Britain. Readers will learn that the Middle Ages were far from static; the two centuries following the Black Death epidemic of 1348, were a time of diversity, transition, and growth. Engaging and scholarly, this book reintroduces the reader to an era that gave birth to the modern world.

An Archaeological History

Britain in the Middle Ages

One of the most haunting and enigmatic archaeological discoveries of recent times was the uncovering in 1998 at low tide of the so-called Seahenge on the north coast of Norfolk. This circle of wooden planks set vertically in the sand, with a large inverted tree-trunk in the middle, likened to a ghostly "hand reaching up from the underworld", has now been dated to around 2020 BC. It focused national attention on archaeology to an extent not seen for many years, and the issues raised by its removal and preservation made it a "cause celebre". Francis Pryor has been at the centre of British archaeological fieldwork for nearly 30 years, piecing together the way of life of Bronze Age people, their settlement of the landscape, their religion and rituals. "Seahenge" demonstrates how much Western civilization owes to the prehistoric societies that existed in Europe in the last four millennia BC.

A Quest for Life and Death in Bronze Age Britain

The Fens are a distinctive, complex, man-made and little understood landscape. Francis Pryor has lived in, excavated, farmed, walked – and loved – the Fen Country for more than forty years: its levels and drains, its soaring churches, its magnificent medieval buildings. In The Fens, he counterpoints the history of the Fen landscape and its transformation – the great drainage projects that created the Old and New Bedford Rivers, the Ouse Washes and Bedford Levels, the rise of prosperous towns and cities, such as King's Lynn, Cambridge, Wisbech, Boston and Spalding – with the story of his own discovery of it as an archaeologist. Interweaving personal experience, the graft and the grime of the dig, and lyrical evocations of place, Francis Pryor offers a unique portrait of a neglected by remarkable area of England.

Discovering England's Ancient Depths

The Fens

In Home Francis Pryor, author of The Making of the British Landscape, archaeologist and broadcaster, takes us on his lifetime's quest: to discover the origins of family life in prehistoric Britain Francis Pryor's search for the origins of our island story has been the quest of a lifetime. In Home, the Time Team expert explores the first nine thousand years of life in Britain, from the retreat of the glaciers to the Romans' departure. Tracing the settlement of domestic communities, he shows how archaeology enables us to reconstruct the evolution of habits, traditions and customs. But this, too, is Francis Pryor's own story: of his passion for unearthing our past, from Yorkshire to the west country, Lincolnshire to Wales, digging in freezing winters, arid summers, mud and hurricanes, through frustrated journeys and euphoric discoveries. Evocative and intimate, Home shows how, in going about their daily existence, our prehistoric ancestors created the institution that remains at the heart of the way we live now: the family. 'Under his gaze, the land starts to fill with tribes and clans wandering this way and that, leaving traces that can still be seen today . . . Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it' - Guardian Former president of the Council for British Archaeology, Dr Francis Pryor has spent over thirty years studying our prehistory. He has excavated sites as diverse as Bronze Age farms, field systems and entire Iron Age villages. He appears frequently on TV's Time Team and is the author of The Making of the British Landscape, Seahenge, as well as Britain BC and Britain AD, both of which he adapted and presented as Channel 4 series.

A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Prehistory

John C. Barrett

The Flag Fen Basin has been the subject of nearly continuous archaeological research since about 1900. This research sheds new light on the Neolithic landscape, on the Iron Age and Roman landscapes, and on the changing environmental conditions since the earlier Neolithic.

Archaeology and Environment of a Fenland Landscape

The Flag Fen Basin

Leading archaeologist Francis Pryor retells the story of King Arthur, legendary king of the Britons, tracing it back to its Bronze Age origins.

Britain AD: A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons

Archaeologist and detective, Alan Cadbury, returns for his second adventure. In The Lifers’ Club, he unravelled the background to a violent death on an archaeological dig in the Fens, a wild marshy region in the east of England. The Way, the Truth and the Dead takes us to the black peatlands of the south, around the glorious cathedral city of Ely. It’s a watery landscape where the many ancient dykes, drains and rivers conceal dark secrets. Alan finds himself the Director of an important Roman and early Medieval excavation at the little hamlet of Fursby, not far from Littleport. But shortly before he starts work, he is contacted by his old friend, Detective Chief Inspector Richard Lane. Lane needs help – a body has been found in a river near the dig. And the dead person is an archaeologist, an old friend of Alan’s. It soon becomes clear that this will be no ordinary excavation: the remains are of national importance and their preservation is outstanding. So it comes as no surprise when a major television series decides to adopt it as a flagship project, opening the dig up to the public at a time when the rural community would rather keep things quiet...

The Way, the Truth and the Dead

A personal, historical journey across one of the most mysterious regions of England, exploring its archaeology, history and landscapes.

Archaeology and environment of a Fenland landscape

Flag Fen is a prehistoric timber platform, which, with its associated long avenue of posts probably served as a religious centre. The author gives a personal account of the discovery and excavation of this unique prehistoric wetland site and discusses the particular problems of its conservation. Francis Pryor is Director of excavations at Flag Fen and is founder of the Fenland Archaeological Trust.

Francis Pryor

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