A History of Ancient Britain

To Tom Affleck
who was there at the start

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

TWO
  Ancestors

THREE
  Cosmology

FOUR
  Bronze

FIVE
  Iron

SIX
 Warriors

SEVEN
  Invasion

EIGHT
 Romans

INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CHAPTER
1

1. A horse head etched into the surface of a rib bone (
© The Trustees of the British Museum
)

2. Cheddar Man (
Martin Engelmann / AGE Fotostock
)

3. A Flint handaxe from Hoxne (
akg-images / Erich Lessing
)

4. Goat’s Hole Cave at Paviland (
Paul D Stewart / Science Photo Library
)

5. Red Deer frontlet from Star Carr (
Reproduced by permission of University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology 1953.61)
)

6. Carnac Stones (
Age fotostock / photolibrary.com
)

7. Inside the chamber of the Table des Marchands burial mound (
DEA / G. Dagli Orti / Getty Images
)

8. West Kennet long barrow in Wiltshire (
© Skyscan / Corbis
)

9. Inside the chamber of Maes Howe, on Orkney (
Charles Tait
)

10. A polished stone axe (
The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire
)

11. Skara Brae plan (
© Crown Copyright reproduced courtesy of Historic Scotland. www.historicscotlandimages.gov.uk
)

12. The Amesbury Archer (
© Courtesy of Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum
)

13. The Dover Boat (
Dover Museum and Bronze Age Boat Gallery
)

14. Nether Largie South Cairn, in Kilmartin Glen, Argyll (
Gary Cook / Alamy
)

15. A rock-cut footprint near the summit of Dunadd, in Argyll (
David Robertson / Alamy
)

16. A necklace made of Whitby Jet found in a woman’s grave at Poltalloch (
© National Museums Scotland. Licensor
www.scran.ac.uk
)

17. Great Orme copper mine (
Chris Howes / Wild Places Photography / Alamy
)

18. An aerial view of Gurness Broch (
© Jim Richardson / Corbis
)

19. Lindow Man (
© The Trustees of the British Museum
)

20. Fiskerton tools (
The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire
)

21. The Battersea Shield (
Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd / Alamy
)

22. Skulls recovered from Danebury hill fort (
© Arts & Museums Service, Hampshire County Council)
)

23. Spearheads recovered from Danebury hill fort (
© Arts & Museums Service, Hampshire County Council
)

24. The Kirkburn Sword (
© The Trustees of the British Museum
)

25. The Llyn Cerrig Bach slave chain (
© National Museum of Wales
)

26. The Thames Spearhead (
Werner Forman Archive / British Museum, London
)

27. Silbury Hill (
Hideo Kurihara / Alamy
)

28. One of the grand gold torcs of the Snettisham Treasure (
© The Trustees of the British Museum
)

29. Triple spiral pecked into one of the recesses in the passage grave of Newgrange (
Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd / Alamy
)

30. The
lilia
defences on the northern side of the Antonine Wall (
David Lyons / Alamy
)

31. Banjo enclosure, North Down, Dorset (
© Miles Russell, Bournemouth University
)

32. Birrus Britannicus (
J Beecham / Ancient Art & Architecture Collection
)

33. Irish divination spoons (
Werner Forman Archive / National Museum of Ireland
)

34. The hoard of gold jewellery found near Stirling (
Sandy Young / Alamy
)

35. A tiny silver minim found at Silchester (
Mike Eckhoff, © University of Reading
)

36. The Falkirk Tartan (
© National Museums Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
)

37. A curse tablet recovered from the sacred waters of Bath (
Bath & North East Somerset Council
)

38. Two silver handles from the vast hoard found on Traprain Law (
© National Museums Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I was soaked to the skin and shivering in what I earnestly believe to have been the outskirts of hypothermia. I was in the middle of a peat bog in the west of Ireland and the
freezing rain was sweeping across the landscape in great cloaking sheets. I might as well have been under water. We had been filming for hours, one of the cameras had already given up the ghost and
I was asking myself, quite seriously, what on earth I was doing standing ankle-deep in mud, with rainwater running down my skin inside my clothes. But then I looked around at the crew –
director, cameraman, sound recordist, researchers – and reminded myself of something important: my discomfort in the rain and wind would one day be seen by an audience; someone, somewhere
would see that it had happened. But while my misery was being recorded for posterity, everyone else’s would go unnoticed. And no one was complaining. Not a single word.

As often as possible – sometimes several times a day, in fact – I remind myself how lucky I am to have this job. Bad weather might be an occasional blight, but after all it’s
only an occupational hazard for folk who mostly work outside. I also try and bear in mind that my job is made possible only by the unstinting efforts of others.

This is the time therefore, long overdue, when I get to thank those who also stand miserable and drenched on sodden bogs (sometimes bearing flasks of hot tea), or on wind-blasted cliff tops, or
in the wheelhouses of little boats wallowing in big seas. I have not forgotten!

Just like a television documentary, a book is the product of the hard work of many different people. One with a grand title like
A History of Ancient Britain
is dependent upon the efforts
of a whole range of thoughtful and painstaking professionals.

A mountainous debt is owed to Michael Dover, my editor and publisher at Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Unless and until you have listened to his always calm, constantly reassuring and encouraging
voice, you cannot begin to imagine what a steadying presence he provides for anyone struggling to face down the unforgiving stare of the blank page. Thank you, Michael.

Linden Lawson’s brilliance as a copy-editor and proof-reader deserves nothing less than whole pages of appreciation. I am constantly stunned by her attention to detail and by her ability
to fine-tune and fettle, so that the final version is as close as humanly possible to what I actually meant to say all along.

Grateful thanks are also due to editorial assistants Nicki Crossley and Jillian Young, and picture researcher Caroline Hotblack has shown great imagination and sensitivity in sourcing all of the
illustrative material that enlivens the text. My experience of Weidenfeld & Nicolson over the past few years has been a real treat and the whole team there has my admiration.

It almost goes without saying that the book would never have happened without the BBC Television series of the same name. Cameron Balbirnie was the series producer and somewhere along the way he
has become a good friend as well. No mortal could have given more of himself in pursuit of the creation of a series worthy of the name of
A History of Ancient Britain
. Not content with
sweating blood to create the best television possible, Cameron also found time to read through the proofs of this book to help ensure we were all singing from the same hymn sheet. Executive
producer Eamon Hardy was an ever-present champion of the series and grateful thanks are owed to him as well.

Also crucial were the five producer-directors – each of whom contributed hugely to the content of the book. So to Paul King, Arif Nurmohamed, Dick Taylor, Jeff Wilkinson and Simon
Winchcombe – a huge and heartfelt thank-you.

Series researchers Sarah Ager, Ellie James, Poonam Odedraand and Mark Williams worked wonders – sourcing and checking information, finding contributors and fighting the forces of error and
falsehood on a daily basis. I just hope I have the chance to work with them again.