A lot of people still think that we were just woad-covered savages before the Romans came along. Well, we weren't - firstly we weren't covered in woad but dressed in a rather elegant new-fangled invention - trousers; more importantly we were organised, spiritual, technologically advanced Brits with European business connections – all without towns and cities or being able to read and write!
This programme shows the evolution of the people of Britain from Stone Age hunters to Iron Age warriors. From early people who used animal bone picks to dig mines to a society skilled in the use of metallurgy, bronze, iron and gold. From a nomadic existence to a society organised into tribes with their own coinage and identities. From farmers using simple wooden ploughs to ferocious warriors driving thousands of chariots and repulsing the invading Roman army of Julius Caesar.
First broadcast: Wednesday 16 Feb 2005 on BBC TWO
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Ancient Britons
Could anyone explain to me why it seems that only people from the european continent have coloured hair, most of the worlds native populations seem to have black hair.
Re: Hair Colour
Do the panel know of the rare but not uncommon annomally of the Aboriginal people of Western Australia actually having blonde hair and light coloured eyes even though they have very dark skins.
This was not due to a result of mixed breeding with the Europeans after colonization but was actually indigenous before the Europeans arrived.
Or the very rare indigenous people called 'Ainu' of Hokkaido 'Northern Japan', who are said to be of caucasian in appearance.
And had their own language too, much different to Japanese.
Ancient Britons
I must have missed the first couple of minutes of the programme, joining only when the Flint Axe was stated as being 800,000 years old and crafted by homoheidlebergensis. Can anyone tell me how it was dated and how it was linked to that branch of our ancesters?
Thanks
Martin
Re: Ancient Britons
Hi Martin,
Handaxes are dated by typology, so this is a case of dating the axe by its shape, and linking that with the knowledge that h. heidelbergensis was the hominid in north-western Europe at 800,000-750,00 BP (Before Present).
For more on evidence for 700,000 year old hominids in Britain, see: http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/anglia-man/
A good summary of handaxes can be found at:
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/robertrob8/myhomepage/photo.html or: http://www.abotech.com/Articles/Kowalski02.htm has a good range of pictures of handaxes, but this means the site can take a while to load.
A detailed article on handaxes, which has a fairly comprehensive academic bibliography, is:
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/chags9/1hosfield.htm
I hope that helps.
Eleanor
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Re: Ancient Britons
Thanks Eleanor. Excellent sites. I had no idea there were so many finds.
Martin
[Edited by: admin on 29-Apr-2005 19:30]
The British and Britons
Does The Natives of Great-Britain are The Britons ?
From Which Year or Era Do the Britons Exist ?
I know that in The Times of The Roman Empire were Britons.
Did They come before The Romans ?
Ancient Britons
Last programme already! I hope you've all enjoyed the series. Maybe biased, but I was impressed by my ancestors' technological achievements as outlined in last night's programme.
I was particularly impressed by the drainage system and loos in the houses on Skara Brae. For more on prehistoric houses on Orkney, see:
Colin Renfrew The Prehistory of Orkney. 1990.
V. Gordon-Childe Ancient Dwellings at Skara Brae. 1950.
http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/
Some good (credible) books on henges:
David Stouden Stonehenge: mysteries of the stones and landscape. 1997.
and Amesbury, Stonehenge and Woodhenge, Wiltshire: The official guide
I'd warmly recommend a visit to Butser Iron Age village - it really gives a flavour of what life in the Iron Age must have been like (in Britain). More info on their website: http://www.butser.org.uk/
Eleanor
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Ancient Britons
Less spectacular than other civilisations perhaps, but this episode reminds us that civilisation are not always based upon the monumental, but often on the various contrivances that we produce to manage the daily challenges of survival. The Britons were not the only or even the first to smelt iron or make spoked wheels or really do any of the things we saw, but I feel that we were shown another aspect of our debt to the ancients. It is the deployment of these technologies, the uses to which they are put and the role the played in broader structures that interests me here. I am looking forward to hearing your responses to this episode,I suspect it will provoke a rather different reaction to some of the previous topics.
Re: The British and Britons
Yeah, the Britons were the Celtic (and I use the term loosely) inhabitants when the Romans arrived. You can't say English before the 6th century really.
Re: Hair Colour
Umm, not true. Iranians for example have very light hair, and red hair, as did the original inhabitants of what is now Jordan.
Re: Hair Colour
I don't agree that "most of the worlds native populations ... have black hair" as if there is one hue for all. They have a very wide range of shades of brown - as do most Europeans. It could be said that the minority of Europeans with blond hair don't have "coloured" hair at all, but "colourless" hair since their appearance is due to a lack of pigment rather than the addition of anything. Similar is true of redheads who have a lower amount of one of the two pigments that make up hair colour. Why these vivid pigment differences are more common in European peoples is probably a combination of climate and genetics. See http://www.geocities.com/red_head_stranger66/ for more.
The BBC and the Open University are not responsible for the content of external websites
[Edited by: Simon (moderator) on 15-Mar-2005 13:03]