2021/150: Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans -- Francis Pryor

We tend to think that people in the past judged everything from a practical perspective: were certain changes going to benefit the occurrence of wild game, or the growth of cereal crops? But in reality, they would also have had an emotional response to any changes that were happening around them. [loc. 638]

Fifteen 'scenes', beginning half a million years ago (Boxgrove, Happisburgh) and concluding with snapshots of life in Roman Britain: they're not so much scenes from prehistoric life -- though there's quite a bit of informed speculation -- as scenes from an archaeologist's life, rich with anecdote and simile. I enjoy Pryor's writing (for instance, in Britain BC) and found the subjective, discursive flavour of these essays rather engaging. Pryor is at pains to point out that the inhabitants of prehistoric Britain were anatomically and neurologically the same as modern humans: that their lives were as complex and varied as our own, and that they were swayed by emotional as well as practical considerations.

I especially enjoyed the chapter on Seahenge, which contextualised the creation of the monument: at least 51 people worked on the timbers, judging by the distinct marks left by different axes. Pryor likens the cost of an axe around 2000 BC to the cost of a car around 2000 AD (a comparison I found compelling) and speculates that the larger axes were wielded by younger, stronger men, while smaller axes -- used for more precise work -- belonged to older, more experienced workers. Pulling together evidence from dendrochronology, axe-marks and the archaeological excavations at the site, Pryor depicts a ritual occurring in the spring of 2049 BC, and ties it to theories about wood representing life and stone (or, in north Norfolk, earth) representing death.

This probably isn't the best book to read about archaeological excavations, or the introduction of bronze, or neolithic burial customs: but it is a splendid book if you want to appreciate a lifetime's experience in archaeology, and a humane and compassionate perspective on those who left traces of their lives in the British landscape.