Britain AD

Author: Francis Pryor
Publisher: HarperCollins (UK)
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
In this book, which accompanies and expands on his Channel 4 television series, leading archaeologist Francis Pryor retells the story of King Arthur, legendary king of the Britons, tracing it back to its Bronze Age originsThe 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 BC 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.

Arthur's Britain

Author: Leslie Alcock
Publisher: Viking Press
ISBN: 9780140136050
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 437

Book Description
This book assembles a wealth of information about the Arthur of history by delving into the shadowy period of the past in which he lived. Drawing on evidence from both written adn archaeological sources, Leslie Alcock sifts history from fiction to take us back to life between the fourth and seventh centuries, a time of warfare and feuding, when Celtic Britain had shaken off Roman rule, and fell victim to floods of raiding Scots, Picts, and Anglo-Saxons. He also provides details on how the Britons lived, worshipped, dressed and fought, to create a vivid picture of the Arthurian age and its warrior hero.

Roman Britain's Missing Legion

Author: Simon Elliott
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 152676573X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
“Examines all the possible fates of the famous IX legion . . . takes you on a fascinating detective journey through all the corners of the Roman Empire.” —History . . . The Interesting Bits! Legio IX Hispana had a long and active history, later founding York from where it guarded the northern frontiers in Britain. But the last evidence for its existence in Britain comes from AD 108. The mystery of their disappearance has inspired debate and imagination for decades. The most popular theory, immortalized in Rosemary Sutcliffe’s novel The Eagle of the Ninth, is that the legion was sent to fight the Caledonians in Scotland and wiped out there. But more recent archaeology (including evidence that London was burnt to the ground and dozens of decapitated heads) suggests a crisis, not on the border but in the heart of the province, previously thought to have been peaceful at this time. What if IX Hispana took part in a rebellion, leading to their punishment, disbandment and damnatio memoriae (official erasure from the records)? This proposed ‘Hadrianic War’ would then be the real context for Hadrian’s ‘visit’ in 122 with a whole legion, VI Victrix, which replaced the ‘vanished’ IX as the garrison at York. Other theories are that it was lost on the Rhine or Danube, or in the East. Simon Elliott considers the evidence for these four theories, and other possibilities. “A great and fascinating read . . . a page turner . . . The book offers some interesting and intriguing ideas around the fate of the Ninth.” —Irregular Magazine “An historical detective story pursued with academic rigour.” —Clash of Steel “A seminal and landmark study.” —Midwest Book Review

Age of Tyrants

Author: Christopher A. Snyder
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271043623
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Book Description
By the waning of Roman rule, Britain was called a "province fertile with tyrants". Christopher Snyder's history of Britain during the two centuries after Rome's withdrawal reveals a hybrid society of Celtic, Roman, and Christian elements and documents the transition from magisterial to monarchical power. An appendix explores the Arthur and Merlin myths. 30 illustrations.

Formative Britain

Author: Martin Carver
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429829760
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1128

Book Description
Formative Britain presents an account of the peoples occupying the island of Britain between 400 and 1100 AD, whose ideas continue to set the political agenda today. Forty years of new archaeological research has laid bare a hive of diverse and disputatious communities of Picts, Scots, Welsh, Cumbrian and Cornish Britons, Northumbrians, Angles and Saxons, who expressed their views of this world and the next in a thousand sites and monuments. This highly illustrated volume is the first book that attempts to describe the experience of all levels of society over the whole island using archaeology alone. The story is drawn from the clothes, faces and biology of men and women, the images that survive in their poetry, the places they lived, the work they did, the ingenious celebrations of their graves and burial grounds, their decorated stone monuments and their diverse messages. This ground-breaking account is aimed at students and archaeological researchers at all levels in the academic and commercial sectors. It will also inform relevant stakeholders and general readers alike of how the islands of Britain developed in the early medieval period. Many of the ideas forged in Britain’s formative years underpin those of today as the UK seeks to find a consensus programme for its future.

Secret Britain

Author: Mary-Ann Ochota
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
ISBN: 0711253471
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Book Description
"A cornucopia of our weirdest and most wonderful archaeological sites and artefacts. They make you feel proud to be a citizen of these gloriously intriguing isles." Sir Tony Robinson An Ice Age cannibal’s skull cup, a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold, a seventeenth century witch bottle… anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota unearths more than 70 of Britain's most intriguing ancient places and artefacts and explores the mysteries behind them. Britain is full of ancient wonders: not grand like the Egyptian pyramids, but small, strange places and objects that hint at a deep and enduring relationship with the mystic. Secret Britain offers an expertly guided tour of Britain’s most fascinating mysteries: archaeological sites and artefacts that take us deep into the lives of the many different peoples who have inhabited the island over the millennia. Illustrated with beautiful photographs, the wonders include buried treasure, stone circles and geoglyphs, outdoor places of worship, caves filled with medieval carvings, and enigmatic tools to divine the future. Explore famous sites such as Stonehenge and Glastonbury, but also discover: The Lindow Man bog body, showing neatly trimmed hair and manicured fingernails despite having been killed 2,000 years ago The Uffington White Horse, a horse-shaped geoglyph maintained by an unbroken chain of people for 3,000 years A roman baby’s bronze cockerel, an underworld companion for a two-year-old who died sometime between AD 100–200 St Leonard’s Ossuary, home to 1,200 skulls and a vast stack of human bones made up of around 2,000 people who died from the 1200s to the 1500s The Wenhaston Doom painting, an extraordinary medieval depiction of the Last Judgement painted on a chancel arch Explore Britain’s secret history and discover why these places still resonate today.

A.D. 500

Author: Simon Young
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780297848059
Category : British Isles
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
AD 500 is written as a practical survival guide for the use of civilised visitors to the barbaric islands of Britain and Ireland. It describes a journey which begins in Cornwall and continues through Wales and Ireland, then across to Scotland and eventually down to London and southern Britain. The Romans have left, and the islands are now fought over by Irish, British Celts, Picts and Saxons. It is a dangerous world, full of tribal war. The British Celts are enthusiastic head-hunters, while the Saxon gods require regular blood sacrifices, animal and sometimes human. There are social pitfals too (`Do not make fun of the Celts' beliefs about Arthur'... `The traveller must not fall asleep while a saga poem is being recited'....'Don't refuse a place in a Welsh collective bed') Cheviot bandits, bizarre forms of Christianity, boat burials, peculiar haircuts, human sacrifice, poetry competitions, slave markets, the legend of King Arthur - these are the realities of life in the sixth century AD.

Great Britain

Author: Richard S. Tompson
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 0816074720
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 561

Book Description
An A-Z reference guide to significant people, ideas, places, and events in British history.

Britain Begins

Author: Barry Cunliffe
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199679452
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 566

Book Description
The story of the origins of the British and the Irish peoples, from the end of the last Ice Age around 10,000BC to the eve of the Norman Conquest - who they were, where they came from, and how they related to one another.

Britain B.C.

Author: Francis Pryor
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 568

Book Description
Based on new archaeological finds, this book introduces a novel rethinking of the whole of British history before the coming of the Romans. So many extraordinary archaeological discoveries (many of them involving the author) have been made since the early 1970s that our whole understanding of British prehistory needs to be updated. So far only the specialists have twigged on to these developments; now, Francis Pryor broadcasts them to a much wider, general audience. Aided by aerial photography, coastal erosion (which has helped expose such coastal sites as Seahenge) and new planning legislation which requires developers to excavate the land they build on, archaeologists have unearthed a far more sophisticated life among the Ancient Britons than has been previously supposed. Far from being the woaded barbarians of Roman propaganda, we Brits had our own religion, laws, crafts, arts, trade, farms, priesthood and royalty. And the Scots, English and Welsh were fundamentally one and the same people.