Ancestors: A prehistory of Britain in seven burials

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Evolution The Human Story. Dorling Kindersley. 2011. ISBN 978-1-4053-6165-1. OCLC 1038452947. Revised edition (2018), Dorling Kindersley, ISBN 978-1-4654-7401-8 Roberts presented the BBC Four documentary, Britain’s Pompeii: A Village Lost in Time, which explored the Must Farm Bronze Age settlement in Cambridgeshire in August 2016. In May 2017, she was a presenter of the BBC Two documentary The Day The Dinosaurs Died. In April 2018, she presented the six-part Channel 4 series Britain’s Most Historic Towns, which examines the history of British towns, which was followed by a second series in May 2019 and a third series in November 2020. Dr Alice Roberts: Anatomist, author, broadcaster and distinguished supporter of Humanism". British Humanist Association . Retrieved 28 November 2013. In September 2018, she presented the BBC Two documentary King Arthur's Britain: The Truth Unearthed, which examines new archaeological discoveries that cast light on the political and trading situation in Britain during the Early Middle Ages. [54] In December 2018, she presented a series of three Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, titled Who am I? and broadcast on BBC Four, with guest lecturer Aoife McLysaght. [27]

And then the following year, I said just “no I can't do this, I'm not, I'm not believing this.” So maybe it was the process of going through confirmation. But I think you do, you do examine your faith. And unfortunately, it took a little bit longer for the penny to drop for me. But it did, it was a process of questioning. And I think I was doing a lot of science at school as well. And so that kind of questioning and critical thinking extended to my personal beliefs and my thoughts about the world itself. And I realised that even if I were to take most of the Bible (so I was brought up as an Anglican in the Church of England), even if I was to take most of the Bible with a pinch of salt, there are kind of some fundamental things that you do have to believe in, one of these being the existence of God. If you don't believe in the existence of God, you're out of the club, really. So I suppose I became an atheist age 15. Roberts, A. M.; Peters, T. J.; Robson Brown, K. A. (2007). "New light on old shoulders: palaeopathological patterns of arthropathy and enthesopathy in the shoulder complex". Journal of Anatomy. 211 (4): 485–492. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2007.00789.x. PMC 2375834. PMID 17711424. Yeah, there's something I noticed in your book a lot, actually, is just the importance of narrative. And yeah, the way that that brings the science to life for a non-scientist. But as you say, also does seem quite integral to it. a b "Professor Alice Roberts" (PDF). Bournemouth University. 6 November 2013 . Retrieved 19 January 2019. But if we’re really going to understand our prehistoric ancestors, archaeology is where it’s at. ‘The physical remains of the ancestors themselves, and all of their amazing culture.’

Transcript:

A presenter of science and history television documentaries, Roberts was one of the regular co-presenters of BBC geographical and environmental series Coast. [30] Roberts studied medicine at the University of Wales College of Medicine (now part of Cardiff University) and graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB BCh) degree, having gained an intercalated Bachelor of Science degree in Anatomy. [7] [10] [11] Research and career [ edit ] Roberts giving a public lecture for the opening of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath in 2018

You have that whole idea about what makes us human, or what differentiates humans rather from other species. I think it's obviously a huge question and one of particular interest, perhaps to humanists, but also more broadly. And then I wonder also, if what we're talking about now, the kind of story and myth and legend, if that's another thing that might be differentiating. There's certainly a lot of that in what Alice was talking about.I like to see hillforts as Iron Age castles; but also maybe places where animals were overwintered. Some have hut circles so we know there were people living in them. You get this impression that those Iron Age people didn’t just go for the first hill – they had a look around and went: This is the one with the view.’ An audio-version of this book has been sitting in my audible app library for a while now: prehistory, ancient burials, bones, paleontology -- of course, I had to buy it. I finally got to it on the verge of a trip to Britain -- after all, what could be a better suited pre-travel read than a history of Britain in seven burials.;) Without being too territorial about it, if you live in a certain place and you go out for walks, you’re communing with the ancestors. There is also a long second chapter about the “Red Lady” excavated at Paviland Cave, which I had read about at least twice before, but it is the major early burial, so Roberts probably had no choice but to discuss this burial. She gets down to some juicy evidence as well. Gnawed human bones made by human teeth and cutmarks indicating cannibalism in the caves at Cheddar Gorge. Did our Neanderthal friends bury their dead? Are the Beaker people invaders? Chariot burials during Iron Age times. Intriguing stuff.

That’s fascinating. But one thing and probably quite a basic question, I guess, is, you know, we've got this huge wealth of new information becoming available, as you've explained, but what's the kind of appeal to you, of studying prehistory, and getting that that kind of information about these events of the faraway past? Particularly in a time of such perpetual crisis, where we can struggle to keep up with even contemporary events, what can we learn from the ancient past? In the first episode, Dr Alice Roberts looks at how our skeleton reveals our incredible evolutionary journey. It's really difficult, isn't it? Because I think I mean, I've included that in there. And I do wonder if there's some kind of remembrance of that as a hill of sin? Because recent genetic evidence has shown that a man buried in Newgrange is the incestuous son of either a parent and a child, or two siblings. So you’ll never know if it's a parent and child or two siblings, we just know it was two first degree relatives. In June 2023, Roberts presented the four-part Channel 4 series Ancient Egypt by Train with Alice Roberts. [62] Awards and honours [ edit ]

THE FUNNY THING IS, as inaccessible as prehistoric peoples might seem today, their culture still defines our landscape. In hillforts; in long barrows. Actually, the burials themselves are rather pre-history of Britain, but as the story of each burial includes the history of its initial discovery and of its further investigation, the "history" in the title is not irrelevant as many of these burials had been known since nineteenth century. In a way, this book is also the history of archaeology in seven burials. One of its main topics is DNA analysis -- the new insights into prehistory that it provides as well as its limitations.

Alice Roberts wins Humanist of the Year at BHA Annual Conference 2015". British Humanist Association. 20 June 2015 . Retrieved 19 January 2019. I also formed the impression that this was not the polished book that Roberts might have hoped to complete, as some of the genome research has been delayed by prioritising Covid-19 work, and reports for other excavations have not yet been completed. However, this does not detract from the book, and makes one appreciate all the more that archaeology is a developing subject and not static. This is a terrific, timely and transporting book - taking us heart, body and mind beyond history, to the fascinating truth of the prehistoric past and the present’ Bettany Hughes Alice Roberts worked as a junior doctor with the National Health Service in South Wales for eighteen months after graduating. In 1998 she left clinical medicine and worked as an anatomy demonstrator at the University of Bristol, becoming a lecturer there in 1999.Overall, I enjoyed this book for the details of new excavations and the Salisbury Museum segments. I wouldn’t recommend it for your first British archaeology book (I read Britain Begins by Barry Cunliffe about five years ago and would recommend that), but it is good general book to read if you want to explore further. Human anatomy: the definitive visual guide. Dorling Kindersley, 2014. ISBN 9780241292082, OCLC 1010946584 In February 2012 Roberts was appointed the University of Birmingham's first Professor of Public Engagement in Science. [21] [22] [23] It took but a small step to name this skeleton the Red Lady, or – as he romantically preferred – the Witch of Paviland. She might even, he delicately alludes, have been a prostitute, owing to the location of a Roman camp nearby.