Just because a book might be fiction doesn't mean that the archaeology and history you read in them is, too. Listen to archaeologists and authors talk about the real history behind your favorite books.
Matthew Pope of UCL and Beccy Scott of the British Museum shed light on the extraordinary tale of the Neanderthal Lok and his extended family written by William Golding. Given the topic of Golding's more famous work, Lord of the Flies, it's not surprising that things get a bit vicious in this book too when some other kind of humans turn up. But were our ancestors really that vile?
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To move away from being totally Eurocentric, Prehi/stories takes a look at fiction set in North America. The People of the River is set in Cahokia in Illinois, and so I talk to Thomas Emerson, Director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey and expert in the archaeology of the Eastern Woodlands, who gives the background reality of archaeological investigation to this story.
I talk to the archaeologist/author Mark Patton about his first book, The Undreamed Shores, which is set at the end of the Neolithic in the Channel Islands and Wiltshire.
There is a law that every podcast about books will eventually talk about A Game of Thrones, and that's where we've got to on Prehi/stories. Kim talks to two die hard fans and archaeologists Lucy Hooton and Brett Thorn about the history behind the iconic books.
A first for this podcast is to have the author of the book on to talk about it, so we welcome John R Barrett to Prehi/stories, and Brian Wilkinson, a community archaeologist from Scotland where the book is based. The Whitestone Stories is a children's book but well worth the read for children of any age.
A poet, a prehistorian and a podcaster sit down to Skype. That's not a joke, that's what happened for this episode where my guests were Erin Kavanagh, a geomythologist, and Gavin MacGregor, an archaeologist and we talked about the incredible power of poetry to express how we feel about the past, our jobs and to inform research.
What can Asterix tell us about the prehistoric past? Not very much, it turns out, but we have a bit of fun anyway. I talk to my husband, Edward Biddulph, as we bridge the divide between Iron Age Gauls, Britons and Romans.
Contacts:
Editor's note: Apologies for the audio on this one. We did our best to clean it up.
Professional Neanderthal botherer Beccy Scott joins me to talk about the nation's favourite Neanderthal, Stig of the Dump. Many of you will have read this book as children, as it was published all the way back in 1963, and we talk about the popular notion of a caveman, and what people (both Neanderthal and Sapiens) might actually have been like.
I talk to the awesome superteam of bloggers, the Twilight Beasts, namely Rena Maguire, Ross Barnett and Jan Freedman, about the charismatic animals of the late Ice Age that humans in the Upper Palaeolithic watched, hunted, possibly tamed and definitely painted on cave walls. If you're interested in wild horses, sabre-tooth cats, cave lions or hyenas, listen in.
I talk to Susan Greaney of English Heritage about Bernard Cornwell's epic novel about Stonehenge. Despite noticing some chronological finessing, and railing against the sexism of the late Neolithic as portrayed by the author, we discuss how the imaginative storytelling allows us to think about the why behind the building of this iconic monument.
Music was provided by Nigel Shaw. The track is "Yew" from Dartmoor Roundhouse by Seventh Wave Music at http://www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk/
The Ravens is a children's book about the first Roman invasion in 55 B.C. set around Hertfordshire and particularly the hillfort now known as Ravensburgh Castle. It was written by the excavator himself, James Dyer, who was also a schoolteacher. My guest, Francis Pryor, dug with the late James Dyer on this very site and joins me to share his memories of this early dig and his subsequent experience of digging up roundhouses, among other things.
Kim Biddulph: @kimbiddulph and @schprehistory
Francis Pryor on Twitter: @pryorfrancis
Music provided by Nigel Shaw. The track is "Yew" from Dartmoor Roundhouse by Seventh Wave Music at http://www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk/.
Kim Biddulph Director, Schools Prehistory, www.schoolsprehistory.co.uk
I go back to the Mesolithic in earnest in this episode and talk to Caroline Wickham-Jones and Spencer Carter about a wonderful tale that is part prehistorical fiction, part family saga, part whodunnit, the Gathering Night by Margaret Elphinstone. We also talk about the relative impact of natural disasters in prehistory.
Kim Biddulph: @kimbiddulph and @schprehistory
Music provided by Nigel Shaw. The track is "Yew" from Dartmoor Roundhouse by Seventh Wave Music at http://www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk/.
Kim Biddulph Director, Schools Prehistory, www.schoolsprehistory.co.uk
What you need when discussing Clan of the Cave Bear are two Neanderthal experts, which is what I got – Rebecca Wragg Sykes of Bordeaux University and Matthew Pope of UCL, London. The fascinating subject of Neanderthal/Homo sapiens relations occupied us at length, when we weren't being diverted by thoughts of an American mini-series of the book produced by Ron Howard.
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel, published in 1980 by Crown Publishing Group.
http://www.jeanauel.com/books.php
Rebecca Wragg Sykes - @lemoustier on Twitter and blog at therocksremain.org
Matthew Pope – matt.pope@ucl.ac.uk and on Twitter at @matthewpope
My guests are Matt Ritchie, Forestry Commission Scotland's archaeologist, Donald Henson, studying for a PhD in Public Perceptions of the Mesolithic at York University, and James Dilley of Ancient Craft and about to embark on a PhD as well. matt quickly disabuses me of the notion that Wolf Brother is set in the Scottish Mesolithic (which is the only reason I had him on in the first place) and then we chat about the wondrous period of hunter-gatherers, wildwoods, and magic in the forest.
Click on the photo! (http://owlscotland.org/resources/resource-library/wolf_brothers_wildwoods)
Click on the photo! (http://owlscotland.org/resources/resource-library/wolf_brothers_wildwoods)
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I talk to Tristan Boyle, host of the Anarchaeologist Podcast and the instigator of my podcasting career, and get him to care about stories in archaeology. The sage words of Game of Thrones author, George R. R. Martin are invoked, and, we inquire quite why Ug: Boy Genius of the Stone Age, is the only one to think of having soft trousers. Plus a bit of Aesop's Fables thrown in for good measure.
Be sure to rate and subscribe here or on iTunes! Ratings help the podcast get noticed so more can enjoy. Thanks!
