Buried: An alternative history of the first millennium in Britain

Product Information

In Buried she explores a number of burials and the funerary rites these remains give us tantalising glimpses of. Bestselling historian and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts (The Incredible Human Journey and Digging for Britain) offers a new alternative history of the first millennium in Britain. And you'd have to be an extreme relativist and pessimist not to think that we have progressed, as a society, since the time of Roman Britain. And the other mention is written in stone, an inscription carved into a great slab of Purbeck marble discovered in Chichester, during building work in 1723.

In this talk, Professor Alice Roberts will introduce her new book Buried which picks up where Ancestors left off – starting with the Romans, then the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. It is a personal selection of stories, including some individuals whose bones I know very well, but I hope it captures some of the diversity of lives, cultures and beliefs in Britain over those centuries.Tuuli knows there’s a bigger world out there, and when she spots a strange boy lurking outside their camp, she realises that he might hold the adventure she is looking for. She also suggests that Roman influence before the supposed Anglo-Saxon invasion may not have been as pervasive outside of major centres, again, because the archaeological evidence just doesn't seem to support it. By the time history catches up with what was happening in this southern part of Britain, Togidubnus is the king there. Professor Alice Roberts is an academic, author and broadcaster, specialising in human anatomy, physiology, evolution, archaeology and history. Beginning chapters with a particular archaeological find, Roberts gently provides the historical context in an easily accessible narrative style.

From Roman cremations and graveside feasts, to deviant burials with heads rearranged, from richly furnished Anglo-Saxon graves to the first Christian burial grounds in Wales, they provide an alternative history of the first millennium in Britain. She includes such fascinating examples as: the man whose cremated remains were placed in a lead canister with a pipe so he could join in drinking on feast days; the graveyards with infants which hint at infanticide, obstetric interventions, and the possible location of brothels; the "deviant" burials with heads rearranged so that revenants cannot bother the living; the grave yard with buckets; the shallow grave with what appears to be the disposal of raiders; and the graves with cross-marked stones. Once the legion left, the place began to fall apart – but a much-diminished population continued to live amongst the ruins, keeping their cattle in the bath-house of the old fortress.Despite the fact that Togidubnus looms large in just about any modern account of Roman Britain, his name only appears twice in the historical and archaeological record. In particular, they can indicate family connections and where someone was brought up, which can often be a very long way indeed from where they were buried. However I think her humanist bias (she is an office holder in the British Humanist Association) though freely disclosed, leads her into some unnecessary sniping at religion and Christianity in particular. Chapter 5 starts with a description of the Staffordshire Hoard buried in the mid-seventh century - “there's about 4 kilograms of gold in the hoard, 1.