We do try to bring you wide ranging areas of study and this month we’re delighted to be joined by Professor Duncan Garrow of Reading University We met Duncan at the Landscapes of the Dead conference back in November 2019 and knew we had to get him on the show. Apart from being a great speaker, he is another frontline archaeologist who makes you reconsider all sorts of things you thought you knew. Duncan Garrow teaches later European prehistory (with a particular focus on Britain) and...

True to form, The Prehistory Guys chase down another media headline to find the hidden treasure! In this case, news of a new date for old London conceals the real story: the first use of a new and exciting archaeological dating technique for pottery. Help support us and join our Patreon community See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We were saddened to learn of the passing of the great archaeologist. For megalithic enthusiasts, his influence has been profound and that holds true for us and the podcasts and films we make. We couldn't let the moment pass without saying a few words. Help support us and join our Patreon community See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Prehistory Guys talk to environmental archaeologist and conchologist (snail expert) Dr Mike Allen, lecturer at Oxford University and research fellow at Bournemouth University. Help support us and join our Patreon community See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In December 2019 reports began to appear in the media about the discovery of an anomaly in the Callanish landscape on Lewis that pointed to a 5,000 year old lightning strike being the inspiration for the famous monument. The discovery was made by the Calanais Virtual Reconstruction Project, a joint venture led by the University of St Andrews with standing stones trust Urras nan Tursachan and the University of Bradford and supported by funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise. They were...

A couple of podcasts back, we interviewed Professor Bruce Bradley - he of the Solutrean Hypothesis in Paleolithic America. Truth be told, the impetus to contact Bruce Bradley came about because we'd noticed that an outfit called 'Seven Ages Research Associates' in the States had just published an interview with him. It was a bit "if they can - why don't we?" - so we did. Well, one thing led to another and one day we got an invitation from Jason Pentrail, one of the three associates, to hook...

In 1980, archaeologist Julian Richards was invited to direct the 'Stonehenge Environs Project' which had been conceived to better understand the landscape surrounding the monument and to work out ways in which it could be better managed and preserved for the future. Part of the work involved the partial excavation of a small henge on Coneybury Hill, to the south-east of Stonehenge. This proved fruitful in many ways and the Coneybury Henge now stands as a significant monument in its own...

Please support The Prehistory Guys on Patreon.https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys Though we say this ourselves, this interview with Professor Timothy Darvill OBE, should be required listening for all serious students of archaeology and fascinated amateurs alike. From his own early childhood beginnings in the discipline, to his thoughts on the purpose and future of archaeology, Tim delves into the detail of his work on the Cotswold Long Barrows, the Neolithic Isle of Man, the Preseli...

We have to confess we are not as knowledgable about American prehistory as we would like to be. But how could we have done better to begin educating ourselves than to talk to celebrated American archaeologist, Professor Bruce Bradley? Until recently Emeritus Professor of Prehistory and Director of the Experimental Archaeology Masters Programme at the University of Exeter, Bruce has a remarkable c.v., having involved himself with stone-age technologies and experimental archaeology, the...

The Prehistory Guys are very proud to share with you this fantastic interview with Dr. Alison Sheridan, recently retired Principal Archaeological Research Curator at the National Museums of Scotland. As you'll find out in the first minutes of this podcast, Alison's C.V. is simply spectacular. If there's such a thing as an A-List archaeologist, she is a prime example of what that looks like - not only in terms of her output and influence, but in the extraordinary breadth of her study. Her...

  Ancient craft and brewing specialist Merryn Dineley, together with her brewing expert husband Graham join us to discus how the general unawareness of the way beer is brewed leads to the evidence for it in prehistory being overlooked. Once the process is understood, then the existence of large vessels, like the Grooved Ware pot from Durrington Walls above, suddenly makes sense, as do some of the details inside many excavated ancient and Neolithic buildings up and down Britain and beyond.

  Earlier in December, news articles began to show up reporting the discovery of very old cave art on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. What is significant about the find is that it pushes back the date of the earliest figurative painting a long way, such that this REPRESENTATIVE cave art in Indonesia is of a similar age to the first know ABSTRACT art in Europe. True to form, Rupert and Michael dig a little deeper, celebrating the find, but making sure we don't get bogged down in some of...

We're kicking off our regular interview features with our good friend and colleague Dr. Rick Pettigrew of the Archaeological Legacy Institute in Eugene, Oregon. The photo above is of Rick standing in front of West Kennet long barrow back in September this year when we were on the 'Backbone of Neolithic Britain' tour. The tour was instigated by Rick and we were delighted to collaborate with him organising this huge adventure and we're delighted to say that we'll be doing it again next year....

Does our ancient landscape lie to us? Well, there is a sense in which we are deceived ... or is it we who deceive ourselves? Michael and Rupert discuss how our natural instinct for creating meaning out of what we see might lead us a little astray. All this and the regular magazine slots in the latest episode of what is now THE PREHISTORY GUYS podcast!

When things don't seem so great in the present, it's easy to idealise the past. Not so fast! Archaeology has thrown light on some remarkable and truly brutal events in European prehistory recently. It seems that 7,000 years ago a particular phase of angst and conflict in the Neolithic 'Linearbandkeramik' (LBK) culture of central Europe was kicking off and led to some horrific examples of man's inhumanity to man being left in the archaeological record. Rupert and Michael duck the crime scene...

If we're talking about standing stones and the Neolithic, then we have to talk about origins ... and if we talk about origins we have to talk about the Middle East and Anatolia. If we talk about the Middle East and Anatolia, the names Çatalhöyük and Göbekli Tepe seem to come up. But Tell Qaramel? Tell es-Sultan? Motza? Maybe nearer to home on the Danube; Lepinski Vir? By merely scratching the surface of the subject of ancient settlements, Michael & Rupert have their minds quietly blown...

It seems ages since we last posted a podcast. But it's only just over a month - it must be that we've been incredibly busy! And some of that business is down to Michael's excursion to Orkney to take part in a three-day field archaeology course at the Cairns Broch dig on South Ronaldsay. Yes, the new trowel was well and truly broken in and in this episode, Rupert grills Michael about his adventure and actually manages to extract some interesting information from him about the dig and his...

Since we began this podcast in March 2018, archaeological facts and finds have been coming at us fast and furious - so much so that it's becoming hard to keep track of what happened where and in what order! So, in an effort to claw back some clarity, we've begun compiling a Timeline of Prehistory. The simple question: "what was going on in the rest of the world when megalith building was happening in Britain?" has thrown up some surprising facts. In order to give some context to the Neolithic...

Back in November 2018, we found ourselves sitting on the front row for the a lecture in the Wiltshire Museum by Dr. Katharine Walker of Bournemouth University entitled 'Taking Sides, Scandinavian Flint Axe type in Britain'. This wasn't really an accident because, as you probably know, the subject of axe-heads, their meaning, production and trade is one that we find ourselves returning to often in the podcast. We kept in communication with Dr. Walker after the talk and we were very pleased...

We tend to thing of our ancient monuments as being special, unique places. But when you begin to count them, it slowly dawns on you that for our ancestors, they were commonplace. In Standing with Stones podcast number 14, Michael and Rupert discuss this aspect of our heritage - and ask whether appreciation of their ubiquity changes our appreciation of them. As well as our regular features, 'Question Time' this month sparks a debate as to the utility of the Aubrey Holes at Stonehenge; were...

As you'll have guessed already, this month we're off to Cumbria and the Lake District to wander the Great Stone Circles, ponder their purpose and hopefully enlighten you about their grandeur and importance. Oh, and of course, there'll be a boundary pushed, some news, a new stonehead, a question answered and a little whimsey.  By the way, if you're interested in the show notes, we've moved them to the Patreon page for this podcast and will be continuing to do so in the future. Patreon...

"Dartmoor is one of my favourite places in the whole of England, and I've been exploring here for over twenty years. Three hundred and sixty five square miles of rolling moors, with a huge variety of prehistoric structures. It's so unspoilt - in archaeological terms - it gives us a much clearer idea of what the whole country used to be like". So says Rupert at the beginning of the Dartmoor segment of our 2008 film 'Standing with Stones'. Twelve years on from the making of the film, we muse on...

A few weeks ago in the middle of February 2019, articles began appearing in the media linking Stonehenge, sailors and the megalithic culture of Brittany. To us, something didn't smell quite right about that and it didn’t take long to find out that most of these articles were, in one way or another, misrepresenting, and at worst completely mangling a serious, deep and very painstaking piece of academic research by Dr. Bettina Schulz Paulsson of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In a book...

This month we take an inward look at part of the process that went into the making of Standing with Stones; just how did we choose which sites to include in the film? It's a response to the oft-asked question: "Why the heck did you leave (insert personal favourite site here) out?" We do our best to answer. PLUS:  A VERY ancient tiara, a submerged settlement in the Hebrides, a 4,000 year old child's rattle and for the grown-ups - a 4,000 year old board game. Oh, and the Stonehead of the Month...

Was there a Beaker revolution? Both Rupert and Michael are surprised to find that despite a lot of detailed archaeological and genetic evidence, there is much confusion as to what exactly was going on in Britain and Northern/Central Europe 4,500 years ago. However, what is clear is that big changes happened, especially in Britain - where wholesale population change occurred over a few hundred years. What are we to make of this? Plus:Neolithic beasts of burden, Mesolithic chewing gum, The...