Ancestors follows the development of archaeology and of human funerary practices through a seven significant burials. Alice Roberts explains clearly and in extensive detail what those often proto archaeologists thought they had found. For archaeology, like its close cousin history, has to use imagination and interpretive conjecture in order to fill out the gaps that the bare bones do not tell you about. Each era has its own biases and issues that find their way into how they explain what it is they have found. So we have to remain aware that this may not be how it actually was.
And so it was with the Reverend Buckland in 1823, when he came across the remains of The Red Lady of Paviland Cave. Not only did he misread her sex, but deduced she was a witch because of the range of supposedly 'feminine' artifacts he found alongside. Like many men of his era he was looking to find evidence to support biblical events, in this case the flood. He presumed the bones ended up in the cave due to an inundation. Whereas subsequent investigation indicates the distribution of bones in the cave prove it was more deliberate than that. This desire to find factual evidence to support events in the Bible, became ever more desperate as the consequences of Darwin's theory of evolution sank in.
How you chose to interpret evidence from Mesolithic or Neolithic times can be riddled with assumptions around meaning and purpose. You might think that a body placed unburied in a cave would be eaten by scavenging animals. When the latter does happen it is very clearly shown in the bones and their arrangement. But most of the time a body in a cave will be left untouched, gradually becoming buried under silt and rock falls. We might call it a burial, but is that really what we are observing? What constitutes a burial? Does it require some sort of ritual practice to indicate they have a destination in mind for their brethren, and a purpose in therefore burying them in a particular manner? Not all actions are religious in meaning, some are practical, social or cultural conventions. Ones we cannot perceive from this distance.
The majority of burials found from this early period are male. What does that say about a women's status that their funeral arrangements differed? And when we do find a woman from this period buried intact what does that tell you? If she is buried with a sword and shield does that mean she was a warrior, or was she given a warriors funeral because that was what one did for anyone of high status. Sometimes even in male burials the swords and shields seem purely symbolic and have never seen battle. One cannot assume everyone was a warrior, or that every mysterious thing you discover has religious or sacred significance. Roberts warns of SSSD the Special Sacred Site Delusion which is very prevalent in archaeology.
Ancestors is full of such telling insights into the progress and pitfalls that archaeological investigation has taken over the years. One has to remain generous in our accommodation and understanding of a particular eras interpretive failings and assumptions, because our time is undoubtedly riddled with our own, ones we perhaps cannot yet see. Such as in the choices we make in how we evaluate DNA or genetic evidence, or assumptions about gender roles in early humanity, these remain things we need to be aware of. Alice Roberts brings all her superlative communication skills to bear in the telling of this journey through our past via the medium of archaeology. Never allowing the story she is telling to get buried beneath specialist language when a simple clear explanation will do. Its a thoroughly fascinating and revealing read.
CARROT REVIEW - 6/8
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