Seahenge: a quest for life and death in Bronze Age Britain [Paperback]

What we have here is an almost biographical account of Francis Pryor's life as an archaeologist. It starts in his early days as a post-grad student and describes his gradual acceptance of what has become his life 'quest' - investigation and interpretation of Neolithic landscapes on a wide scale. The book moves through his earlier work on Fengate and the Flag Fen area, and culminates in the Seahenge discovery, touching on the furore mentioned earlier, but using the discovery to pull together all the earlier threads in the book to put forward a coherent theory of what life was like in the Neolithic.

Because of this, I found the book to be an enjoyable, entertaining and educational read. Not so academic that it becomes difficult to follow, yet at the same time not pitched too low to become boring.

Recommended for anyone interested in the Neolithic.

Pryor is passionate about his field. He shares that passion expressively and it proves infectious. He doesn't hide disappointment or failure, because the successes reap rich rewards. He's found ancient pastures long hidden by modern farms. He's revealed tracks for livestock and humans alike. The pathways reveal indications of human value systems, the locations are sites of sacrifice and limits of family holdings. Burial sites, unlike our modern sterile cemetaries, are rich with artefacts hinting of social hierarchies. The distribution of the sites refute the notion that Western Europe was overrun by peoples invading from the east. War, he argues, never happened on the scale earlier writers described. Instead of closed villages, fortresses and stockades, Britain's early people were scattered widely, groupings based on family ties. The nearest thing to war was cattle rustling raids by young men expressing their prowess - perhaps even part of marriage rituals.

Pryor's best known find is the mis-named "Seahenge". At Holme-Next-the-Sea along the coast of The Wash, his team discovered an oak stockade. Within the circle of logs was an inverted oak stump. Pryor reluctantly accepts the media's designation for this site, although it by-passes the accepted definition of "henge". He wants to understand why such a structure was built is of greater importance to him. Unlike stone circles, the logs of Seahenge form a solid barrier. The stump, lacking evidence of being a burial site, remains an enigma, although Pryor offers a reasonable suggestion. Seahenge became of scene of conflict between science and New Age religionists. Pryor's account of the resolution of the issues makes wonderful reading. As does all the book.

Pryor offers insights into how the work of archaeology is done and what it reveals. Local conditions clearly set social systems. Seahenge, he asserts, was a local shrine of limited use and duration. It stands in sharp contrast to sites in use for millenia. He reminds us that most Neolithic communities, with their lifestyles and observances exceed the history of Christianity by a millennium or more. The wooden trackway at Flag Fen, he notes, was in use "from two centuries after the death of Tutankhamun to the lifetime of Christ". In other words, a wooden walkway was used and maintained for 1300 years. Such persistence, he argues, demonstrates that Neolithic Britons maintained a firm belief in a continuous state between the living and the dead. The walkway and other sites are described as liminals - transition zones where the living showed respect for the ancient dead.

With sets of photos displaying the working conditions and the finds, further enhanced by line drawing maps and diagrams, Pryor provides background and environment. His "Further Reading" list is brief and directed by chapter topics. Following many of his suggestions will lead you to academic libraries or expenditure for books rarely encountered in North America. Both are worth the effort and expenditure. A superb read with much new and exciting information, this book is a treasure. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]