Barry Cunliffe > Quotes

“by the late second and first centuries BC, across southern Britain, certain members of society enjoy well-equipped inhumation and cremation burial, the males usually distinguished by swords, the females by mirrors.”
― Barry W. Cunliffe, Britain Begins

“Coins were first introduced into the British Isles, in large quantities, from Belgic Gaul and Armorica in the period 130–80 bc and soon British tribes began to mint their own. Gallo-Belgic”
― Barry W. Cunliffe, Iron Age Britain

“There can be little reasonable doubt that the enclosed oppida and territorial oppida of the Late Iron Age represent the emergence of an urban system. At many of these sites coins were minted with mint marks giving the name of the centre – Calle (Calleva), Camulo (Camulodunum) (71) and Ver (Verulamium) – and some, as we have seen, were centres for royal burial. But the most impressive evidence for their importance is that so many were developed by the Roman authorities as the urban centres of large administrative regions. The Romans had simply accepted the reality of the political and economic geography of the south-east.”
― Barry W. Cunliffe, Iron Age Britain

“On the steppe mobility reigned and ethnicity was a mobile concept.”
― Barry W. Cunliffe, The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe

“Unlike the modern church or mosque where participants in the religious ceremony congregate inside the building, in Roman religious observances the rituals generally took place outside in the precinct around the large sacrificial altar.”
― Barry W. Cunliffe, The Roman Baths, a view over 2000 years

“Sailing in the waters around the British Isles required a formidable array of skills.”
― Barry W. Cunliffe, Britain Begins

“The Massagetae were at this time led by a queen, Tomyris, and it was Cyrus’ intention to bring them within the empire.”
― Barry W. Cunliffe, The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe

“But their physical characteristics vary, and the variation is suggestive. The reddish hair and large limbs of the Caledonians proclaim a German origin; the swarthy faces of the Silures, the tendency of the hair to curl and the fact that Spain lies opposite, all lead one to believe that Spaniards crossed in ancient times and occupied that part of the country. The people nearest to the Gauls likewise resemble them. It may be that they still show the effect of a common origin; or perhaps it is climatic conditions that have produced this physical type in lands that converge so closely from north to south. On the whole, however, it seems likely that Gauls settled on the island lying so close to their shores. In both countries you find the same ritual and religious beliefs. There is no great difference in their language … (Agricola 11)”
― Barry W. Cunliffe, Britain Begins

“For Britain the end began in 367 when a concerted attack was made on the province by barbarians from all sides. The Bath region seems to have suffered. Villas were destroyed and the slaughtered inhabitants thrown down wells. Within a few years some semblance of stability was restored for a decade or two but in the face of increasing barbarian raids and immigration and the general disintegration of the authority of the empire, the province of Britannia dissolved into a confusion of warring factions. Populations fled from the cities and no longer was there the will or the ability to maintain the urban infrastructure.”
― Barry W. Cunliffe, The Roman Baths, a view over 2000 years