Francis Pryor > Quotes

“And if any landscape can provide darkness, with a very real hint of menace, it is most surely the Fens.”
― Francis Pryor, The Fens: Discovering England's Ancient Depths

“the rich smells would soon get them digging with their front feet and the well-defined hearths seen in the excavation trenches would rapidly be disturbed beyond recognition.”
― Francis Pryor, Home: A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Prehistory

“I love it when archaeological finds speak to us so directly. When our metalwork specialists examined a couple of the broken swords they noticed that they had broken across casting flaws. This was hardly surprising, because cast bronze swords require deep, narrow moulds where air blocks can readily happen. We also know that many recent societies that employed similar metalworking techniques often treated the day when castings were to be made with special respect. Sometimes the clay moulds and furnaces were fashioned to resemble the bodies of pregnant women. Often women were barred from workshops during casting. So the casting of metal objects was seen as a form of birth. If something similar applied in the British Bronze Age, which seems highly probable to me, then it is not surprising that newly cast but flawed swords were consigned to the waters in a special place. They had been ‘born’, and most probably named, too, and therefore required appropriate disposal, with due reverence.”
― Francis Pryor, The Fens: Discovering England's Ancient Depths

“We have assumed that ancient houses were built like those of today – as weatherproof boxes for living in and raising families. So we have been very anxious to work out where people ate, slept and prepared their meals. It’s all about what happened where – and we have discovered a great deal. But revealing where people slept or prepared their food makes little sense if we don’t also try to appreciate what it was that motivated them to get out of bed every morning.”
― Francis Pryor, Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans

“Maes Howe belongs to a tradition of tombs known as passage graves, which probably originated in Brittany. It was built in the later Neolithic, shortly after 3000 BC, and consists of a long entrance passage that leads into a central hall with small side cells for burials. In common with the other great passage grave from these islands, Newgrange, in Ireland, the long entrance passage faces south-west, precisely towards the midwinter sunset. On that day, light shines down the 12-metre (40 ft)-long passageway and illuminates the central chamber.”
― Francis Pryor, Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans

“The traditional archaeological view of the great Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monuments of Britain is that they were innovations that came from overseas, with the introduction of farming. And although there may be much truth in this, we are now starting to realize that the new sites were often positioned in areas of the landscape that had long been considered special. There is also growing evidence that many of the beliefs enshrined within the new sacred tombs and enclosures had elements that echoed earlier practices and ideas.”
― Francis Pryor, Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans

“waterfalls or rivers, as rather magical.7 In broad terms, these remote places were seen as being on the edge of the inhabitable world. Archaeologists use the word ‘liminal’ to describe them.c Beyond the liminal zone lay the realms of the ancestors and the forces of nature that controlled not just the weather, but the passing of the seasons and the rising and setting of the sun. Liminal features in the landscape were often chosen for burials and ceremonial sites.”
― Francis Pryor, Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans

“No,’ I replied. ‘You’ve got it wrong. He was a great prehistorian because he lived his own life to the full. Yes, prehistory is about facts and information, but it’s mostly about people and you will never be able to understand the challenges faced by ancient communities if you’ve led a sheltered life yourself.”
― Francis Pryor, Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans

“When no obvious practical purpose for a possible structure presents itself, archaeologists tend to reach for their explanation of last resort, namely ‘ritual’, or religion.”
― Francis Pryor, Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans

“People in prehistory are still seen as somehow primitive, and waiting to be ‘civilized’ by armies of incoming Roman soldiers and administrators. But when the three Roman invasions happened (two by Caesar in 55 and 54 BC and the final conquest by the Emperor Claudius, in AD 43), the Roman army, then the most efficient fighting machine on Earth, developed a good deal of respect for British military resistance”
― Francis Pryor, Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans

“Prehistoric people did not draw a hard and fast distinction between religion and daily life. In their minds the next world, the ancestors and other powerful forces played a direct role in daily life.”
― Francis Pryor, Britain BC : Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans

“The earliest assuredly recognizable humans (hominins) evolved in Africa around five million years ago.1 And yet fire only seems to have been discovered about half a million years ago.2 Even if fire can be pushed back to a million years, that still leaves our ancestors without cooked food or warmth for some four million years.”
― Francis Pryor, Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans