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Home: A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Prehistory
In Home Francis Pryor, author of The Making of the British Landscape, archaeologist and broadcaster, takes us on his lifetime's quest: to discover the origins of family life in prehistoric Britain
Francis Pryor's search for the origins of our island story has been the quest of a lifetime. In Home, the Time Team expert explores the first nine thousand years of life in Britain, from the retreat of the glaciers to the Romans' departure. Tracing the settlement of domestic communities, he shows how archaeology enables us to reconstruct the evolution of habits, traditions and customs. But this, too, is Francis Pryor's own story: of his passion for unearthing our past, from Yorkshire to the west country, Lincolnshire to Wales, digging in freezing winters, arid summers, mud and hurricanes, through frustrated journeys and euphoric discoveries. Evocative and intimate, Home shows how, in going about their daily existence, our prehistoric ancestors created the institution that remains at the heart of the way we live now: the family.
'Under his gaze, the land starts to fill with tribes and clans wandering this way and that, leaving traces that can still be seen today . . . Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it' - Guardian
Former president of the Council for British Archaeology, Dr Francis Pryor has spent over thirty years studying our prehistory. He has excavated sites as diverse as Bronze Age farms, field systems and entire Iron Age villages. He appears frequently on TV's Time Team and is the author of The Making of the British Landscape, Seahenge, as well as Britain BC and Britain AD, both of which he adapted and presented as Channel 4 series.
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Francis Pryor's search for the origins of our island story has been the quest of a lifetime. In Home, the Time Team expert explores the first nine thousand years of life in Britain, from the retreat of the glaciers to the Romans' departure. Tracing the settlement of domestic communities, he shows how archaeology enables us to reconstruct the evolution of habits, traditions and customs. But this, too, is Francis Pryor's own story: of his passion for unearthing our past, from Yorkshire to the west country, Lincolnshire to Wales, digging in freezing winters, arid summers, mud and hurricanes, through frustrated journeys and euphoric discoveries. Evocative and intimate, Home shows how, in going about their daily existence, our prehistoric ancestors created the institution that remains at the heart of the way we live now: the family.
'Under his gaze, the land starts to fill with tribes and clans wandering this way and that, leaving traces that can still be seen today . . . Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it' - Guardian
Former president of the Council for British Archaeology, Dr Francis Pryor has spent over thirty years studying our prehistory. He has excavated sites as diverse as Bronze Age farms, field systems and entire Iron Age villages. He appears frequently on TV's Time Team and is the author of The Making of the British Landscape, Seahenge, as well as Britain BC and Britain AD, both of which he adapted and presented as Channel 4 series.
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320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2014
74 people are currently reading
541 people want to read
About the author
Francis Pryor
37 books145 followersFrancis Manning Marlborough Pryor MBE (born 13 January 1945) is a British archaeologist who is famous for his role in the discovery of Flag Fen, a Bronze Age archaeological site near Peterborough, and for his frequent appearances on the Channel 4 television series Time Team.
He has now retired from full-time field archaeology, but still appears on television and writes books as well as being a working farmer. His specialities are in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
His first novel, Lifers’ Club, is due to be published in 2014.
He has now retired from full-time field archaeology, but still appears on television and writes books as well as being a working farmer. His specialities are in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
His first novel, Lifers’ Club, is due to be published in 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
August 12, 2018
If I have one criticism of this book it is that Francis Pryor tends to lose a bit of focus at times and meanders off the subject at hand. Be that as it may I can feast on Pryor’s books all day long. As usual, he is easy to read and one always learns.
May 14, 2021
The title of this book (Time-Traveller's Tales) gives the misleading impression that these are loose Scifi-stories on British prehistory. Instead, it offers a rather specialised survey of British pre- and proto-history by a very experienced archaeologist. I didn't know Francis Pryor (° 1945) at all, but in Britain he apparently has a good reputation as a promoter of archeology on television, and he can look back on more than 40 years of fieldwork. Pryor does not practice archeology from the study room and, indeed, he makes no secret of the fact that he detests scientists who only look at the past from a theoretical perspective.
This is certainly evident from this book, where he constantly returns to his own excavation work, especially in the region of Fenland (East Anglia): as a reader you get almost tangible contact with the soil (actually mainly the mud), and you also learn to know the social interaction behind the archaeological work (up to and including the pints at the local pub). That makes reading this book entertaining and digestible. Bu you have to tolerate the very extroverted personality that Pryor is (with a strong anarchistic conviction). The author expresses himself in very idiosyncratic views on the subject matter, which are not always sound, but which at least encourage reflection and debate. The great weakness of this book, though, is its almost exclusive British view, without an eye for the broader context. More about that in the review in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
(rating 2.5 stars)
This is certainly evident from this book, where he constantly returns to his own excavation work, especially in the region of Fenland (East Anglia): as a reader you get almost tangible contact with the soil (actually mainly the mud), and you also learn to know the social interaction behind the archaeological work (up to and including the pints at the local pub). That makes reading this book entertaining and digestible. Bu you have to tolerate the very extroverted personality that Pryor is (with a strong anarchistic conviction). The author expresses himself in very idiosyncratic views on the subject matter, which are not always sound, but which at least encourage reflection and debate. The great weakness of this book, though, is its almost exclusive British view, without an eye for the broader context. More about that in the review in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
(rating 2.5 stars)
Read
October 22, 2024British archaeologist Francis Pryor has his own approach to prehistoric and protohistoric times. For him history begins and ends with the family: what is excavated and discovered always contains a personal story, always relates to a concrete person who was connected to his immediate community and thus in the first place his family and his home. For Pryor, archaeologists (and by extension historians) would do well never to lose sight of that when trying to reconstruct the lives and world views of the people whose material remains they find. That message captivated me, because indeed that personal-existential aspect of the past is often ignored.
In this book, Pryor illustrates how he applies that principle in his own fieldwork and how it helps him to explain choices that pre- and proto-historical people apparently have made, for example in the construction of a house. In doing so, he constantly emphasizes that those earliest communities were not at all as stupid as we might think: they had a very good understanding of the workings of nature and used techniques that were really valuable. According to him it explains, for example, the rapid introduction of agriculture in Great Britain, because in the preceding period there was already plenty of experimentation with cultivation and selection methods on the local level.
What also keeps coming back in this book is how wrong the "top-down" view of most archaeologists and historians is. Pryor does his best to prove how much pre- and protohistoric communities made choices based on their own insights and traditions, and not because they were imposed from above. Hierarchical forms are all too quickly recognized and credited in historical approaches, while in these early periods of history the real networks had a rather loose character. Pryor explicitly rejects the thesis of Colin Renfrew, one of the most renowned older British archaeologists, that emerging elites in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age played a major role and led to early states. Perhaps Pryor's anarchist nature plays tricks on him, as he repeatedly seems to go to the other extreme, rejecting any kind of hierarchy. But his basic intuition that one must be careful with such hierarchical thinking certainly is correct.
This book also regularly examines the methodology of archeology, and especially how it has evolved enormously over the last 40 years. Pryor shows, illustrated by his own excavations in Fenland (East Anglia) in particular, how both methods and opinions have evolved, and will undoubtedly continue to evolve. He also makes tangible how intriguing the archaeological puzzle work can be, and he even knows to convey his enthusiasm about the physical aspects of the craft, the digging and plowing in the mud.
Apart from his sometimes a bit too anarchistic and idiosyncratic approach, I see another weakness in this book, but it’s a very big one. And that is his almost exclusively British look on things, in which 'exclusive' has to be taken literally: Pryor explains almost all developments in British pre- and protohistory on the basis of indigenous factors. The element of migration only plays a very limited role in his narrative, and when possible, he downplays the importance of it: local communities and local interactions are the decisive factor. According to him, even the arrival of the Romans did not change anything fundamentally, because a highly developed protohistoric society already existed. In his last chapter, he summarizes his view by stressing that it was in pre- and protohistory that the foundation was laid for the later British greatness (“a pattern of regional cultures whose flexibility allowed the British to play such an extraordinary creative role on the world's stage”).
Now, of course, Pryor has every right to emphasize the importance of local developments, in contrast with the historical view that ‘civilization’ came from elsewhere: from the Near East, from Greece or from Rome. But his stubbornness comes with a price. After all, in recent years, the rapidly evolving field of paleo-genetics has shown how much the British Isles were subject to large, continuous waves of migration in proto-history (just like the rest of Europe); no less than 5.000 years ago almost the whole population was replaced by people from the South Russian steppe region (explaining why there were such great cultural changes in that period). There is hardly a trace of that in this book.
It only started to dawn on me after several chapters: Pryor has a very Brexit-esque approach to early British history (with my apologies for the anachronism, this book came out 2 years before the referendum). For example: at no point does he highlight the Atlantic intertwining of the British Isles, while a huge number of archaeological finds indicate the region's intensive and continued interaction with Western Iberia, Brittany and other western parts of Europe, and Scandinavia. That is an inexcusable oblivion, as inexcusable as - for instance - the so much scorned French navel gazing. It is the main blot on this otherwise very readable and interesting book. (rating 2.5 stars)
In this book, Pryor illustrates how he applies that principle in his own fieldwork and how it helps him to explain choices that pre- and proto-historical people apparently have made, for example in the construction of a house. In doing so, he constantly emphasizes that those earliest communities were not at all as stupid as we might think: they had a very good understanding of the workings of nature and used techniques that were really valuable. According to him it explains, for example, the rapid introduction of agriculture in Great Britain, because in the preceding period there was already plenty of experimentation with cultivation and selection methods on the local level.
What also keeps coming back in this book is how wrong the "top-down" view of most archaeologists and historians is. Pryor does his best to prove how much pre- and protohistoric communities made choices based on their own insights and traditions, and not because they were imposed from above. Hierarchical forms are all too quickly recognized and credited in historical approaches, while in these early periods of history the real networks had a rather loose character. Pryor explicitly rejects the thesis of Colin Renfrew, one of the most renowned older British archaeologists, that emerging elites in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age played a major role and led to early states. Perhaps Pryor's anarchist nature plays tricks on him, as he repeatedly seems to go to the other extreme, rejecting any kind of hierarchy. But his basic intuition that one must be careful with such hierarchical thinking certainly is correct.
This book also regularly examines the methodology of archeology, and especially how it has evolved enormously over the last 40 years. Pryor shows, illustrated by his own excavations in Fenland (East Anglia) in particular, how both methods and opinions have evolved, and will undoubtedly continue to evolve. He also makes tangible how intriguing the archaeological puzzle work can be, and he even knows to convey his enthusiasm about the physical aspects of the craft, the digging and plowing in the mud.
Apart from his sometimes a bit too anarchistic and idiosyncratic approach, I see another weakness in this book, but it’s a very big one. And that is his almost exclusively British look on things, in which 'exclusive' has to be taken literally: Pryor explains almost all developments in British pre- and protohistory on the basis of indigenous factors. The element of migration only plays a very limited role in his narrative, and when possible, he downplays the importance of it: local communities and local interactions are the decisive factor. According to him, even the arrival of the Romans did not change anything fundamentally, because a highly developed protohistoric society already existed. In his last chapter, he summarizes his view by stressing that it was in pre- and protohistory that the foundation was laid for the later British greatness (“a pattern of regional cultures whose flexibility allowed the British to play such an extraordinary creative role on the world's stage”).
Now, of course, Pryor has every right to emphasize the importance of local developments, in contrast with the historical view that ‘civilization’ came from elsewhere: from the Near East, from Greece or from Rome. But his stubbornness comes with a price. After all, in recent years, the rapidly evolving field of paleo-genetics has shown how much the British Isles were subject to large, continuous waves of migration in proto-history (just like the rest of Europe); no less than 5.000 years ago almost the whole population was replaced by people from the South Russian steppe region (explaining why there were such great cultural changes in that period). There is hardly a trace of that in this book.
It only started to dawn on me after several chapters: Pryor has a very Brexit-esque approach to early British history (with my apologies for the anachronism, this book came out 2 years before the referendum). For example: at no point does he highlight the Atlantic intertwining of the British Isles, while a huge number of archaeological finds indicate the region's intensive and continued interaction with Western Iberia, Brittany and other western parts of Europe, and Scandinavia. That is an inexcusable oblivion, as inexcusable as - for instance - the so much scorned French navel gazing. It is the main blot on this otherwise very readable and interesting book. (rating 2.5 stars)
October 1, 2016
Unlike the more focused Seahenge, Francis Pryor’s Home tries to cover a lot of ground — no less than looking at the roots of family life in the Neolithic world, and its development through to recorded history. There’s a lot of evidence to look at, but a lot of it doesn’t deal directly with the home: in fact, Pryor discusses Seahenge and Stonehenge at reasonable length, as well as other potentially sacred places and practices that we don’t now fully understand (or in some cases, understand at all). It somewhat ties in with what I’ve been reading recently about Celtic culture, and the development of infrastructure in Britain, though it covers a lot more centuries, so it was interesting to see where it dovetailed.
Unfortunately, I think the fact that there’s sections about burial practices and the like detracts from the central theme, even though it does relate to how a home life might have been seen and how individuals were treated. Pryor’s willingness to speculate about all these things makes the book seem a little overstuffed at times — reiterating ideas from Seahenge and from Mike Parker Pearson’s Stonehenge, then discussing Pryor’s own digging experiences, and then talking about a hoard found somewhere else… It lacks focus, I think, which is a shame.
It’s still a fascinating book, and Pryor writes well and interestingly, but it feels like the material could equally constitute most of Britain BC, which I haven’t yet read but intend to. It isn’t just about the home; we don’t have enough evidence for that, as much as we would wish it. Instead, questions about ritual and beliefs about death intrude at all times, partly because these are things we are more fascinated to know, and only partly for the way it reflects on the living of life.
Originally posted here.
Unfortunately, I think the fact that there’s sections about burial practices and the like detracts from the central theme, even though it does relate to how a home life might have been seen and how individuals were treated. Pryor’s willingness to speculate about all these things makes the book seem a little overstuffed at times — reiterating ideas from Seahenge and from Mike Parker Pearson’s Stonehenge, then discussing Pryor’s own digging experiences, and then talking about a hoard found somewhere else… It lacks focus, I think, which is a shame.
It’s still a fascinating book, and Pryor writes well and interestingly, but it feels like the material could equally constitute most of Britain BC, which I haven’t yet read but intend to. It isn’t just about the home; we don’t have enough evidence for that, as much as we would wish it. Instead, questions about ritual and beliefs about death intrude at all times, partly because these are things we are more fascinated to know, and only partly for the way it reflects on the living of life.
Originally posted here.
March 17, 2015
To describe this book as interesting sounds like damning with faint praise; but it isn't. Pryor's book is genuinely interesting. He brings all his experience as an archaeologist to bear on looking at pre-Roman Britain from an angle which is unusual. He sees the development of home life and community as the driving force, rather than top-down organisation, and he interprets the evidence as showing a much higher level of sophistication than has been thought and taught.
Read
August 21, 2023I read this because my dad did and I love him, but I didn’t love this book as much as I wanted to! I like a weird specific nonfiction book but this author was almost too eccentric for me and I think he missed the point sometimes and rambled a whole hell of a lot. He does strike me as a very endearing guy and I wasn’t like offended by the quality of this book or anything, but I feel like it wasn’t quite there.
April 28, 2019
A fantastic and refreshing book that aims to put the people of prehistory back on the page. Rather than a cold and calculating academic treatise, Pryor brings the past vividly to life through his relating of the latest discoveries in archaeology within the framework of his decades of professional experience, all told in a warm and comfortable voice.
Even better, his work in experimental archaeology and a life in farming means he can offer further insight and speculation, not least about the importance of community, that too many academics miss because their are too distant from their subject.
I wasn't sure whether I'd enjoy Pryor's work, but was finally tempted to buy this by its low price. Now I'm very much a fan.
Even better, his work in experimental archaeology and a life in farming means he can offer further insight and speculation, not least about the importance of community, that too many academics miss because their are too distant from their subject.
I wasn't sure whether I'd enjoy Pryor's work, but was finally tempted to buy this by its low price. Now I'm very much a fan.
February 24, 2022
Outstanding. The only criticism I have is simply that the later time periods of the book don't interest me as much as the earlier parts, but that's hardly a slight against the book.
November 6, 2021
I suspect Francis Pryor would be a great person to chat to in the pub and his enthusiasm for archaeology shines through on every page. However he does meander all over the place in this book, making it hard to follow the thread of his argument.
There's an awful lot of drifting off into his own personal experiences, sometimes with very little link to the supposed theme of family life. He constantly says things like "as we shall see" or "we shall come back to that in later chapters" which adds to the disjointed feel. It's also rather uneven, with some sites (those he worked on) getting a fair bit of detail, and other sites rather skimmed over.
I still learnt a lot from this and there are some terrific sections - I particularly loved the tale of the metal detectors and the finding of the sword. However, overall this felt like lots of unconnected pieces with no coherent argument.
There's an awful lot of drifting off into his own personal experiences, sometimes with very little link to the supposed theme of family life. He constantly says things like "as we shall see" or "we shall come back to that in later chapters" which adds to the disjointed feel. It's also rather uneven, with some sites (those he worked on) getting a fair bit of detail, and other sites rather skimmed over.
I still learnt a lot from this and there are some terrific sections - I particularly loved the tale of the metal detectors and the finding of the sword. However, overall this felt like lots of unconnected pieces with no coherent argument.
May 28, 2015
A very engaging and interesting book which mixes personal anecdote with prehistory and archaeology. His argument about the importance of family (and against the existence of top down hierarchy) is circular and reliant on his own interpretations. But for this time period I figure that's fine as there doesn't seem to be much evidence to test it either way.
October 6, 2025
Was far more interested in the first few chapters and the last 2 then the middle
April 3, 2022
This is an interesting book which covers a lot of ground from the Ice Age through to Celtic Britain with the emphasis on what family life would have been like. Francis Pryor writes in an easy-to-read style but tends to overdo the personal anecdotes. There are numerous mentions of facts that have "already been dealt with in previous chapters" or that "will be dealt with in chapters to come", and this tends to become rather annoying at times, but on the whole this was a worthwhile read.
August 22, 2016
A very enjoyable, erudite and all-round super book from a major figure of the field… and of course a regular on 'Time Team'.
Opening with life in the Continent-connected Britain of just after the end of the last Ice Age, the book covers a lot of ground in stages, ending with Celtic Britain and a bit about the time of the Romans. But the heart of this book - maybe I should say hearth - is the crucial role played in prehistoric cultural evolution by the family and family life. This is why the book is called "Home." Pryor is unusual amongst archaeologists in allowing his natural humanity to inform his scientific discoveries and understanding. It is this willingness to add human common sense to science that makes the book so appealing.
I'd recommend this book to pretty much anybody with a brain and the desire to use it. Although - especially in the first half - the writing style is peppered with mental diversions, as if Pryor is attempting a little stream-of-consciousness, those distractions depart as the style settles down. But all the main stuff is there: wisdom, experience, insight, and the willingness to say what lesser men of archaeology are too stuffy to say.
Bravo!
Opening with life in the Continent-connected Britain of just after the end of the last Ice Age, the book covers a lot of ground in stages, ending with Celtic Britain and a bit about the time of the Romans. But the heart of this book - maybe I should say hearth - is the crucial role played in prehistoric cultural evolution by the family and family life. This is why the book is called "Home." Pryor is unusual amongst archaeologists in allowing his natural humanity to inform his scientific discoveries and understanding. It is this willingness to add human common sense to science that makes the book so appealing.
I'd recommend this book to pretty much anybody with a brain and the desire to use it. Although - especially in the first half - the writing style is peppered with mental diversions, as if Pryor is attempting a little stream-of-consciousness, those distractions depart as the style settles down. But all the main stuff is there: wisdom, experience, insight, and the willingness to say what lesser men of archaeology are too stuffy to say.
Bravo!
March 28, 2017
A fairly convincing view of the likely lifestyle and organisation of live in Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Iron Age in Britain (and he very occasionally touches on Ireland) that focuses on the family unit as being key as opposed to grander societal structures. This idea is compellingly put, but it is maybe pushed very slightly too far to the exclusion of all else.
What is equally compelling is not just the ideas expressed in the book, but the way Frances Pryor shows how those ideas evolved overthrowing not only what he had first been taught but also some of his own earlier theories as to the course of life in prehistoric and Iron Age Britain.
What is equally compelling is not just the ideas expressed in the book, but the way Frances Pryor shows how those ideas evolved overthrowing not only what he had first been taught but also some of his own earlier theories as to the course of life in prehistoric and Iron Age Britain.
February 19, 2021
Self indulgent introduction goes on and on for ever. A real effort to battle through until you reach the actual book. Why? Boring and annoying. I will persevere and maybe before the end of the lock down I will reach the actual book. Who knows.
Update. I made it through the introduction to the actual book!
I’m sorry to say I found this a book of waffle. No real explanation of the economic, social and anthropological changes that were promised.
The author is more concerned with sharing his obviously deeply held opinions than educating readers. Almost every page includes detailed overviews of why his experiences and views are invariably superior to others.
Update. I made it through the introduction to the actual book!
I’m sorry to say I found this a book of waffle. No real explanation of the economic, social and anthropological changes that were promised.
The author is more concerned with sharing his obviously deeply held opinions than educating readers. Almost every page includes detailed overviews of why his experiences and views are invariably superior to others.
April 4, 2020
An interesting book with a good balance between overview (of all British prehistory) and detail (focus on the theme of home/houses and specific sites). Pryor is occasionally annoying (I didn't laugh at the cheap jokes about vegetarians and Neo-Pagans, although I do understand why he's annoyed with the anti-archaeology subgroup in the second), but mostly a lively and entertaining writer with masses of relevant experience. He gives clear explanations of several times he and others in his profession have changed their minds, which is refreshing as well as useful.
May 8, 2022
Not my favourite historical period but had to do some research for an upcoming book, and it is a relatively good reference if you are into Prehistoric Britain. I did find some sections a little too long and at some points a little vague or unstructured. Yet, I did admire the core theme around bottom-up, organised communities and the idea of cyclical rather than dogmatic chronologies. The book acts more as a personal experience on archaeology than a historical narrative.
May 21, 2017
A very readable work which covers the full sweep of prehistoric Britain and examines what we can learn of family life and its implictions for the wider community. Pryor has an assured, conversational style which is very accessible.
Plus I have to give marks to someone who casually mentions the Isle of Man a few times, just because it's there. Maybe next time he could discuss some sites too...
Plus I have to give marks to someone who casually mentions the Isle of Man a few times, just because it's there. Maybe next time he could discuss some sites too...
March 12, 2024
...what we might loosely term ‘religion’ was increasing in importance. But instead of being removed from daily life to somewhere less accessible, more and more remote, more liminal, it was brought closer to home, because that was where it was needed. [loc. 3445]
I've read and enjoyed a couple of Pryor's other books (Britain BC and Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans) so it's probably not surprising that some parts of this engaging book, which Pryor describes as being 'about home and family life and the way ordinary people managed their affairs in the nine or so millennia between the end of the Ice Age and the coming of the Romans', felt familiar. He focuses closely on Britain, and on the archaeological record: there are many anecdotes about his own work in the field -- and I do mean in the field, and in the fen. He's fascinated by the ways in which the lives of prehistoric Britons can be understood from the remains of houses, places of worship and boundaries.
Pryor's overarching theme here is that it was families and small communities, rather than an elite class of warriors and leaders, who drove most of daily life during British prehistory. He posits a major change around 1500BC (the end of the Early Bronze Age), when some kind of religious 'revolution' seems to have occurred: the grander ritual sites, such as barrows and henges, were abandoned, and smaller and more community-based rituals ('often based around water ... but show clear links to aspects of ordinary domestic life') became commonplace.
Pryor is at his best when he conveys the excitement of archaeology: not the grinding monotony of trowel-work, but moments like seeing Mesolithic footprints, left by adults and children in the mud of the Severn. "I found it hard to accept that those footprints had survived for perhaps seven thousand years and then been exposed for just two or three hours, before the next tide washed them away, for ever.' [loc. 1543] In Home, he isn't attempting an objective, scholarly review of the evidence, but a very personal and 'bottom-up' account of the archaeological record and his feelings about it. I disagreed with some of his more sweeping statements ('had the Romans not invaded in AD 43, I’m in little doubt that Britain’s subsequent history would not have been adversely affected' [loc. 4882]), but it felt more like a friendly argument than an author enforcing his views.
Fulfils the ‘moment’ rubric of the Annual Non-Fiction Reading Challenge, just because of that bit about the footprints.
March 11, 2019
In Home, the archaeologist Francis Pryor sets out to explore
" ... home and family life and the way ordinary people managed their affairs in the nine or so millennia between the end of the Ice Age and the coming of the Romans."
He does this in a readable and accessible way which makes this an excellent book for the general reader. He bases his arguments on what he has seen in the ground in various archaeological explorations over the past 30 - 40 years and this makes for fascinating reading and gives him an authority which gives weight to many of his arguments and theories.
Pryor shows how there was change in the way people lived as they managed the developments in farming and metal technology but there was also consistency as families remained at the core of people's lives.
" ... home and family life and the way ordinary people managed their affairs in the nine or so millennia between the end of the Ice Age and the coming of the Romans."
He does this in a readable and accessible way which makes this an excellent book for the general reader. He bases his arguments on what he has seen in the ground in various archaeological explorations over the past 30 - 40 years and this makes for fascinating reading and gives him an authority which gives weight to many of his arguments and theories.
Pryor shows how there was change in the way people lived as they managed the developments in farming and metal technology but there was also consistency as families remained at the core of people's lives.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 23, 2019
This book is an overview of the development of the concept of home and family in Britain from the Palaeolithic to the arrival of the Romans. Much of this depends on the interpretation of archaeological sites, which Francis Pryor is amply qualified to do. The book is more than this, though. It is also to some extent a memoir of Pryor’s life in archaeology. I enjoyed most his discussion of Flag fen, and his ideas on how surviving Neolithic sites may reflect family centred religious worship. The book however, did end rather abruptly with relatively little revisiting of what was previously discussed. I’d probably recommend it to people who have already done a bit of reading in this area.
July 31, 2020
Excellent! Probably the best of Francis Pryor's books that I have read.
For me, it has changed my perception of pre-Roman and post-Roman Britain. The ideas around waves of immigrants from the continent taught extensively in schools in the '50's and '60's are also changed for me now and for the better, I have to say.
This is a book about people, families, communities and tribes. Written in Pryor's accessible style, it is lengthy, certainly and there is plenty to absorb along the way, certainly but the journey has been worth it, for me.
For me, it has changed my perception of pre-Roman and post-Roman Britain. The ideas around waves of immigrants from the continent taught extensively in schools in the '50's and '60's are also changed for me now and for the better, I have to say.
This is a book about people, families, communities and tribes. Written in Pryor's accessible style, it is lengthy, certainly and there is plenty to absorb along the way, certainly but the journey has been worth it, for me.
November 4, 2017
A really interesting read, Francis Pryor knows how to tell a story and does not get too technical so that the average reader can get a lot of useful insight without being blinded by science. It really opened my eyes to how people were living some 6000 years ago and has changed my perspective of how people lived during these times.
Well worth a read if you are interested in how family life looked before the Roman invasion of Britain and how sophisticated those people were.
Well worth a read if you are interested in how family life looked before the Roman invasion of Britain and how sophisticated those people were.
October 31, 2021
I bought this for my dad for Chritams last year (maybe?) and he lent it to me when I saw him in September.
It's taken me ages to read it, not sure why, as Pryor is an entertaining writer and I enjoyed it. Essentially an overview of the development of domestic spaces through prehistory, it's a nice summary of various archaeological discoveries and theoretical developments over the course of Pryor's career over the last sixty or so years.
It's taken me ages to read it, not sure why, as Pryor is an entertaining writer and I enjoyed it. Essentially an overview of the development of domestic spaces through prehistory, it's a nice summary of various archaeological discoveries and theoretical developments over the course of Pryor's career over the last sixty or so years.
June 3, 2024
Thought provoking and insightful book. Pryor's experience as a field archeologist enables him to draw on a synthesis of theoretical and practical archeology in order to analyse pre-history through the lens of the domestic.
His theories on the Mesolithic management of land and the tribal and family based hierarchical social structures are particular highlights.
His theories on the Mesolithic management of land and the tribal and family based hierarchical social structures are particular highlights.
February 4, 2017
Francis Pryor obviously loves what he does and the land and the people. If you have an interest in British prehistory and you haven't read Pryor - do so. You will be in for a treat.
February 8, 2019
Really interesting read!
February 16, 2024
Good! Very interesting! Have recommended to others - read it as an ebook - in retrospect would have been nicer read as a book. But wasn't available where I am.
September 24, 2024
Fascinating way of looking at Britain from the point of view of the family. All backed up by huge experience as an archaeologist.
September 16, 2018
The home, your home, our home ... it is so utterly essential and important. For some it is a minuscule cubicle, the streets, the road, the farm, the mountain, the city, ... the what ever you feel or call home it will be filled with you and your being.
If Francis Pryor decides to perform his books on audible, I would be his first listener, I love his voice and I used to resound it in my head while reading "Home".
If Francis Pryor decides to perform his books on audible, I would be his first listener, I love his voice and I used to resound it in my head while reading "Home".
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