Digging Up Britain: Ten Discoveries, a Million Years of History

by Mike Pitts

An award-winning archaeologist and journalist chronicles England’s history―as told through the country’s recent archaeological discoveries. Digging Up Britain traces the history of Britain through key discoveries and excavations. With British archaeologist Mike Pitts as a guide, this book covers the most exciting excavations of the past ten years, gathers firsthand stories from the people who dug up the remains, and follows the latest revelations as one twist leads to another. Britain, a historically crowded place, has been the site of an unprecedented number of discoveries―almost everywhere the ground is broken, archaeologists find evidence that people have been there before. These discoveries illuminate Britain’s ever-shifting history that we now know includes an increasingly diverse array of cultures and customs. Each chapter of the book tells the story of a single excavation or discovery. Some are major digs, conducted by large teams over years, and others are chance finds, leading to revelations out of proportion to the scale of the original project. Every chapter holds extraordinary tales of planning, teamwork, luck, and cutting-edge archaeological science that produces surprising insights into how people lived a thousand to a million years ago. 20 color and 50 black- and-white illustrations

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, British Literature, Science, Historical

288 pages, Hardcover

Published October 8, 2019

About the author

Archeologist, who also writes as Michael W. Pitts.

Reviews

[Jack Bates · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent overview of some of the latest discoveries and theories in British archaeology, discusing sites including Must Farm, Black Loch, Starr Carr and Gough's Cave. Pitts is a great communicator and deals effectively with some complex excavations, technical information, and wider implications.

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me a long time to read. The writing to me felt disjointed. Lots of history, evidence, and ideas to discuss. A difficult task no doubt, but I felt myself often thinking "What is this author trying to say?"
Many times I strongly considered not finishing it, but I couldn't; it's a family curse. Also, not to nitpick but I'm pretty sure a million years of history weren't actually covered. Bad sign. A recommendation from the boys on The Rest is History podcast.

[Haley Hughes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow this was boring

[Graham Catt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, enlightening, entertaining.

[Jacob Tose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth an extra star purely for the nominative determinism of the author. Otherwise, very informative but too many pages wasted explaining pit positions and process rather than what this tells us about our human history.

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these new archeology books in which history as it has been written is being reevaluated with new evidence and far less bias. We have new equipment and analysis is more accurate. There are many more women working in the field and whereas before women were slotted into very gender specific rolls due to the fact that the men digging believed women only fitted into certain areas. There was a lot of misinterpretation.There were other bias as well that caused misinterpretation such as a military person identifying a site as having a military history and in reality it did not and the other is those only interested in the status sites and ignoring any evidence of the full value of how people in all walks interacted and lived out their lives.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable overview of some of the really fascinating work being done at sites around Britain. A great sampling of the current usual suspects in archaeology as well as updates on old archaeological friends: Must Farm, Star Carr, Red Lady of Paviland, etc., all described in conversational language. It’s a very accessible and entertaining book for those interested in the subject.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A subtitle for this book might be "Archaeology's Answer to Brexit." Mike Pitts reviews ten significant archaeological sites in Britain, considering the latest (as of 2019) analyses of the artifacts and remains found. He works backwards in time, partly because, as he says, that is how archaeologists work, because that is how we come to understand what is found.

Along the way he explains how study of DNA in excavated remains demonstrates at least one almost complete replacement of one population by another - not when the Saxons or the Normans came, but sometime after the creation of Stonehenge. Bone and teeth from every site indicate the constant presence of people who came from somewhere else. Styles of artifacts and pottery indicate a constant connection to the continent. In short, every current or past origin story about the British is wrong. What is slowly coming into focus, through analysis of these ten sites and many others, is a completely different picture.

Sadly, in America we know all too well that acknowledging your ancestors were immigrants does not mean you will be kinder to other immigrants. So his mission may be doomed anyway. He is manifestly annoyed by the misinterpretation and oversimplification of the press in reporting new information. The work goes on, the information accumulates. It's fascinating to try to keep up.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book might alternatively be titled “What’s New in Archaeology.” And what’s new is primarily methods for analyzing human bones. Much of the book is about the origins of people crossing to England over the millennia by boat or by foot and some of the analysis is a little gruesome. “The English writer Bruce Chatwin believed that travel, especially on foot, was the essence of being human. Journeying was instinctive, and inhumanities – aggression, war, despotism – arose when the virtue and dignity of travel were suppressed.” So, far from being a contemporary issue, the author sees Britain as a land of immigrants for hundreds of thousands of years. It would have been interesting if the author had included Ireland and related the findings to the classic “Book of Invasions.”

[Jeremy Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, well written and insightful overview of some of the most important recent archeological excavations across Britain. A great way to find out key information about the current state of knowledge across millennia of history and prehistory. Great guidance on further reading. Highly recommended.

[Robert Bethune]

A Fascinating Look at British Prehistory

Most books of this genre work from oldest to most recent, Mike Pitts gives us ten archeological digs from newest to oldest and does so in an easily read and entertaining manner. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in archeology or British natural history.

[Janice Colebrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book with wide-ranging content that is covered succinctly and with clarity. Whilst it covers a specialist subject it presents the information in a way that can be understood by any interested reader. I highly recommend it.

[Peter Conway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look at some of the newer archeological digs in Britain and how they are rewriting what we know about the early history of Britain.

[Carol Flux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Present from Noel

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting set of reports on major British archaeological sites, designed to draw the reader through time with the most up to date research.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[tentoumushi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light and readable. More in-depth than what you'd get from a tv program, but not by much.

[existential cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fan of Mr. Pitts. I had (2) frustrations with this interesting book. Maybe 3. It's 3.

1 - Reverse chronological order meant starting with the most interesting and heading to the most obscure. Might be b/c details of our early species are sparse and harder to relate to? Don't know. But I had more trouble making it through the further back it went (and it goes far).

2 - Lots of descriptions of what things look like, or how they are situated in relation to each other, etc. Please replace with an image. Very difficult to follow - that's not true - I couldn't follow any of it at all. Partly how my brain works and partly... going about it the hard way, perhaps.

3 - Mr. Pitts states that he is writing for the lay person, and (for example) goes into detail explaining half life dating. a) If you're reading this book, you may have more than a passing interest in history/archaeology. b) Even if you don't, most ppl know about this process, at least at a high level. c) The choice of what to explain and what not to explain - and how best to do that (see 2, above) - I feel like Mr. Pitts was ill-served by his editor(s).

[Andy Gibb · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's amazing what archaeologists can figure out from bones. A pretty good life history of a person for a start, which tells us tons about how people were travelling even when our civilisation tells us they weren't. In fact all these digs show how much crap we're fed about the past in order to glorify the present.

My favourite bit though is how we can tell humans were around at any time (and about the only marker we'll leave for the future). It's the one thing we do that no other living entity does. We like breaking rocks. Indeed, no natural process breaks them the way we do. Think of that the next time you see a quarry or a coal mine.

[Lesley Arrowsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant - some of my favourite sites are mentioned, with the latest developments - the London Mithraeum, Star Carr, Stonehenge, and others I was less familiar with.
A theme runs through the book that, even in the earliest periods, the UK was linked with Europe with lots of movement across the Channel and, earlier, across the land bridge of Doggerland, with aDNA showing what a varied population the UK has had over the millennia.
I don't often give 5 stars - I save it for the most exceptional books I read, and this is one that I'll be coming back to and dipping into in the future.

[RichVT · Rating 3 out of 5]

The descriptions of the practice of modern archeology are fascinating and well worth reading this book. It is well written but does presume some familiarity with humankind’s timeline and lapses at times into a jumble of categories and researcher names that distract. Still there are a number of nicely done summations to bring a novice like me along. For a largely academic book it holds one’s interests well.

[Lewis Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a uk metal detectorist I loved this book. Seperate stories within chapters so minimal to no confusion. It’s absolutely fascinating to learn about Britain almost from the beginning, species and how the first humans supposedly lived. Well worth a read, bedtime book for me. Enjoy!