Show Notes
12th feb 2021 BBc broadcast a programme hosted by Professor Alice Roberts called 'Stonehenge, the Lost Circle Revealed'.Both leading up to and afterwards, there was a flurry of headlines in the press ranging from the reasonably restrained to the outright sensational. To cut to the chase, the end result has been - to the dismay of many in the archaeological community and both Rupert and I - the the perception has been left with the general public that Stonehenge had a previous existence in the south Wales hills before it was transported wholesale to what is now Wiltshire.We followed up that broadcast with a short off-the-cuff show of our own on YouTube that attempted to redress some of the (what we regarded as) misleading elements of that programme.In some eyes, this was interpreted as an attack on the lead archaeologist featured in the BBC show, namely Prof Mike Parker Pearson. It was not. What MPP has done here is amazing and we hope by the time we’ve got to the end of this section in the podcast, you’ll get a sense of the high regard we’ve got for him.What we were trying to do however is point out that there was so much more nuance to the finds that have been made and the results that have been extracted. Moreover that there are other voices in the field that were ignored by the BBC and that all is not as simple as made out.All that said - the story is amazing, the questions it poses are mind bending and the picture of people in the late Neolithic and what they were up to remains just as enigmatic if not more so than before the gloss of certainty that was painted over this whole question of the origins of the bluestones of Stonehenge by the BBC programme.We just want to make it real again. Strip it back to the actual evidence and leave you - we hope - much more excited by just how much more complex this story is than the impression left by the BBC in this case.As ever - even with the detail we go into here - we've barely scratched the surface. This could have been a very long podcast indeed. However, let us know if you think we should do more on this! Help support us and join our Patreon community See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
More from The Prehistory Guys
Do we layer too much significance on people and things from prehistory and the past - simply because they are old? Do we confer special status on them in the absence of direct connection? 00:00 - Greetings & introduction 02:55 - A reverence for ‘things’ from the past 14:37 - A reverence for the people of the past 18:59 - Were people more spiritual in the past? 22:26 - William Stukeley’s legacy 26:53 - Making the past ordinary again! 30:40 - Exotic vs simple explanations 34:46 - Contingency and evolution vs intentional development 45:36 - The past as a mirror WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/i9GJZB08Bx8 🟡 Donate to the GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE PROJECT here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys 🔴 Become a PATREON member here: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.ukFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprehistoryguys/Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguysInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/prehistoryguys
A new study out of Notre Dame University, Indiana has suggested that accepted estimations for population levels at Çatahöyük and other Neolithic villages in Anatolia may be grossly inflated. In the past We have been told that Çatalhoyuk could have had up to 10,000 inhabitants at any one time - now this paper says maybe not so much. In fact, maybe less than 1,000 people lived there. This is a pretty big deal and hopefully, we’ll be able to help explain why in the next forty minutes! 'How many people lived in the world’s earliest villages? Reconsidering community size and population pressure at Neolithic Çatalhöyük' available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278416524000047
Why do certain places take on significance in the human psyche? How do places of pilgrimage arise? Why are Göbekli Tepe, Stonehenge and other sites where they are? We look at an aspect of human behaviour that is rarely taken into account when trying to explain what our ancestors were up to. The Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge Podcast is the place where we discuss matters of prehistory at a more conceptual and philosophical level, inspired by our research for the Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge Project https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys (also see below). 00:00 - Intro & Overview 03:20 - Elephants, water & stone 06:41 - Testing the premise at Göbekli Tepe 14:09 - Testing the premise at Stonehenge 25:09 - Where are the places of pilgrimage in early Neolithic S.E. Europe? 30:57 - Crete & Knossos? 32:54 - Human imprinting: a useful perspective? 37:26 - Grime’s Graves, Mont Viso, the Langdale axe factcories 43:23 - Outro Help us make our next film, GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE at ... 🟡 BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription (see Patreon link below), you can make a one off donation by following the link above. All single donations go to our current project: GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE 🔴 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys We have a friendly and enthusiastic Patreon community helping us create our content through monthly subscription. Get access to exclusive (ad-free!) content, be on the inside track of what we're up to and help us build the channel. WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprehistoryguys/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguys Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prehistoryguys
In the process of developing and making Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge, we're lifting the corner of the carpet on all sorts of aspects to do with the Neolithic period that we perhaps would not have otherwise. And so it is with the topic of this discussion - obsidian: we had absolutely no idea how crucial this 'black stuff' was to the spread of farming from Anatolia and the fertile crescent into Europe until really examining the narrative of how the early pioneers first ventured out in to the Aegean and crossed to mainland Greece. Our research has turned up all sorts of surprises and we hope you all enjoy this brief overview of the power of the trade in obsidian.
As the first steps in making the Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge film project, a few weeks ago Rupert and I spent three days at Göbekli Tepe with access to the whole site - we've been down amongst the T-pillars, we've seen the places where the people lived, we've seen excavations that are normally out of the public eye and much more - all in the company of the head archaeologist there, Lee Clare. So that is what this show about: we so had our minds blown during our visit, we've got so much to talk about, and this is the first opportunity - probably the first of many - to share what we've taken away from our visit. Help us make our film series, GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE at ... 🟡 BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription (see Patreon link below), you can make a one off donation by following the link above. All single donations go to our current project: GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE 🔴 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys We have a friendly and enthusiastic Patreon community helping us create our content through monthly subscription. Get access to exclusive (ad-free!) content, be on the inside track of what we're up to and help us build the channel.