Digging up Britain: Ten Discoveries, a Million Years of History
by Mike Pitts
Thames & Hudson Sep 2019 £30 pp288 hb isbn 780500051900 Reviewed by Kenneth Brophy
Digging up Britain is the popular archaeology book we have been waiting for. It is a timely celebration of spectacular discoveries made in recent years, as much a field guide to the current landscape of British archaeology as it is the archaeology of (mostly southern) Britain. This is a book only an archaeologist could have written so well, and gives the targeted
broad readership a grounding in how archaeology – and archaeologists – work today in the uk.
Each chapter takes the reader through the story behind awesome discoveries made in the field and lab laboratory. Framed in reverse chr chronological order, the book journeys from the Vikings backwards over seve several hundred thousand years. Ten sites sites/discoveries form the spine – Ridg Ridgeway Hill Viking grave; the Staff Staffordshire Hoard; Roman London and t the temple of Mithras; Black Loch and Must Farm later prehistoric settle settlements; Bronze Age burials at Cliffs End, Kent; Stonehenge; Star Carr; Gough’s Cave; and Barnham Palaeo Palaeolithic site, Suffolk [see feature, this ed edition]. Some are old friends with n new angles, others less familiar b but no less fascinating. These sites are discussed in loving, often gruesome, detail. Along the way an introduction to current thinking about the context for these sites is given, written in an accessible and engaging style.
Having said that, I have reservations about the book’s scope. Eight of the sites are south of the Humber, none in
Wales. The only site in Scotland, Black Loch, forms half a chapter. There is no Northern Ireland, and little Doggerland. In a volume called Digging up Britain I would have expected a lot more Britain, much less southern England. The Stonehenge section lacks the focus and intensity of the other chapters – why not cover the stunning Ness of Brodgar, Orkney instead? It may seem a minor quibble but this imbalance sits uncomfortably in a book that argues strongly for the role of our discipline playing a part in discussions about contemporary identity and migration. It is also a shame that nothing more recent than the Vikings gets much attention.
The concluding chapter refers to even more stunning discoveries to come, many related to those themes of migration and identity. Pitts has presented readers with a vision of a modern discipline, engaged and relevant politically, socially, intellectually and economically. Yet my main takeaways from this book are the insights into the practice, professionalism, and passion of those working in the heritage sector.