It’s okay though because it turns out we’ve simply strayed too far from the historical texts. We’re once more with Livy in the 4th century BC – interspersed with a nice section on carnyxes or war trumpets (which incidentally are Late Iron Age) with the brilliant Jon Kenny who tells us what it’s like to play one. We end on the Celts finally completing their travels by reaching Rome, and we are treated to lots more dramatic scenes, of men. The conclusion is that Iron Age people were not wild savages, but had a tribal network, a shared language, and had expanded across central Europe. Well, I’m glad all that’s now clear. Despite Koch’s best attempts, cultural diffusionism is still with us. She spent seven years working part-time on her PhD in paleopathology, receiving the degree in 2008. [5] [7] [13] She was a senior teaching fellow at the University of Bristol Centre for Comparative and Clinical Anatomy, where her main roles were teaching clinical anatomy, embryology and physical anthropology, as well as researching osteoarchaeology and paleopathology. [7] [10] [14] She stated in 2009 that she was working towards becoming a professor of anatomy. [15] a b "Professor Alice Roberts" (PDF). Bournemouth University. 6 November 2013 . Retrieved 19 January 2019. In January 2021 Roberts presented a 10-part narrative history series about the human body entitled Bodies on BBC Radio 4. [29] Television career [ edit ] a b Roberts, Alice (2007). Don't Die Young: An Anatomist's Guide to Your Organs and Your Health. Bloomsbury Publishing: London, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7475-9025-5.

However, there were several things that I found challenging about reading this book. The first thing I came up against was the expectations on the part of the author that the reader would already have a good grounding in ancient geography. I do not! And so I often found myself feeling a little lost as she referenced various towns, cities and regions of which I knew nothing. I think if I'd had a basic knowledge of the layout of the ancient world it would have been a more enjoyable read for me. In this 3x60’ series for BBC Two, anthropologist professor Alice Roberts and archaeologist Neil Oliver go in search of the Celts - one of the world's most mysterious ancient civilisations. Neil and Alice explore the origins and beliefs of the Celts, their highly sophisticated tribal culture and enduring influence on vast areas of the ancient world.

Clips

As archaeologists, we collect the evidence that past people left behind; almost forensic now in our method. We sift through their rubbish, look inside their houses, walk their landscapes, and respectfully observe their mortuary traditions. We discover their gender norms, their social identities, the impact of climate change, and all manner of wonderful things. We can write from this evidence – as O.G.S. Crawford suggested in the 1930s – a social archaeology; a history of all Iron Age people; a story of men, women, and children – high status and low. We can write their story. Research". alice-roberts.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 October 2009 . Retrieved 16 October 2009. This new hypothesis about the origins of the Celts sounds exciting - but is highly controversial and is based on just as many flawed arguments as the original Celtic-homeland-in-central-Europe theory. Her statement at the end, that the Celts have the last word because Celtic is still spoken and Latin isn't, was almost painful because that's just not how language works. For example, French is just as much a further-developed version of Latin as much as Irish Gaelic is a futher-developed version of Proto-Celtic. So.. the statement just plain wrong. Professor Roberts is scrupulous in being cautious but does succeed in letting us know who and what the Celts probably, not definitely, were without getting caught up in stereotypes (I think the on-trend Vikings probably suffer the same modern interpretations).

Evolution The Human Story. Dorling Kindersley. 2011. ISBN 978-1-4053-6165-1. OCLC 1038452947. Revised edition (2018), Dorling Kindersley, ISBN 978-1-4654-7401-8 Roberts lives with her husband, David Stevens, and two children, a daughter born in 2010 and a son born in 2013. [74] She met her husband in Cardiff in 1995 when she was a medical student and he was an archaeology student. [75] [5] They married in 2009. [76] Roberts, A. M.; Peters, T. J.; Robson Brown, K. A. (2007). "New light on old shoulders: palaeopathological patterns of arthropathy and enthesopathy in the shoulder complex". Journal of Anatomy. 211 (4): 485–492. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2007.00789.x. PMC 2375834. PMID 17711424. This is a detailed and richly imagined account of the deep history of the British landscape, which brings alive those “who have walked here before us”, and speaks powerfully of a sense of connectedness to place that is rooted in common humanity: “we are just the latest human beings to occupy this landscape”.

Featured in...

From August 2009 until January 2012, Roberts was a visiting fellow in both the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Department of Anatomy of the University of Bristol. [10] [17] [18] So as one of this brave new generation of archaeologists, I was admittedly surprised – perhaps naively – when this story of my beloved Iron Age, opened with Rome. [Sighs deeply]: Will the Iron Age people never be free of Rome? Interview with Alice Roberts". Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 . Retrieved 18 January 2008.

Buried: An alternative history of the first millennium in Britain. Simon & Schuster UK. 2022. ISBN 978-1398510036 The problem with trying to establish an accurate picture of the Celts and the way they lived is that much of the information about them comes from Roman writers and they had a vested interest in portraying them as savages living in mud huts and painting themselves with woad. Good fighters but not much more. But there was more to the Celts than this and it seems that they may have been around for a lot longer than was originally thought. It has to be said that the presenters are great. I really do appreciate what they do. It’s just a shame they didn’t have better-researched material with which to do it. What the programme does do remarkably well is to show us the artefacts: the grave goods of Hallstatt and Hochdorf, and the section on the Hallstatt mines was fascinating. This does exactly what TV archaeology does best – capturing that air of discovery. It’d be nice now if, instead of us gazing in wonder at beautiful things, we started speaking to the people who are analysing what they actually mean. Mary Anning: Lyme Regis fossil hunter's statue unveiled". BBC News. 22 May 2022 . Retrieved 25 May 2022.I’m left with the profound sense that archaeology is still only really being used to illustrate the history. So, because I began my archaeological career after 1989, I’m disappointed. This isn’t archaeology for me. It’s history with trinkets. There has been so much excellent archaeological research done in the last few decades for this period of the European past. Arguably, we’re at the point now where archaeology as a discipline can actually begin to re-write our history of Iron Age Europe. I’m disappointed that this programme didn’t seize the opportunity to tell that story. No. You don’t naturally get mercury impurities in gold. The two metals have been deliberately mixed together – this is mercury gilding.” Alice Roberts hands Humanists UK Presidency to Adam Rutherford". Humanists UK . Retrieved 8 June 2022. A presenter of science and history television documentaries, Roberts was one of the regular co-presenters of BBC geographical and environmental series Coast. [30] Brown, K. R.; Silver, I. A.; Musgrave, J. H.; Roberts, A. M. (2010). "The use of μCT technology to identify skull fracture in a case involving blunt force trauma". Forensic Science International. 206 (1–3): e8–e11. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.06.013. PMID 20673617.

This is a very good introduction to the history of the Celts and I learned a lot through reading it. It explains how definitions of the Celts have been created and changed over time and explains how those interpretations have been influenced by various factors. I enjoyed reading about the evolution of the study of the Celts almost as much as I enjoyed finding out more about the Celts themselves.She is a pescatarian, [77] "a confirmed atheist" [78] and former president of Humanists UK, beginning her three-and-a-half-year term in January 2019. [79] [28] She is now a vice president of the organisation. [80] Her children were assigned a faith school due to over-subscription of her local community schools; she campaigns against state-funded religious schools, citing her story as an example of the problems perpetuated by faith schools. [81] In March 2011, she presented a BBC documentary in the Horizon series entitled Are We Still Evolving? [41] Later in 2011, she presented another BBC documentary called How to Build a Dinosaur, [42] which aired on BBC4 on 21st September 2011. Alice Roberts wins Humanist of the Year at BHA Annual Conference 2015". British Humanist Association. 20 June 2015 . Retrieved 19 January 2019. Alice May Roberts FRSB (born 19 May 1973) [2] is an English academic, TV presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. She was president of the charity Humanists UK between January 2019 and May 2022. [3] She is now a vice president of the organisation. [4] Early life and education [ edit ] Roberts, Alice (2014). The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us. Heron Books. ISBN 978-1-8486-6477-7.