Secret Britain - Unearthing our Mysterious Past

In Secret Britain, join anthropologist and broadcaster Mary-Ann Ochota for a tour of more than 70 of Britain's most intriguing archaeological sites and artefacts.

List of contents

Introduction
Timeline
Map
Westray Wifey - Westray, Orkney
Ness of Brodgar - Mainland, Orkney
Tomb of the Eagles - South Ronaldsay, Orkney
Sculptor’s Cave - Moray
Deskford Carnyx - Moray
Ballachulish Figure - West Highlands
Towie Stone Ball - Aberdeenshire
Tomnaverie Recumbent Stone Circle - Aberdeenshire
Aberlemno Pictish Stones – Angus
Fortingall Yew - Perthshire
Hooded Spirits on Hadrian’s Wall - Northumberland
Thornborough Henges - North Yorkshire
Rudston Monolith - East Riding of Yorkshire
Roos Carr Figurines - East Riding of Yorkshire
Ilkley Moor- West Yorkshire
Star Carr- North Yorkshire
Seahenge - Norfolk
Saltfleetby Spindle Whorl - Lincolnshire
Snettisham Treasures - Norfolk
Must Farm - Cambridgeshire
Baldehildis Seal - Norfolk
Colchester Face Pot - Essex
Grimes Graves - Norfolk
Dunwich - Suffolk
Wenhaston Doom Painting - Suffolk
Troston Demon - Suffolk
Sutton Hoo - Suffolk
Greensted Church - Essex
Guildhall Witch Bottle - London
Flag Fen - Cambridgeshire
Royston Cave - Hertfordshire
Dagenham Idol - Essex
Lullingstone Roman Villa - Kent
St Martin’s Church - Kent
Ringlemere Gold Cup - Kent
Langstone Tankard - South Wales
St Leonard’s Ossuary - Kent
Knowlton Circles - Dorset
Stonehenge - Wiltshire
Bush Barrow Dagger - Wiltshire
Avebury - Wiltshire
Silbury Hill - Wiltshire
Childrey Warren - Oxfordshire
Uffington White Horse - Oxfordshire
Headington Mandrake - Oxfordshire
Cirencester Mother Goddesses - Gloucestershire
Roman Baby’s Cockerel - Gloucestershire
The Rollright Witch - Warwickshire
Cerne Abbas Giant - Dorset
Maiden Castle - Dorset
Glastonbury Tor - Somerset
Glastonbury Abbey Lady Chapel - Somerset
Gough’s Cave Cannibal Cup - Somerset
Dartmoor - Devon
Trethevy Quoit - Cornwall
Men an Tol - Cornwall
Tintagel - Cornwall
Paviland Cave Burial - South Wales
Kilpeck Sheela Na Gig - Herefordshire
Preseli Bluestones - Pembrokeshire
Penbryn Spoons - Ceredigion
Bryn Cader Faner - Gwynedd
Tre’r Ceiri - Gwynedd
Barclodiad y Gawres and Bryn Celli Ddu - Anglesey
Mold Gold Cape - Flintshire
Lindow Man Bog Body - Cheshire
Staffordshire Hoard - Staffordshire
Gosforth Cross - Cumbria
Vale of York Viking Hoard - North Yorkshire
Sunkenkirk - Cumbria
Whithorn Eaves-Drip Burials - Dumfries
Kilmartin Glen - Argyll
Dunadd - Argyll
Cladh Hallan Mummies - South Uist, Outer Hebrides
Calanais - Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides
Index
Further reading
Picture credits
Acknowledgments
 

About the author

Broadcaster and anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota is a familiar face on TV archaeology programmes, including the cult show Time Team, History Channel's Ancient Impossible, and the Smithsonian Channel hit Mystic Britain. She's written two other popular archaeology books, including Hidden Histories: A Spotter's Guide to the British Landscape. It was shortlisted for Current Archaeology's Book of the Year Award. Mary-Ann also writes regularly for newspapers and magazines on outdoor adventures, anthropology and archaeology, presents documentaries on BBC radio, gives guided walks and performs archaeological storytelling. She's a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a hillwalking ambassador for the British Mountaineering Council and she holds an MA from Cambridge University in Archaeology and Anthropology. Find her at maryannochota.com and on Twitter and Instagram @MaryAnnOchota.

Summary

"A cornucopia of [Britain's] weirdest and most wonderful archaeological sites and artefacts." Sir Tony Robinson

Anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota unearths more than 70 of Britain's most intriguing ancient places and artefacts and explores the enchanting mysteries behind them.

An Ice Age cannibal’s skull cup, a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold, a seventeenth-century witch bottle… Britain is full of ancient wonders: not grand like the Egyptian pyramids, but small, strange places and objects that hint at a deep and enduring relationship with the mystical.

Secret Britain offers an expertly guided tour of Britain’s most fascinating mysteries: archaeological sites and artefacts that take us deep into the lives of the many different peoples who have inhabited the island over the millennia.

Illustrated with beautiful photographs, the wonders include buried treasure, stone circles and geoglyphs, outdoor places of worship, caves filled with medieval carvings, and enigmatic tools to divine the future.

Explore famous sites such as Stonehenge and Glastonbury, but also discover:

• The Lindow Man bog body, showing neatly trimmed hair and manicured fingernails despite having been killed 2,000 years ago
• The Uffington White Horse, a horse-shaped geoglyph maintained by an unbroken chain of people for 3,000 years
• A Roman baby’s bronze cockerel, an underworld companion for a two-year-old who died sometime between AD 100–200
• St Leonard’s Ossuary, home to 1,200 skulls and a vast stack of human bones made up of around 2,000 people who died from the 1200s to the 1500s
• The Wenhaston Doom painting, an extraordinary medieval depiction of the Last Judgement painted on a chancel arch

This is the perfect way to find out about this island's unique story through the fascinating objects and locations left by people from the past.

Additional text

“Secret Britain is a fascinating collection of ancient wonders…. The book is packed with excellent photography and will improve the look of any coffee table, but you may also want to find space for it under your passenger seat because if you like a staycation there is a strong chance that you will find yourself near at least one of these mysterious sites. Not only is the book geographically diverse and full of unexpected treasures, but the timeline they span is extraordinary…simply layer upon layer of heritage. Mary-Ann Ochota tells these stories with great flourish and a passion for her subject, opening doors to the past which the most inquisitive of us will want to pass through.”
 

Product details

• Authors: Mary-Ann Ochota, Ochota Mary-Ann
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2020
• EAN: 9780711253469
• ISBN: 978-0-7112-5346-9
• Dimensions: 205 mm x 250 mm x 25 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book; Museum, historic sites, gallery & art guides, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, TRAVEL / Europe / Great Britain, United Kingdom, Great Britain, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General, Archaeology by period / region, Travel guides: museums, historic sites, galleries etc