Secret Britain

Unearthing our Mysterious Past

Mary-Ann Ochota

• Publisher: Frances Lincoln
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780711253469
• eBook ISBN: 9780711253476
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

"A cornucopia of our weirdest and most wonderful archaeological sites and artefacts. They make you feel proud to be a citizen of these gloriously intriguing isles." Sir Tony Robinson

An Ice Age cannibal’s skull cup, a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold, a seventeenth century witch bottle… anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota unearths more than 70 of Britain's most intriguing ancient places and artefacts and explores the mysteries behind them.

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 mystic. 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

Explore Britain’s secret history and discover why these places still resonate today.

Index

Page numbers in italics refer to captions

A

Aberdeenshire: Tomnaverie Recumbent Stone Circle 34, 117

Towie Stone Ball 20, 32, 32

Aberlemno Pictish Stones 38

Aethelbert, King 107

Alfred the Great 212

Anglesey, Barclodiad y Gawres and Bryn Celli Ddu 194

Angus, Aberlemno Pictish Stones 38

Argyll: Dunadd 223, 224

Kilmartin Glen 218

Arthur, King 83, 95, 152, 172

Athelstan, King 212

Atrebates tribe 135

Aubrey holes 115, 117

Augustine, St 107

Avebury 122

Avicenna 136

Avitus 105

B

Badger Stone 53, 54

Baldehildis Seal 74, 144

Ballachulish Figure 31

Ballymeanoch 219

Balthild, Queen 74

Barclodiad y Gawres 32, 194

Bartmann jug 92

Becket, Thomas à 155

Bede, Venerable 40, 89

bellarmine 92

B...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 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
• Copyright