Synopsis
As the British Museum launches its great ground-breaking World of Stonehenge exhibition this spring (17 February - 17 July), we enter the remarkable and innovative Neolithic Age of 5,000 years ago. This ‘New Stone Age’ was a time of the earliest first farmers in Britain. But there’s nothing primitive about them. Not only did they settle down permanently and organise themselves into social villages for the first time, but they also changed the landscape around them in a truly monumental way.
Stonehenge was one of the greatest sites they created; megalithic, masterly and magnificent, it still dominates the landscape and our imaginations, even today. But the story of Stonehenge is one of a whole new world; it was a time of new expressions of life in mysterious art, fresh demonstrations of belonging, and a culture of a powerful shared understanding of death as well as of life. All these were created before the pyramids were built in Egypt, and before metalworking, writing or the potters’ wheel arrived in Britain.
Gillian Hovell shares her passion for and expertise in the astonishing Neolithic world. The millennia melt away as she reveals the very human Neolithic way of life that archaeology reveals. We discover the astonishing skills, the impressive buildings and tombs, and the surprising art of a time that relied on stone tools. Neolithic sites around Britain give us an invaluable glimpse into our human inventiveness and our ancient responses to life and death. We can walk into a 5,000-year-old home, duck into ancestral tombs and marvel at the scale of both their monumental and daily creativeness. Explore stone circles, standing stones and even the marvel of flint tools as we discover how to enjoy and appreciate Neolithic archaeological sites and finds, large and small.
These talks will complement your visit to the exhibition or to Stonehenge itself. But, even if you’re not visiting either, then this is your chance to bring Stonehenge and the Neolithic to life and to make them so very much more than a load of old stones.
Stonehenge was one of the greatest sites they created; megalithic, masterly and magnificent, it still dominates the landscape and our imaginations, even today. But the story of Stonehenge is one of a whole new world; it was a time of new expressions of life in mysterious art, fresh demonstrations of belonging, and a culture of a powerful shared understanding of death as well as of life. All these were created before the pyramids were built in Egypt, and before metalworking, writing or the potters’ wheel arrived in Britain.
Gillian Hovell shares her passion for and expertise in the astonishing Neolithic world. The millennia melt away as she reveals the very human Neolithic way of life that archaeology reveals. We discover the astonishing skills, the impressive buildings and tombs, and the surprising art of a time that relied on stone tools. Neolithic sites around Britain give us an invaluable glimpse into our human inventiveness and our ancient responses to life and death. We can walk into a 5,000-year-old home, duck into ancestral tombs and marvel at the scale of both their monumental and daily creativeness. Explore stone circles, standing stones and even the marvel of flint tools as we discover how to enjoy and appreciate Neolithic archaeological sites and finds, large and small.
These talks will complement your visit to the exhibition or to Stonehenge itself. But, even if you’re not visiting either, then this is your chance to bring Stonehenge and the Neolithic to life and to make them so very much more than a load of old stones.
