
27. Neil Oliver ~ the land tells us who we are
We are delighted to be joined in this episode by archaeologist, historian, author and presenter Neil Oliver, who talks with us about the places where we can be reminded of things that have affected every version of humanity and can imagine we reach through the thin divide between us and the past. Places where we understand that humanity is a work in progress; that Nature is not finished with us.
Since the last ice age the landscape has become a priceless time capsule preserving moments of human history. Our story is in the land. We can read it and touch it; the land can tell us who we are and how we got here and, as Neil says, here we can discover “the love and grief that our ancestors have left, or have been put, in the ground; no more potent magic is available to us human beings.”
Neil Oliver’s website
Book: The History of the British Isles in 100 Places
Podcast: Love Letter to the British Isles
INTRODUCTORY AND INCIDENTAL MUSIC: Colin Williams
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Box Hill, Surrey
A A Gill
Joanna Lumley
Homo heidelbergensis
Iona
Westminster Abbey
Ness of Brodgar
Céide Fields
Torr An Aba, Iona
Vedbæck, Denmark
Fernand Braudel
Olduvai
E O Wilson
Happisburgh footprints
River Thames
The Wash
Homo antecessor
BBC Coast
King Solomon
Fife
Walkers Crisps
Mesolithic
Loch Doon
Chert
Smalls Lighthouse
Association of Lighthouse Keepers
Orford Lighthouse
Llandudno copper mines