The First Britons
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2022
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
67 million people currently inhabit the United Kingdom - but what do we know about the original, first Britons? It's no secret when looking back into pre-history that it was a time of mass migration for animals and people alike, but who were our early inhabitants, and what can we learn about them?
In this episode of The Ancients, Professor Chris Stringer returns to the podcast to shine a light on this mysterious part of prehistory. Looking back across millions of years, Chris helps us delve into our distant ancestors' pasts, and illuminates what they were really like. Looking at the latest archaeological and scientific research, what can we know about the first traces of hominin activity on the British Isles?
You can go and see some of the archaeology we talk about today in the Natural History Museum's Human Evolution Gallery.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and in today's |
| 0:18.3 | podcast. Well, in the past on the Ancients, we've covered huge topics like the first Australians, |
| 0:23.0 | the first Americans. We've explored the origins of hemissapiens. We've looked at Neanderthals. |
| 0:28.5 | It's fair to say that on the Ancients, we do like delving deep into human prehistory once |
| 0:34.2 | in a while, and we're doing that again today. In this episode, we're going to be covering |
| 0:39.2 | almost a million years of prehistory. We're going to be tracking, we're going to be looking |
| 0:43.7 | at the latest archaeological and scientific research of humans in what is now the island |
| 0:50.3 | of Britain, and tracing what we know so far about these first Britons who came to this |
| 0:58.1 | part of the world hundreds of thousands of years ago. Sit down and relax because this |
| 1:05.1 | is an absolutely enthralling chat. We have got back on the podcast for this major topic, |
| 1:11.5 | the first Britons, the one, the only, Professor Chris Stranger. He works currently at the Natural |
| 1:18.2 | History Museum, the name A. Wellringer Bell because he was on the Ancients podcast earlier |
| 1:23.0 | this year to talk all about the origins of hemissapiens. In this podcast episode, I went |
| 1:28.6 | down to his house and we had a lovely chat for 14 minutes or so, all about the first Britons. |
| 1:35.3 | We cover hundreds of thousands of years of history, and Chris explains all about what the |
| 1:40.4 | most recent research is revealing about humans in this area of the world. It also links |
| 1:48.4 | in nicely with a lovely exhibition that they currently have on at the Natural History Museum, |
| 1:52.8 | which also tells the story of the first Britons as we also highlight in this episode today. |
| 1:59.4 | But that's enough from me, without further ado, to talk all about the first Britons, hundreds |
| 2:05.2 | of thousands of years of history. Here's Chris. Chris, it is wonderful to have you back |
| 2:12.8 | on the podcast today. It's a pleasure to be with you again. Now, last time the origins |
| 2:16.9 | of hemissapiens, incredibly popular topic, and this one similarly so, the story of the first |
... |
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