The World of Stonehenge
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2022
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Described as the "most important piece of prehistoric art to be found in Britain in the last 100 years", an elaborately decorated 5000 year-old chalk cylinder, discovered buried with 3 child skeletons in Yorkshire and as old as the first phase of Stonehenge, is going on display at the British Museum for the first time ever.
To find out what the drum is, how it was found and what it tells us about Britain at the time Stonehenge was constructed, Tristan got special access to the World of Stonehenge exhibition. He spoke to Project Archaeologist Alice Beasley and Project Curator Dr Jennifer Wexler, who make up part of the team responsible for the drum's discovery, investigation and display.
Find the full programme here: https://access.historyhit.com/ancient-and-classical/videos/the-world-of-stonehenge-revealed
Why This 'Chalk Drum' Is The Prehistoric Find Of The Century YouTube video.
For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here.
If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today!
To download, go to Android or Apple store.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's the entrance on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast |
| 0:14.8 | we're talking about an object, a discovery that has since been labelled the most important |
| 0:19.4 | piece of prehistoric art found in the UK in the past 100 years. So what exactly is this |
| 0:25.6 | object? Well, it's currently on display at the British Museum's new world of Stonehenge |
| 0:30.9 | exhibition. It's a chalk object, some 5,000 years old which has been called a drum. And |
| 0:37.1 | the stage podcast we're going to delve into the story of this drum. How it was found, what |
| 0:41.7 | we know about it and the many mysteries that still about. And of course, how this drum |
| 0:46.5 | fits into the whole wider, stonehenge narrative. This neolithic landscape, this neolithic world, |
| 0:53.5 | from 5,000 years ago across the British Isles and beyond. Now to talk through all of this, |
| 0:59.6 | we haven't just got one contributor today, we've got two. It's another one of our special |
| 1:03.7 | multi-contributor episodes. On the one hand, we've got the field archaeologist Alice Beasley. |
| 1:09.3 | Alice Beasley, who works for Alan Archeology, well, she was the archaeologist who uncovered |
| 1:14.2 | who unearthed this extraordinary artifact a few years back during an excavation near the |
| 1:19.1 | village of Burton Agnes in East Yorkshire. And our other contributor is the British Museum |
| 1:24.6 | curator, Dr. Jennifer Wexler. We're chatted to Jennifer at the British Museum at their |
| 1:29.9 | world of Stonehenge exhibition, looking at the drum itself. It was wonderful to chat to |
| 1:35.0 | both Alice and Jennifer. We've crafted this podcast episode out of those interviews |
| 1:40.2 | with a bit of narration from myself in between to link it all together. And I do hope you |
| 1:44.8 | enjoy because it's such a fascinating story from Britain's prehistoric past. So without |
| 1:51.2 | further ado, to talk all about this new discovery and the wider world of Stonehenge exhibition, |
| 1:57.4 | here's Jennifer and here's Alice. In 2015, during an excavation near the |
| 2:05.8 | village of Burton Agnes in East Yorkshire, archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.