This is the Oldest Family Tree in the World (From the Tombs of Neolithic Britain)

[Music] long Burrows are the earliest great monuments of the British Isles they are by far the most common structures of the early Neolithic here there are hundreds of them dating from as early as 3800 BC these mounds of Earth and stone could be enormous some are over a hundred meters 300 feet long narrow low passages into these structures lead into dark burial Chambers containing the jumbled bones of many generations and yet they were about much more than just being a place to bury the dead they made a powerful statement on the landscape that could be seen for miles around and they were used as a place for complex rituals to do with life and death for centuries after they were erected but who built these monuments why were they positioned and oriented where they were and why did they put so much effort into making them and what can the latest studies on Ancient DNA tell us about the family relationships of the people buried inside them and the societies that they lived in this is the story of the mysterious long Burrows of Neolithic Britain understanding my family history became ever more important to me when I became a father telling my children's stories about their grandparents and great-grandparents made me want to find out more about my ancestors and that's why on this video I've partnered with myheritage the number one family history service it's incredibly straightforward to start building your family tree start with yourself and the relatives you know adding your old family photos that you can repair enhance colorize and even animate and then my Heritage can find new family members and records of ancestors that you maybe didn't even know you had that's what happened to me following the paternal line of my granddad Mack I got back to Matthew McIntosh born in 1803 in sterlingshire this site has over 19 billion records you can use to fill in details and find connections thanks to Census records I now know that Matthew was a chimney sweep all his life and I used instant discoveries to add whole new branches to my family tree with just a few clicks the Pearson Barker and Palmer families all from South Shields I never knew I was such a northerner and I'm just getting started looking into all the other branches of my tree if you're interested in exploring your own family history please use the link in the description below to sign up for a 14-day free trial and enjoy all the amazing features my Heritage has to offer if you decide to continue your subscription you'll get a 50 discount thank you to my Heritage for partnering with me on this video now let's return to the families of the Neolithic starting around 4000 BC Neolithic farming communities from what's now northern France began to colonize Britain and Ireland men and women came bringing their seed crops and domesticated animals in Dugout canoes and skin boats across the channel and write up the many coasts of these islands evidence for the specific origins of these groups of colonists comes from matching Pottery types and ancient DNA found in the British Isles with examples from places on the continent and there is also evidence from the specific types of tombs built by these colonists and one of the Tomb types the colonists brought with them was the long burrow which start being constructed in Britain after about 3 800 BC but what are they exactly well simply they are enormous mounds of Earth and stone that can be up to 120 meters long 30 meters wide and 6 meters high most though are 25 to 75 meters long 12 to 23 meters wide and between one and three and a half meters in height many have suffered erosion and other damage over the last five and a half thousand years so what we see now isn't how they would have looked originally these structures usually have one or more entrances with passages leading to small Chambers inside the mound and these Chambers usually contain the remains of one or more people there are tens of thousands of long barrels remaining in Europe and over 500 in England alone node two are exactly alike although they have been grouped into various subtypes by archaeologists the most well known of which is the Cotswold 7 type some of the variation is due to the availability of local Building Materials in places where the local geology allows it some long boroughs take the form of great Stone cans built from sandstone slabs like enormous dry stone walls others have chamber walls formed by megalithic orthostats great slabs turned on their sides while for others usually but not always in places without suitable local Stone the entire Monument may be made of Earth perhaps covering interior Timber structures they can be various shapes from ovoid to rectangular but they're often trapezoidal with one end wider than the other The Wider end is sometimes higher too surely the design itself must have had some symbolic meaning but we don't know what that might be some have seen similarities with the classic Neolithic polished Stone ax the most important tool of the age that also had great social and perhaps spiritual importance others have imagined they're made to represent the womb of an earth mother goddess with the dead being returned to her perhaps for rebirth the structure of The Monuments revealed through excavations often involves the division of the Interior into halves through a central spine and into sections through a series of Bays formed by stone walls or by wooden posts and Waffle offenses these Bays would then be filled with Earth and Stones sometimes in complex ways thus creating the bulk of the structure this internal subdivision might reflect the methods of construction perhaps each Bay was filled usually by a material excavated from a section of external ditch by one work gang or perhaps the same family group filled one or two bays every year for a decade to complete the tomb or maybe there were symbolic reasons for doing it this way some researchers see these Central spines and perpendicular ribs as representing the bones of a body a human body or perhaps even the body of a great bovine the horns of which are represented by curving extensions at the wide end of the Barrow partly enclosing a four Court out front in some Burrows cattle skulls were found within the structure even placed above the portal at the head of the monument during construction and thus the Barrow represents a great hunched cow the sacred Giver of Life through her milk and meat perhaps also the deity who facilitated rebirth or the shape of The Monuments might instead reflect the enormous long houses that their ancestors from Central Europe used to build those long houses could have similar Dimensions they could be up to 45 meters long and had internal divisions like a central spine of Timbers and posts for roof supports there are very few remains of houses from this era in Britain but it's thought they tended to be much smaller than those more ancient longhouses if the memory of these vast structures back in the ancestral homelands were retained by their descendants in this new land then perhaps they were building literal houses of the ancestors for the dead to reside in for eternity the idea that these tombs functioned at least in part as houses of the ancestors is perhaps supported by their positions in the landscape many are covered with long grass or trees today and they've suffered thousands of years of erosion and damage people have dug into them looking for Treasure and taken away the stones to use for building treating them as a convenient Quarry but when originally built they would have been impressive monuments visible from afar some like those in the chalk Downs of Southern England would have had gleaming white sides flanked by broad white ditches but rather than being positioned on the highest point in the landscape and so visible from all directions they were usually near but below the top of a hill this means they were best viewed from a particular settlement nearby down on Lower ground nearer to the local water source this Arrangement can best be seen where many long barrows have survived and can be mapped in this Valley in wheelchair they are on average about two kilometers apart and their locations allow us to speculate on possible ancient land divisions each settlement maybe just one Farmstead with an extended family may have had its own long burrow visible up on the hill above where they grew their crops and watered their animals down in the river in other places barrows could be just a few hundred meters apart but on either side of the brow of a hill The Monuments not relating to one another but to the two groups of people living on either side Neolithic monuments are famous for their supposed relationships to astronomical phenomena and there are some commonalities in the general alignments of long barrels most tend to be aligned with their broader end generally towards the east ranging from the Northeast to the southeast although the specific alignments relate more to the local topography the most obvious astronomical event then would be the daily Sunrise so with Sunrise when their rituals ended or began [Music] and that broader Eastern end also tells us about some of the possible functions of these monuments many had a kind of Four Courts out front partially enclosed by those corn-like extensions built from stone or wood and here is where riots would have been performed I'll talk about what these might involve later excavations show that the land beneath the monuments was often used by the living first with for example evidence of plowing preserved in the ancient soil it might be that the plowing was done to ritually cleanse the land before the monument was erected or they could have just grown crops there before the site was later selected to house a tomb most intriguingly for me at least is the evidence that Timber houses may have been there first some of the Burrows were extended after their initial construction later generations making them even more impressive a few of the largest might in fact have started out as two barrows next to each other that were joined up precisely dating all these phases of activity is extremely difficult however most long boroughs seem to have been constructed between about 3 800 and 3600 BC although there were later constructions and some were in use through to about 3000 BC or even later but the burials themselves often took place over a very short time indeed just two or three generations in many cases before no more internments were made some of these monuments only had a single individual inside them others perhaps two or three people who were buried at the same time others had the partial remains of dozens of people inside the chambers mixed up and reorganized many times over so who were the people buried inside and what can their remains tell us about the societies of Neolithic Britain [Music] examination of the human remains from long Burrows shows that Mortuary practices for early Neolithic Britain were often complex and protracted before the final deposition of remains in Burrows the bodies were often subjected to multiple stages of treatment evidence of gnawing on Bones by animals of various sizes from rodents and foxes to dogs and wolves as well as the weathering of some remains shows that bodies could be exposed to the elements for some time before being collected for burial these may have been laid out on the ground in special enclosures or even elevated on wooden platforms in fact it's worth noting here that although there were almost certainly thousands of long boroughs in Britain often with the remains of multiple people inside each one most of the people who ever lived and died at this time were never put into Burrows we don't know for sure what happened to their remains but it's a good guess that excarnation was how most bodies were disposed of left exposed to the elements and animals until there was nothing left there is some evidence for excarnation platforms being built over or beside rivers in which case The Remains Not carried off by animals might have been Carried Away by the water and only a special few people had their remains instead put into tombs bodies could also be processed through manual the fleshing and disarticulation with Flint blades this can be seen in Cut marks left on some bones once the processing of the bodies had taken place the remains in various states of articulation would be carried into the chambers of these tombs perhaps just the head and torso would be left after scavengers took the limbs while the mourners would end up collecting the deceased into a bag or basket of Bones some people seem to have been buried underground for a time before being dug up and retrieved and reinterred in a barrow other practices involved full or partial cremation although not all bodies were treated that way some were still fully articulated when they went into their final resting place some were even laid into a shallow grave cut into the floor of the Tomb but being placed into the tomb was not necessarily the final stage of the mortuary practice in some tombs bones were rearranged over time as more remains were added some bones might be resorted by type or age into different chambers or annexes within the structure the floors of these places could end up littered with bones and people entering them would have had to walk on top of the scattered remains of many people cracking them underfoot and further mixing and dispersing them so why did they do all this why have such complicated Mortuary practices well of course we don't know but it suggests they understood the transition from life to death and the afterlife as a long process involving rights of separation and transformation and clearly death was not the end of someone's involvement in the world of the living in those chambers that remained open for some time people perhaps priests or shamans or those who underwent the proper psychic preparations could go into these houses of the dead and consult the ancestors some of those remains could also be periodically brought out of the tombs too these might be used for rituals that took place in the special Four Courts out front or they could have been taken further away back to the houses of the living or to other special sites perhaps carried a loft in processions and not all the bones might make it back to the tomb being deposited elsewhere so who was chosen to go into these structures well there are men women and children inside these Burrows however there were more men than women and more adults than children one study of 14 boroughs found the adult remains were on average 62 percent male and up to 85 percent male at the famous Weyland Smithy and 74 of the remains were adults does that mean then that adult men were more important in the society than women and children well they usually are aren't they and in fact there's some evidence that the men at least in some tombs were exceptionally large and robust for the time while the women were small and likely built perhaps this pronounced sexual dimorphism reflected a profoundly patriarchal social organization at least in some places and evidence from tombs also shows that this Society could be rather violent a number of remains show traumatic injuries consistent with violent assaults these are most easily seen in damage to cronia where people suffered blows to the head with blunt weapons like clubs made from stone wood or antler or sharp force trauma from Stone axes one study of the era produced a conservative estimate that 7.4 percent of the cronial they looked at had traumatic injuries some remains show evidence of projectile wounds penetrating injuries caused by arrowheads other injuries to heads and necks have been interpreted as people being beheaded in fact it's been suggested that some remains represent trophies taken in hostilities heads or other body parts retained for their metaphysical power or they could be victims ritually killed or sacrificed presumably though most of the people interred were honored family members but how can we tell for sure well before techniques were developed for extracting and studying ancient DNA researchers tried to answer this question by measuring skull sizes and face shapes looking for family resemblances they've also looked for the occurrence of inherited pathological conditions in the bones but the revolution in ancient DNA analysis is adding to our understanding like never before Hazelton North in gloucestershire is an early Neolithic long Borough what they call a chambered long can of the Cotswold 7 type found in southwest Britain dating to soon after 3700 BC inside the tomb there are two L-shaped Chambers on opposing side of the Barrow and inside the chambers were the remains of at least 41 people and these people were the subject of one of the most incredible studies I've ever read on this period or any other since about 2015 we've seen an explosion in the study of ancient DNA that continues to transform our understanding of prehistoric societies but most of this work has told us about migrations Replacements and mixing events changes in entire populations over the Millennia because one person's genome can tell us not only about that person but all of their ancestors researchers can study entire populations just by testing a few people from a handful of burials that might be separated by miles or centuries but this study was different focusing on the interrelatedness between a small specific group of people from this single long burrow it combined archaeological and genetic analyzes of 35 of the people buried inside the two Chambers to reconstruct their family tree over five generations incredibly they were able to establish that this was primarily a family tomb and it shows that there was one male progenitor who reproduced with four women so perhaps this is a man with four wives what's especially interesting is that the four branches of the tree were divided between the two burial Chambers two of the branches exclusively in the north chamber and two in the South chamber radiocarbon analyzes suggest that the monument itself was built over the course of about a decade somewhere between 3695 and 3650 BC and the deposition of bodies ended probably around 3620 BC patrilineal descent was key in determining who was buried in the Tomb as all 15 intergenerational Transmissions were through men the presence of women who had reproduced with the men of this lineage and the absence of adult lineage daughters in the Tomb suggests they practiced Petra local burial and female exogamy that is the men of this family stayed here on this land over the generations marrying women from neighboring or more distant Clans while the women born to this family moved elsewhere to marry into other clans it wasn't all that simple however four of the men buried here were actually descended from non-lineage fathers and mothers who also reproduced with lineage males the study authors suggest this means some men adopted the previous children of their wives into the clan interestingly at least two of these non-lineage fathers were relatives to some degree of the patriarch did he perhaps marry the widows of two of his cousins and eight people buried in the tomb were not close relatives of the main lineage the authors suggest that kinship in the society perhaps included social bonds without biological relatedness and surely that's true but we don't know who these people were how they came to be included or what their relative social standing was to the family so what can all this tell us about the world these people lived in and how do long barrels fit into the rise and fall of Neolithic Britain well archaeologists don't tend to make sweeping statements about long boroughs about what they were for how they were used and the people who built them were buried in them and used them because there are so many exceptions no sight is exactly alike and so no statement or Insight can be accurately applied to all these monuments it's just too complicated for simple narratives however I am not an archaeologist I'm just a novelist with an overactive imagination so I'll tell you the story of the long boroughs as I see it after around 4000 BC the arriving colonists bringing their animals and seeds kill or drive off the hunter-gatherer inhabitants and begin preparing Parcels of the best land for farming by clearing trees with fire and ax plowing soils and removing the rocks for planting this incredibly hard work takes generations to complete and many attempts fail only the hardiest and most determined colonists and those Most Blessed by the gods will succeed by 3800 BC some of these communities have the excess capacity to impose themselves on the Landscapes that they and their ancestors have created when the patriarch of one Community dies his heroic life is honored and memorialized by a great Monument the timber house where he lived is torn down the ground is cleansed and his body laid out before the Wind and Rain the Sun and Scavenging animals after the proper time has passed his remains are removed and a stone chamber erected over the place he had lived died and shed his flesh his remains are placed inside the chamber and Earth and stone carefully built on top by his descendants and extended family working over many seasons one stage at a time the sacred area is flanked by ditches and the forecourt carefully leveled and prepared to be a ritual space the structure shows them and others that this is their land the land of their family their Clan hard won by sweat and blood as time passes some of the honored wives Sons daughters and grandchildren of the patriarch are interred too later generations may enter the Tomb at special times removing some of the bones of the ancestors to bring to feasts taking place here on the forecourt outside while further away at other ritual enclosures the skull of the ancestor perhaps positioned in a place of honor ensures that their spirit is present they are consulted on an important decision that will affect the future of this clan whether to colonize a new Valley or to Ally with a neighboring Clan through marriage or whether to go to war with them this consultation is mediated by the priest or Shaman parts of the ancestor may be buried the next day at this site while the rest of the bones are returned to the house of the ancestors along with some animal remains from the feast and so it goes for Generations but then sometime after 3600 BC a great change comes the sun seems to grow weaker the Summers become wetter and the crops start to fail more often with the famine comes plague and many lineages are wiped out people are fighting for survival and no one can build tombs to the ancestors anymore indeed it seems as though the ancestors have abandoned their descendants Only the strongest groups survive and they must rely on their cattle moving their large herds from place to place no longer tied to one Valley or another weak Clans are conquered by stronger smaller herds taken by the most powerful Chiefs and Kings who have maintained their dynasties thanks to this stability new beliefs emerge in rich areas like in eastern island and in safe areas like in the islands of the far north these new beliefs spread and are expressed in new forms of monuments the greatest ever seen the most magnificent tombs henges and stone circles the ancient long boroughs remain as reminders of the truly ancient past a precious few lineages have remained in control of their ancestral homelands for a thousand years but soon even those will be ended by new colonists invading from across the sea who will close those few that remain open sealing them off with great stones and building their own monuments beside or even atop them the long Burrows will be incorporated into the myths and legends of all the people who came after all the way down to us today who look at them and wonder and likewise make up our own stories about what they might have meant to our ancient ancestors if you enjoyed this video please hit like And subscribe to the channel now to find out what happened when the bill Beaker colonists ended the Neolithic and transformed Britain forever please watch this video about the most spectacular early Bronze Age burial of all thank you for watching [Music] thank you foreign

Channel: Dan Davis History

Views: 630,944

Keywords: history of europe, history documentaries, ancient history documentary, ancient civilizations, long barrows, neolithic britain, neolithic europe, neolithic tombs, prehistoric tombs, ancient tombs, neoithic history, barrows, wayland's smithy, west kennet long barrow, prehistory documentary, dan davis history

Id: ooYrFD_IBOY

Length: 26min 22sec (1582 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023