Ancestors by Alice Roberts review – a story of movement and migration

A brilliant scientific storyteller reads stone, pottery and bones to bring us the latest moving updates about our prehistoric ancestors

In 2002, not far from Amesbury in southern Wiltshire and a mile or so from Stonehenge, archaeologists were investigating the site of a new school when they discovered something remarkable. It was the grave of a man, aged between 35 and 45, who died more than 4,000 years ago. Wessex Archaeology conducted the excavation and they labelled his remains as skeleton 1291". But to the public he soon became known as the Amesbury Archer.

Among his bones were no fewer than 18 beautifully crafted flint arrowheads. The shafts had long since rotted away, along with the bow. But their positioning suggested they had been cast into the grave after the body had been laid in the wood-lined chamber. Together with two stone wrist guards, or bracers, they formed the largest collection of bronze age archery equipment ever found.