Bones of my ancestors

Here, resting in the British Museum, lie the remains of an ancient Briton. This fellow was placed in a crouched position with a beaker marked with the impression of a piece of cord. 

The people who made the great stone circles were the same as contemporary humans: equally intelligent, just as worried for the futures of their children, identical to us. They prevailed in conditions that were sometimes severe and survived to pass their heritage to us. Shouldn’t we respect and admire our heritage? Megalithic culture spread as far East as Mongolia, where extraordinary standing stones survive, decorated with leaping animals. The megalith builders were capable of great architecture and spectacularly gifted as tool makers with limited resources. I find it hard to comprehend how difficult it must have been to build Avebury, West Kennett, Stonehenge and the other marvels of the Neolithic.

Now the bones in the museum excite children, but they can also act as a reminder  of how close we are to those ancient people and how much we owe them.

Here’s an interesting contemporary twist on neolithic culture, a chromium megalith. I enjoyed the play on ancient and modern cultures in this piece. This was also at the British museum, but I cannot locate any information about the artist or materials at the moment.