Although volume one, this has been the last of four volumes to be published, appearing just before the death of Geoffrey Wainwright, a co-writer of one of the longer chapters.
Five chapters cover a vast time span from 250,000 bc to ad 1000. Three are relatively short and discuss the Palaeolithic–Mesolithic, Later Prehistoric (essentially Iron Age) and Roman occupation of the area alongside two, more substantial, Neolithic/Bronze Age and early Medieval (up to the Norman Conquest) chapters. However, despite their relative lengths, all clearly and authoritatively outline what is presently known about their time periods.
Fieldwork, excavations and stray finds provide the database for the earlier chapters; this is supplemented by authentic and more ‘antique’ literature sources for later times (after all, we stray into St David and his mother, King Arthur, Stonehenge, and Charles Bertram’s ‘Roman map of Britain’ territory). The Dark Ages and ‘antique’ sources are clearly dissected and given their due worth by James, and this discussion is refreshingly transparent and could be read and weighed against Tolstoy’s recent overtly heroic tome The Mysteries of Stonehenge (2016). It seems that Stonehenge and Pembroke have ever been yoked together.
For, although throughout most of its early history Pembrokeshire was just a recipient of outside, Atlantic/Irish Sea, maritime influences (often appearing to be Ireland Outremer), there is, perhaps, one (spectacular) exception: for, as an aspect of Pembroke’s ‘Golden Age’, in the late Neolithic, stones were brought from the Preseli Hills to help build Wessex’s grandest folly, Stonehenge. This aberration is thoroughly explored and critiqued by Darvill and Wainwright and so forms a significant part of their chapter. They review their recent SPACES (Strumble–Preseli Ancient Communities and Environment Study) results alongside those of Parker-Pearson and colleagues, the latter having concentrated their searches along the north of the Preseli Hills (The Stones of Stonehenge Study). Notably, the present authors have created an accurate resumé of the iterative and intricate lithological/petrological work on the stones, integrating this into their established views on a more southerly (still Preseli Hills) origins for the rocks (there are a few, mostly minor, factual errors – the capstone at Trafael is not Preseli-spotted dolerite, but a volcanic, vitric-lithic tuff erratic). A scholarly overview of all the recent north–south Preseli–Stonehenge work has been needed and this will do well for the present. It now seems that all interested parties, ironically for Pembrokeshire, have abandoned sea travel for an overland route for the bluestones, disagreement now centring on how and why they were carried eastwards (always the pertinent questions).
Despite the focused Neolithic/Bronze Age studies in the Preseli Hills and environs, almost every chapter highlights not only the paucity of modern excavation of high-status sites, but also demonstrates how recent road and pipeline rescue excavations are revolutionising our knowledge, especially of the ‘ordinary’. This new uncovering of the common man and his humble cot is an emergent European-wide phenomenon, as is very clearly shown in Bradley et al’s excellent book The Later Prehistory of North-West Europe (Reference Bradley, Haselgrove, Vander Linden and Webley2015). For once, in this respect, Pembrokeshire is not insular, but belongs within a continental European ‘tradition’.
The chapters are linked by a common theme: for most of the time extreme West Wales appears to be isolated from its eastern landward neighbour (England), with only the Romans and the occasional Anglo-Saxon raid marching so far westwards. It is water that has shaped Pembrokeshire’s history and climate. From the Mesolithic to the coming of the Normans, the sea was a main provider of both comestibles and culture, notably shown by the longevity of coastal sites, especially small, off-shore islands that seem to have been inhabited, on and off, for many millennia. Inland, not only ancient (Mesolithic) coastlines, but rivers and wells (sacred and profane) have provided longstanding focal points, many retaining their influence, at least in thought, to the present day.
This book has been worth the wait. It has many excellent and germane illustrations and photographs. Although it is a bit too heavy to be a comfortable read, despite some idiosyncratic editing, this is a book that will be, and deserves to be, well used.
