Mike Pitts seeks prehistoric lifestyles in Britain and America [audio 5x15min]

Mike Pitts - the editor of British Archaeology - sheds light on the lifestyles of our forebears by recording on location around Britain and in America. He brings together professional archaeologists with present day crafts people to compare ancient and modern techniques for survival. Programme 1: Pitts talks to David Freeman and Ann Phipps, who spend up to 40 nights a year living in round houses, and to archaeologists John Coles and Stephen Minnit, who have found evidence that our ancestors dined on beaver and pelican. Programme 2: Pitts tells the story of the chance discovery of the best preserved prehistoric boat in Britain under a road in Dover and visits the Hampshire boatyard of Giff and Joyce Gifford, who have built and sailed a bronze age style oak ship. Programme 3: At the International Museum of the Horse in Kentucky last summer, a 2-wheeled wooden chariot with a suspension system made from woven leather was put through its paces. One of the passengers was Pitts - who reports on this vehicle modelled from an image on a coin. Programme 4: At Yarnton in Oxfordshire, Gill Hey and her colleagues have found what's thought to be the earliest loaf of bread in Britain. Pitts compares notes with the anthropologist Paul Sillitoe from Durham University, who's studied the use of stone axes on farming and forestry in Papua New Guinea. Programme 5: An excavation in Norfolk has revealed the best site for mammoth remains in Britain. The archaeologist Bill Boismier and the geologist Nigel Larkin discuss their findings, and Pitts also canvasses the views of the owner of a South London gun company, Paul Roberts.