Buried: An alternative history of the first millennium in Britain

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The core of the book, however, is really an exploration of past identity, emotion, culture and migration.

In Buried she explores a number of burials and the funerary rites these remains give us tantalising glimpses of.At times I found the book fascinating - the possible reasons for decapitation of corpses, before or after death, for example explore beliefs and fears of the time - the deep review of the term and classification 'Anglo Saxon' rather less so. Those islanders had control of precious resources – grain, cattle, gold, silver and iron – and had also assisted with uprisings in northern Gaul a century before.

Particularly the last chapter around the current divisions we have in society and attitudes to migration and 'otherness'. Photograph: Christopher Jones/Alamy View image in fullscreen Bryn Celli Ddu, a Neolithic passage tomb on Anglesey. Looking at the first millennium of the Common Era, burial archaeology can provide us with precious glimpses of individuals, their culture and beliefs. They sounded like pieces of porcelain, chinking as they tipped out and I moved them around on the tray.

As archaeologist Hugh Willmott points out: “There’s a tendency to think: she must have been special, she’s wearing all these brooches.

There are some written records from Roman Britain itself, but these are quite specialised and narrow in what they reveal.Old bones and artefacts can now tell us far more about our ancestors and the way they lived (and died) than ever our very recent predecessors would have thought was possible.