When I, and perhaps many of us, think of historic or prehistoric remains what immediately jumps to mind is a castle perched on hill top, or perhaps the stone outline of a Roman fort, maybe an old earthwork where people and animals sheltered from raiders, or perhaps the strange standing stones of Stonehenge or Kilmartin Glen. But these are all static remains.
In Footmarks archaeologist Jim Leary shifts the focus from buildings to the web of pathways, tracks and roads which lay between them. Often overlooked, despite being literally beneath our feet, these connected farms to pastures, villages to towns, cities to each other. They took people to market, to work, to their holy places, or across continents just for the sake of exploring.
From footprints 'frozen' in time by estuary mud, via holloways created by the passage of feet over hundreds of years, to long distance pilgrimage routes Leary takes what could have been a very niche subject matter only for academics, and makes it interesting and accessible to the lay reader. Interpreting those footprints captured in mud to bring the group who made them to life - the adults seriously following the direct route, children playing about, dashing this way and that - or following the trail of pilgrims from England to Santiago de Compostela - collecting their souvenir badges on the way - brings an immediacy to the lives of long-forgotten people.
Footmarks is a really interesting book about the history of, and contained within, paths and roads. History has always fascinated me, and I found this to be a wonderful, illuminating read, showing that people have always being restless and inquisitive, wanting to know what lay beyond the hill, on the other side of the water, or over the horizon
No comments:
Post a Comment