Middens are thought to have been community compost heaps but the new
megamiddens are far too large for that. The current theory is that these
particular dumping grounds were the sites of seasonal ritual gatherings.

At East Chisenbury, near Salisbury, archaeologists have unearthed 65 000
cubic metres of dark, slimy material, deposited in the 7th century BC and
covering an area of three hectares. Two nearby sites with megamiddens at
Potterne and All Cannings Cross seem to be of a similar extent and age.

Middens are often found associated with Bronze and Iron Age farms, but
usually consist of a few cubic metres of deposits in a ditch or a pit. “You
would need an enormous amount of people to create so much waste,” says Andrew
Lawson, unit director at Wessex Archaeology, of the latest discoveries. “No
settlements at that time seem large enough.” In a 20 metre by 10 metre section
at Potterne, excavators found one tonne of pottery, 400 000 animal bones and
over 100 bronze fragments. The East Chisenbury midden contains large amounts of
highly ornate pottery.

Lawson is convinced that the rubbish must have been left
behind by people from many settlements. David McOmish of the Royal Commission on
the Historical Monuments of England’s record centre in Swindon, describes the
East Chisenbury midden in the latest issue of Antiquity (vol 70, p 68).
He believes that the waste built up during seasonal events of great significance
to late Bronze Age societies. These events presumably took place in the spring,
as the East Chisenbury midden contains many bones from newborn lambs.

Whether they were a result of religious feasting or political gatherings has
yet to be discovered. “Why the East Chisenbury midden was so large and important
to so many people is a mystery,” says McOmish. But archaeologists note that the
megamiddens were formed at a time when society was changing rapidly from the
small, dispersed settlements of the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, where
territorial boundaries were common and larger settlements grew around hillforts.
By studying the middens in detail, the archaeologists hope to learn more about
this transition.

This is Stannard’s quest for knowledge in a world where science is
wonderful, but cannot necessarily explain what it means to be human. Stannard
meets geneticists, astronomers, theologians and psychologists, marching into
every corner of controversial debate as he waves bones of contention at the
Christian fundamentalist or the pragmatic physicist to carve out every last
insightful gem of cerebration.

These illuminating interviews are conducted in appropriate settings such as
observatories, museums and even on Freud’s very own psychoanalyst’s couch (in
Hampstead, incidentally). Stannard’s descriptive details reveal his sense of
humour and personality: as he sits in wonder at Darwin’s desk or is distracted
by the pickled brain in the corner of Steven Rose’s office while they discuss
the theory of evolution.

Stannard made an impact on the communication of science with his inventive
Uncle Albert books for children. These take a young girl and her uncle on
adventures in space and time a result of his belief that people should be
introduced to relativity as early as possible. Science and Wonders is his
first book for adults, though I am sure Uncle Albert enlightened many an
adult.

Many good books cover popular science, but this is an especially
entertaining account of scientific development and its enduring relationship
with religion. It also casts its nets so far and so wide that it cannot but
help to capture the imagination of anyone with a passion for the “whys” of
life and a love of that powerful mixture of of awe and insignificance that
lies at the heart of science.