Footmarks by Jim Leary offers a captivating exploration of the ancient pathways that crisscross the British landscape, blending historical research with engaging storytelling. Leary's work vividly brings to life the forgotten tracks of our ancestors, making it a must-read for history enthusiasts and lovers of the natural world.

I found this a really interesting read about the archaeology of travel. Coming into this with only a basic understanding of the subject from a one term module at university, I found the level of complexity was just right and no doubt there are plenty of further resources for anyone wanting to seek further in-depth information about any of the subjects covered in this overview of the book. The style of the book is very readable and the author's enthusiasm for the topic is infectious. I really liked it.

How do you see the past? The closest that many of us come to experiencing the prehistoric past, meaning the time before writing systems develop, is through museums. For many, their childhood recollection of such places involves dioramas. There is dynamic tension in such dioramas, often featuring a family hunting and gathering, or perhaps sat around a fire. Still, these recreations of a time long past are frozen. Cave paintings, tools, and dusty bones - all of these exist behind glass or through the screen of a computer. The simple fact is that many of us consider the past only as something frozen and dead. We don’t consider that prehistoric people are still people, even some hundred thousand years ago.

Dr. Jim Leary sees our past very differently. Formerly the Director of the Field School at the University of Reading, he currently lectures in Archaeology at the University of York. He has directed multiple major excavations including those of Silbury Hill and Marden henge. His focus has specifically been upon prehistory, spurred by the finding of an artifact at a young age. The bit of an amphora had a thumbprint preserved within it - a personal touch that brought home to him the fact that the past was vital, and far more familiar to us than we might consider.

FOOTMARKS: A JOURNEY INTO OUR RESTLESS PAST (2023, Icon Books) showcases just how mobile our ancestors were, and brings the past to life. Leary takes the reader with him through the various ways that people moved in the past and in the process, humanizes our distant ancestors in unexpected ways. He describes the way footprints can be preserved over thousands of years, and how these footprints often tell stories of children at play. Piggyback rides and stumbling, the occasional imprint of a buttocks when someone takes a fall - these are rare impressions that tell stories that bring the past to life in a way that other findings often don’t.

Footprints are only part of the story, however. The way in which a person moves often adds a new element, reflecting their status and connections to others around them. Beyond that, where and how people move is also something that tends to be overlooked. Movement, or the lack of it as a political statement, is something that Leary takes pains to make clear to the reader through the exploration of particular sites within England. Leary accompanies the reader along routes that have existed throughout history, and explains how that is known. He explains how many modern roads are old footpaths, how holloways are dated, and a myriad of other moving facts.

The book also takes the reader through modes of transport beyond one's own feet. There is a section about sea travel that is particularly noteworthy and moving, not only for how harrowing sea travel must have been for our ancestors, but also how much is still unknown. This book is one that will likely spark a deep interest in archaeology for many of its readers. The past was never still - for we as a species are never still. Leary brings an immediacy to prehistory that few writers have, and shows just how close the past still is to us all. Next time you go for a walk outside, consider whose footfalls you might be following.

“By studying footprints, we can glimpse fleeting moments in the lives of individuals. Paths tell us about whole communities, and behaviours that play out over generations.”

This quotation from Jim Leary's 'Footmarks' encapsulates the message of his excellent book. It ranges from three-million-year-old ancestral footprints to mass migrations; from Roman roads to the Crusades and beyond. In lyrical (occasionally humorous) prose, Leary ponders the anthropological, political and personal significance of journeys, as well as the people who made them — or tried to prevent them. His ideas are backed up by his expertise as an archaeologist, but also rest on profound insights into human life and how we perceive the world.

There is an extensive bibliography, and I was delighted the book taught me a new word: psithurism. Look it up!

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

A thoughtful reminder that our ancestors were once living moving people, with lives as meandering as our own.

Footmarks introduces a concept. It is neither a dry non-fiction analysis of archaeological sites, nor a sensationalised narrative, Footmarks explores our connection to our ancestors through the similarities and traces that remain in how peoples of the past moved across the earth. The curiosity of children as evidenced in footprints left behind, the exploration and migrations that have happened since visible human behaviour can be traced, the language of movement in our place names, and the language we use to discuss thoughts. Footmarks discusses how journeys are not just a physical act of travelling from one place to another, but a part of our communication, our link to the earth, and to each other. Archaeology is often concentrated on sites, fixed places, not the spaces in between, and the lives and laughter that would have echoed as people made their way in, around, through, over, between those places, or simply walking to nowhere at all.

Each chapter discusses a different type of movement, from the small steps to the vast ocean voyages, all evidenced with examples that encourage readers to investigate more, and all threaded with Jim Leary's personal journeys through his career, his relationship with his family, and personal loss.

This will interest anyone who looks at our world and it's history with curiosity, and is the kind of book that will find you searching for others on the various topics introduced. I recommend reading this on a bright morning, you'll find the hills and vast skies calling after you've read it, so spare time for this and a good walk after.

I read this with a little bit of trepidation, because the author is a colleague of mine, though he didn't know I was going to read this, and I didn't know he had written it, until I saw it on Netgalley. I don't tend to read books by people I know in case I don't like them, or can't give high enough praise, but I genuinely enjoyed this.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ever looked at a footpath or holloway and wondered how long it's been there and who else has walked along it? Then this is the book for you.

This is an accessible and quite chatty look at the history and archaeology of human movement and what is and isn't preserved.

I think my favourite part was the observation that a lot of history tends to view journeys as a straight plodding line between beginning and end. And yet we know that that isn't how people move today; they run or wander for fun, they divert to look at something interesting, they travel backwards and forwards between people and places they know.

The book is divided up into easily digested sections with examples of movement captured in the archaeological and historical records along with a general discussion on the causes and methods of different movement.

I think this will be enjoyed not just by history readers but also of nature writers like Robert Macfarlane.

I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for holloways and old tracks when I'm out walking..

I am 'Twitter friends' with Jim and have read his book about Silbury Hill so I was excited to get this from NetGalley!

'... because movement is life, and the past was never still.'

This is a book about journeys I suppose, from the mundane to the extraordinary, and the way those journeys are not always easy to see in the archaeological record, even though walking from one place to another is basically what modern humans and their predecessors have been doing forever. Leary shows us Mesolithic footprints, Bronze Age wooden tracks, Iron Age and Roman roads, bridges, fords, and boats. He talks about migration and travel, the Amesbury Archer and medieval pilgrims, Viking traders, famers, drovers and shepherds. He talks about the journey of his own life as well, both personal and professional. It's really nicely written and completely fascinating. Recommended!

A good, enjoyable book about movement and migration seen through archeology - from prehistory to more modern time (like the Victorian era). I found it really interesting to read and it had a lot of interesting facts and case studies, but at times it felt too short and not detailed enough. Some chapters I found a bit repetitive, and I would have preferred something maybe more specific. I enjoyed reading it but didn't feel as if I have learned anything really new here.

Footmarks
A Journey Into our Restless Past
by Jim Leary

Archaeology is a bit like a photograph. New sites are unearthed, but they are frozen moments in time or the detritus from centuries of slow decay. This book attempts to bring movement back into the past. It spans from prehistory to more modern times, following in the ancient tracks of humans who have always been inquisitive enough to travel.

It is a good entry level book on the subject of movement and migration with a good narrator who adds in his own personal touches and reasons for writing this book. It does bring life and the human side of history and archaeology back into something more tangible. Something which was once living and breathing, and that we can relate to.

Personally, I found the brevity had me wishing for more depth. For me, one chapter focussing on a single aspect, like ocean travel, isn’t enough. The archaeological examples also lacked detail (this was an ARC so perhaps the published book will come with photographs?). I read this hoping to learn some new things and I felt a bit disappointed there wasn’t much new for me here.

With thanks to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Many years ago, before archaeologists used DNA on skeletons and had to use isotopes found in their teeth, I watched a documentary about a lady buried in Bath 2000 years ago, but who had arrived from Europe. At that time I looked for a book that would describe her journey. It has taken a long time, but finally I have Footmarks to read. This is a beautifully written meditation on walking, but includes the science and history of the different people who have walked across our planet in the past and explains what may have driven them to set off on foot for monumental journeys. We used to think that populations were very static over time with a few people moving on, but modern science is showing that human kind has always been moving in great numbers. This book is about everyones ancestors and tells us all how we got to where we are now and the journeys that will have involved. I loved this book, it's a beautifully written and important book.