Stonehenge
Exploring the greatest Stone Age mystery
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Our knowledge about Stonehenge has changed dramatically as a result of the Stonehenge Riverside Project (2003-2009), led by Mike Parker Pearson, and included not only Stonehenge itself but also the nearby great henge enclosure of Durrington Walls. This book is about the people who built Stonehenge and its relationship to the surrounding landscape. The book explores the theory that the people of Durrington Walls built both Stonehenge and Durrington Walls, and that the choice of stone for constructing Stonehenge has a significance so far undiscovered, namely, that stone was used for monuments to the dead. Through years of thorough and extensive work at the site, Parker Pearson and his team unearthed evidence of the Neolithic inhabitants and builders which connected the settlement at Durrington Walls with the henge, and contextualised Stonehenge within the larger site complex, linked by the River Avon, as well as in terms of its relationship with the rest of the British Isles. Parker Pearson's book changes the way that we think about Stonehenge; correcting previously erroneous chronology and dating; filling in gaps in our knowledge about its people and how they lived; identifying a previously unknown type of Neolithic building; discovering Bluestonehenge, a circle of 25 blue stones from western Wales; and confirming what started as a hypothesis - that Stonehenge was a place of the dead - through more than 64 cremation burials unearthed there, which span the monument's use during the third millennium BC. In lively and engaging prose, Parker Pearson brings to life the imposing ancient monument that continues to hold a fascination for everyone.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A University College London archeology professor and leader of the groundbreaking Stonehenge Riverside Project expounds on recent research into the famed site in this revelatory study. The ambitious project represents the most current thinking on the construction of Stonehenge, its relation to surrounding Neolithic sites, and its possible purpose. As Pearson (If Stones Could Speak) writes in the introduction, "in archaeology, context is everything." As such, he and his team took as their working hypothesis the idea that Stonehenge could only be understood in the context of other proximal sites, particularly Durrington Walls. The spark for the idea came from a Malagasy colleague, Ramilisonina, who suggested that, as in Madagascar, perhaps the timber circles of Durrington were indicative of a monument to the living, and the stones of Stonehenge to the dead. In his recounting of seven seasons of archaeological digs at Stonehenge, Durrington, and other sites in the area, Pearson addresses everything from the bureaucracy of archaeological permissions to whether the druids, either prehistoric or modern, are relevant to an understanding of Stonehenge. This detailed work may challenge casual readers, but it will prove immensely rewarding to any student of the subject. 16-page color insert, b&w photos throughout.
Customer Reviews
Stonehenge
It is an absolutely fascinating book to read
The author is named Mike Parker Pearson
I would recommend this book to anyone who would interested in Archaeology