Hengeworld [Paperback]

From an archaeologist and co-author of Fairweather Eden (on the Boxgrove excavations), comes a book that takes us from hard facts to speculation on prehistoric minds. Mike Pitts' Hengeworld unites societies of different dates, places and pottery styles by the action of building "circular enclosed spaces", seeking to "confront real people" from that henge-building Neolithic world. Dealing principally, but far from exclusively, with Stonehenge and Avebury, Hengeworld asks the usual questions concerning how they were built, how they looked in their time and the extent to which astronomy and religion had a part in their purpose. Combining reports of his own digs and new research with a re-examination of evidence gathered in the past, Mike Pitts also makes some significant new discoveries and solves some intriguing mysteries from the recent history of archaeological excavation along the way. Probing beyond the material world, he suggests "new contexts" for Stonehenge which "envisage metaphor and symbol". Hengeworld is supported by clear diagrams and well-documented evidence: there are over 75 pages of appended radiocarbon date tables, notes and bibliographic information. But Mike Pitts also tells a good story, ably capturing the excitement of new discoveries with an almost chatty writing style and touches of humour and suspense. This is a book which amateurs and professionals alike should find valuable and evocative. --Karen Tiley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"Reads like a...whodunit." - "Manchester Evening News"
"Mike Pitts is that rare thing, an archaeologist who not only makes the news...but who can also write it. This book is a gem -- witty, charming, urbane, informative." - Simon Denison, "British Archaeology"

The first up-to-date, complete account of the continuing excavations at Stonehenge since the 1950s.

In November 1997 English Heritage announced the discovery of a vast prehistoric temple in Somerset. The extraordinary wooden rings at Stanton Drew are the most recent and biggest of a series of remarkable discoveries that have transformed the way archaeologists think of the great monuments in the region including Stonehenge and Avebury. The results of these discoveries have not been published outside academic journals and no one has considered the wider implications of these finds. Here Mike Pitts who has worked as an archaeologist at Avebury, and has access to the unpublished English Heritage files, asks what sort of people designed and built these extraordinary structures - the biggest in Britain until the arrival of medieval cathedrals. Using computer reconstructions he shows what they looked like - and asks what they are for. This is the story of the discovery of a lost civilisation that spanned five centuries, a civilisation that now lies mostly beneath the fields of Southern England.

Mike Pitts, the only living archaeologist to have directed excavations at both Stonehenge and Avebury, studied at the Institue of Archaeology (University College London) before moving to Wiltshire for a stint as Curator of the Alexander Keiller Museum. He has written extensively for academic journals, as well as for radio, newspapers and popular magazines and his first book Fairweather Eden was published in 1997 to critical acclaim. (20001212)