- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Profile Books (12 Jun 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1861978650
- ISBN-13: 978-1861978653
- Product Dimensions: 20 x 13.8 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 468,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Stonehenge
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Product Description
Book Description
Stonehenge is the most famous prehistoric monument in Europe visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year. The great stones remain compelling because they remain mysterious. 'God knows what their use was,' Pepys wondered in 1668. To greet the winter solstice, for goddess worship, funerary temple? - all recently advanced theories. But the answer is still unknown.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No answers but a great overview,
By
This review is from: Stonehenge (Paperback)
After describing, at the start, where Stonehenge is and who owns it, the author says "At this point we come, almost, to the end of the uncontested facts". So she concentrates instead on how Stonehenge and its 'meaning' have been argued over, and even fought over, across the centuries. How it's been taken a symbol of authentic Britishness - or of Roman, Danish, Phoenician, Mycenaean or space-god influence. How its dating has kept changing (and still is); its enduring associations with King Arthur, Druidry, The Wicker Man and astronomy; and its fascination not only for antiquarians and academics but also for the counterculture, the Earth Mysteries movement, and ordinary tourists.
The book does look at the archaeology: the three-phase building (with the sarcen stones now dated to about 2580-2470 BC), and the enduring puzzle of how the bluestones could have been brought to the site from Wales. And it reminds us that it's not an isolated monument, but is part of a whole network of earthworks in the area - including its equally mysterious wooden counterpart, Durrington Walls. What becomes really clear though, is how influential Stonehenge has been on British culture. Over time, people have thought it a temple, an observatory, a hospital or spa, a monument to ancestor-worship, a royal burial ground, or even Stone Age sculpture. It's featured in the arts from Wordsworth to Spinal Tap via Thomas Hardy and Barbara Hepworth. It has inspired strange follies, and influenced unlikely areas of British architecture from Bath to Covent Garden to Milton Keynes. Finally the book reviews how the solstice has been celebrated there on and off since the 1870s with the Free Festivals, the Battle of the Beanfield, and the current 'open access'. The final section talks about the ongoing problems with conservation, access, the Visitor Centre, the underpass and the main roads; and provides a useful reading list, and handy advice on visiting. Although I thought that it veers a little too far from Stonehenge at times (onto pretty tangential-seeming stuff like `Zadok the Priest' or Churchill College), and (despite its cultural-history approach) ignores the _really_ wacky ideas that are about, I thought it was clearly-written, amazingly wide-ranging, and - like Stonehenge itself - totally fascinating!
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not exactly a book on Stonehenge,
This review is from: Stonehenge (Paperback)
This isn't a book that gets to grips with all the truly interesting things about Stonehenge. In fact the title of the book, Stonehenge, is a bit of a misnomer since Stonehenge only seems to be a running theme rather than the subject of the book. If you're looking for a book that explores the meaning of Stonehenge, why it was built, how it was built, how it is aligned with the sun, moon and stars, this book is not the one you want. This is really a book of the history of Antiquary and Archeology and how Stonehenge has been (mis)interpreted through the ages.It is not an entirely uninteresting book but it told me very little about the things I am truly interested in.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Stonehenge,
By
This review is from: Stonehenge (Wonders of the World) (Hardcover)
This is a broad overview of Stonehenge, starting with a brief outline of its prehistory and continuing with how it's struck more recent visitors. Rosemary Hill has had to be fairly superficial and in the end she seems to throw up her hands "don't ask me to come up with any conclusions!" She fails to mention Rodney Castleden's "The Stonehenge people" with its insights. The latest theory is that Stonehenge was built to commemorate the switch from moon-worship to sun-worship and from the mother goddess with her emphasis on hunting and gathering to the male sungods with their emphasis on the weather and its imortance in a farming economy.
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