Customer Reviews

Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having read other reviews of this book, I was unsure whether or not to buy it.

In this book, Professor Parker-Pearson uses an easy going style to describe the sequence of events which led to recent discoveries in the last few years. Focusing not just on the monument but its surrounds and other relevant locations, the book takes care to explain how and why recent investigations took place. New discoveries are recorded in some detail together with short descriptions of existing knowledge and a useful revision of the established time-scale for the monument's construction: The attention to describing new information leads to a slightly dis-jointed approach, which was probably unavoidable given the breadth of sources; but compensated for by the enthusiasm which runs through the book.

Overall, the book is different from other works on Stonehenge because of the concentration on providing the latest information, from a variety of investigation projects, in an easily digestible form.

Firstly, I should state that I am no archaeologist, but I do hold a keen interest in Stonehenge and its people.
For me, this book is excellently written in a style that is authoritative, extremely informative, yet entertaining to read.
In fact, I polished it off in less than a week!

This is an interesting and very readable account of recent archaelogical discoveries at or near Stonehenge and the quarries in Wales and elsewhere connected with the stones. As such it doesn't pay much heed to any mystical connotations to the henge and instead concentrates on evidence gleaned from the new digs. The reason I would say get the book rather than the kindle edition is the large number of drawings, maps and plans don't reproduce well on the kindle and they are often integral to one's understanding of the material. I would also say that the author's unfussy style can't really extend the potential readership of this book beyond those interested in solid history and/or archaelogy so the lay reader may find some of this quite dull. The words solid and dependable apply to this book rather than exciting and exhilarating hence only 4 rather than 5 stars.

Just a new dust cover on an old book (which I already have) not a new or even updated book. Complete waste of money - straight into the charity shop

One may have thought that Stonehenge had attracted all the attention required to fill any gaps in its history, but one of the many stories to emerge from Mike Parker Pearson's excellent appraisal is how restrictions imposed on excavation at Stonehenge, coupled with our still-limited understanding of life in Britain over four thousand years ago, leave us with much still to learn.

Mike Parker Pearson led the Stonehenge Riverside Project between 2003 and 2008, and this is his record of that widespread investigation. After an excellent recap of the history of archaeological excavation at Stonehenge, Parker Pearson leads the reader through the many facets of his project. In endeavouring to understand more about the relationship of Stonehenge itself with the many surrounding sites, his team spent much time at Durrington Walls, a true henge some miles to the north, and focussed on the part played in the history of the complex by the river Avon.

As an archaeological layman, I found Parker Pearson's narrative fascinating and engaging, presented in a way that was neither patronising nor elitist. From relatively small points, such as the fact that strictly speaking Stonehenge is not a henge, to the much broader aspect of just who were the peoples who conceived, built and congregated at the various sites of three millennia, and why, Parker Pearson's approach is straightforward, logical and richly rewarding.

However much you know about Stonehenge, Parker Pearson uncovered and derived new knowledge and understanding and, presented in this fashion, his record should become a key reference for anyone interested to learn more.

Every age gets the Stonehenge it wants/deserves/needs.

There are many varying theories that have and are proposed for "why Stonehenge was built" and we are all entitled to our views. No one wil have the complete answer but this comes very close to an integrated logical interpretation.

Parker-Pearson based upon an a ethnographic analogy suggesteed by Ramilisonina (with the Stonehenge Riverside Project (SRP) team) combine many lines of scientific investigation and interpretation to present a complex yet well argued explanation of when, why and how this iconic monument was built. Most importantly it explains what the monument was used for. Stonehenge is placed within its landscape - a palimpsest of ritual activity since the early Mesolithic. M P-P also follows scientific practice by predicting features prior to excavation - eg. the links to the R.Avon.

Archaeological texts can be very dry but this is NOT. It is as if you are sitting across a pub table listening to M P-P tell the story of his investigations with SRP over the last years. Time flies by as you read and I fell asleep several times in the early hours desparate to read the next chapter. He has managed to organise this book in a very readable manner combining accurate hard science with interpretaion and a great narrative style. If you ever get the chance to hear him lecture take it. M P-P acknowledges and welcomes that this interpretation is open to review but at present it provides the best approximation for understanding this location.

Other reviewers have provided details. (There is only one negative reviewer - but I would respectfully suggest that this is a 'rather biased' view of a competing concept). Not that I would deride this concept - I just cannot afford c. £200 for a 150 page independently published book.

So pour yourselves a pint or three and let M P-P transport to you the world of the late Neolithic and explain upon a logically argued information of what the human experience MAY have been like then and there.

Update

If you are a Stonehenge/Neolithic follower then the Antiquity December 2012 issue requires reading to update the chronology. (ref: "Prof Thom" - this is the methodology of science - no ultimate solutions just researchers current "best model as of now" - and will be further modified as time goes by.) Good diagrams and tables.

M. P-P and the SRP team have shown that Craig Rhosfelin (point 8) is an exact geological match for the bluestone rhyolites. Moreover this location at this site large and small hammerstones have been found along with quartz, flint and rhyolite tools and three large pits one of which held packing stones for a standing stone. So the evidence for a 'bluestone' quarry site north of the famous Prescelli ridge is very strong. (The glacial transport theory needs more evidence of glaciation into west
Wiltshire - although there are some fascinating features such as the Rickford gorge on Mendip).

Future research in Wales is at a possible henge site where the bluestones may have stood originally and in Wiltshire to locate the quarry sites of the sarsens.

This fascinating story continues to develop.

This book is a profound disappointment. Written in a chatty style, and presumably aimed at the lay person with no specialist archaeological knowledge, it does serve to bring one up to date with some of the latest research. But there is an extraordinary mixing of fact and fiction -- and even fantasy -- to the extent that the naive reader has no idea which is which. That, in my book, is bad science -- and it does a disservice to archaeology. Prof Parker Pearson clearly likes a good story, but his imagination keeps on running away with him, so that key facts (which he might find inconvenient) are clearly ignored or misrepresented while he charges off on his latest "great explanation." I would have liked this book a great deal more if he had been more dispassionate, and had presented us with the evidence before weighing up the pros and cons and drawing his conclusions. Over and again he appears to have a ruling hypothesis stuck in his head (as with the famous Rhosyfelin "quarry" which is probably not a quarry at all) -- and he appears to be incapable of examining alternative explanations, especially those involving natural processes. I think I learned quite a lot from this book -- which is good -- but I am still not sure whether the things I have learned are true, or just figments of the fertile MPP imagination.

A comprehensive summary of work of the Stonehenge Riverside Project in recent years. Somewhat heavy going for the un-initiated and a few descriptive diagrams could have helped greater understanding.

A great read and Parker-Pearsons "theories" have the ring of truth about them. This is book without doubt, the definitive word on Stonehenge, thus far, but you get the feeling that there is more to come - that there is a great discovery just around the corner. Until then this book is a must read for anyone with an interest in archaeology or British history.

Mike P-P at his very best. Not only does this book bring us up to date with the latest thinking and research on the Stonehenge monumental landscape, his writing style is fluent, easy, thought-provoking and witty. You don't have to be an archaeologist to love this fabulous book.