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The Standing Stones of Europe: A Guide to the Great Megalithic Monuments
The purpose of the great stone circles and stone-chambered barrows of Europe has always been a mystery. This is a country-by-country guide to the continent's great stone monuments, combining a detailed guide with a gazetteer, and presenting a provocative theory on their use and purpose.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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November 29, 2011Originally written in the 1970s this book is not only restricted to sites west of the iron curtain but also, in those days before cheap air travel, disproportionately weighted to prehistoric monuments in Brittany and the British Isles. Still it is oddly charming, its black and white illustrations suggesting that the authors piled themselves into a Morris Minor , driving around the parts of Europe they could easily reach by ferry from England, photographing megaliths and Menhirs as they found them. Which is probably exactly what they did do .
Well illustrated (in black and white), there's not a lot of interpretation of sites or much putting them in their archaeological context - but perhaps that's for the best. The authors spend some time on alignments and ley lines in their introduction while I'm a bit of a savage on such issues. The sky is full of stars, aligning a monument or a group of monuments to some heavenly body and coming up with a plausible sounding relationship is not difficult, however if a future civilisation uncovered the foundations of St. Paul's cathedral in London and had no knowledge of Christianity wouldn't they on the basis of its alignment conclude that this was an important building for Sun worshippers on the basis of its west-east alignment? Indeed a mystical alignment of the ancient Woolworth stores of Britain has also been found to exist which rather neatly demonstrates the problem. Drawing lines on the map and assuming relationships is the easy bit, but it doesn't actually tell us anything about the construction or use of prehistoric monuments. What it does testify to is the variety of ways that societies have found them meaningful and symbolic through time.
Still this book is delightful testimony to the hard work that Obelix & Co. put in, and to the fantastic monuments - not all of which have been entirely ploughed over or recycled into other buildings - that can be found here and there across the landscape.
Well illustrated (in black and white), there's not a lot of interpretation of sites or much putting them in their archaeological context - but perhaps that's for the best. The authors spend some time on alignments and ley lines in their introduction while I'm a bit of a savage on such issues. The sky is full of stars, aligning a monument or a group of monuments to some heavenly body and coming up with a plausible sounding relationship is not difficult, however if a future civilisation uncovered the foundations of St. Paul's cathedral in London and had no knowledge of Christianity wouldn't they on the basis of its alignment conclude that this was an important building for Sun worshippers on the basis of its west-east alignment? Indeed a mystical alignment of the ancient Woolworth stores of Britain has also been found to exist which rather neatly demonstrates the problem. Drawing lines on the map and assuming relationships is the easy bit, but it doesn't actually tell us anything about the construction or use of prehistoric monuments. What it does testify to is the variety of ways that societies have found them meaningful and symbolic through time.
Still this book is delightful testimony to the hard work that Obelix & Co. put in, and to the fantastic monuments - not all of which have been entirely ploughed over or recycled into other buildings - that can be found here and there across the landscape.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review