A Little History of Astro-Archaeology: Stages in the Transformation of a Heresy

by Michell, John

• ISBN13: 9780500275573
• ISBN10: 0500275572
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-05-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

Stonehenge today is a battlefield, not only for police and festivalgoers at midsummer but also for rival camps of archaeologists, astronomers, and other researchers into the mysteries of prehistoric religion and science. Controversy flared up in 1963, when Gerald Hawkins made early use of the computer to identify Stonehenge as an observatory for the sun and moon and an instrument for predicting eclipses. Further studies of megalithic sites by Alexander Thom proved that many of them were also related to the seasonal positions of the heavenly bodies. The study of astro-archaeology has now expanded worldwide, bringing new revelations about the mystical sciences of antiquity. This "little history" summarizes the issues involved in astro-archaeology, and illustrates its principal sites and personalities. Included are recent findings of British scientists, whose records of anomalous levels of natural energies at stone circles are in accordance with the magical reputations of such places in local folklore. The present state of research and the exciting prospects for astro-archaeology in the future are summed up in the final chapter. 97 b/w illustrations. Previously published under the title Secrets of the Stones.

Table of Contents

Introduction	6	(3)
Part One
An idea in its infancy	9	(10)
Sir Norman Lockyer in Egypt	19	(4)
Stonehenge	23	(6)
Contemporaries and followers of Lockyer	29	(14)
Objections to Lockyer	43	(6)
The Old Straight Track	49	(9)
`Prehistoric nationalism': the strange history of astro-archaeology in Germany	58	(8)
Stonehenge `decoded'	66	(4)
Alexander Thom and the modern revival of astro-archaeology	70	(9)
Lines across landscapes	79	(8)
Mystical approaches	87	(4)
Part Two
Sunlight, shadows and moonbeams	91	(6)
Lines and alignments in South America	97	(13)
Conclusions: astro-archaeology as geomancy	110	(11)
Bibliography	121	(2)
List of illustrations	123	(3)
Index	126