Riddles in Stone Myths, Archaeology and the Ancient Britons

by Hayman, Richard

• ISBN13: 9781852855666
• ISBN10: 1852855665
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-15
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Who built Stonehenge? Why and when were more than 600 stone circles, and thousands of barrows and cairns, erected in prehistoric Britain? What were they used for and what do they tell us about the beliefs and culture of their builders? Riddles in Stone is a history of the extraordinary variety of answers that have been given to these questions, by amateurs and professionals, archaeologists and astronomers, mystics and systems theorists.

Table of Contents

IllustrationsIllustration AcknowledgementsPreface1 Monuments in the Landscape2 Pagan Traditions3 The Church and the Devil4 In Medieval Literature5 The Wonder of Britain6 John Aubrey and Friends7 William Stukeley8 William Borlase9 Romantic Druids and the Picturesque10 Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington11 The Barrow Diggers12 Stone Age Circles and Stone Age Man13 Diffusionism14 Megalith Builders15 Beaker Folk16 Stonehenge and the Wessex Culture17 The Sun and the Stars18 Sir Norman Lockyer and his Followers19 Stonehenge Decoded20 Pi and Pythagorean Thoughts21 Alfred Watkins and the Old Straight Track22 John Michell and The View over Atlantis23 Mysterious Britain24 Earth Mysteries25 Radiocarbon and other Revolutions26 Sex and the Dead27 Landscape, Culture, Society28 EpilogueGazetteerNotesBibliographyIndex