Stonehenge: A New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument

It could be argued that over recent decades we’ve come to understand what the mysterious monument known as Stonehenge is, and how it was built. By widening its focus away from the monument itself this account of the Stonehenge Riverside Project and its recent discoveries goes a long way to answering why it was built and used.

This approach places the monument in the context of its landscape, the wider pan-island culture, and its role as part of a large complex of adjacent Neolithic monuments, settlements, and landforms. Far from being the isolated stone circle we see today it was part of a evolving thriving culture where it was just one (but probably the largest) of many henges.

While the conclusions and observations in this book are show more fascinating it does drag a bit mid-narrative as it gets bogged down in the detail of how a modern archeological dig is conducted and recorded. show less

Got the Kindle edition after watching the National Geographic special on the Stonehenge Riverside Project, and love reading the science behind the story. This book is world-class heritage interpretation, and Mike Parker Pearson is a delightfully lucid and capable writer and an unassuming giant on whose shoulders the next generation of archaeology will stand.

Postscript: bought the hardback edition at Stonehenge itself. What a difference to see the stones in context as one landmark in a rich ritual landscape.

accompanies museum exhibition

The text I have.