Stone Circles

Hugh Newman

Description

What are stone circles? When were they built, and why? How come so many of them egg-shaped, or geometrically flattened? What do they have to do with the landscape, Sun, Moon and stars? In this beautifully illustrated book, megalithomaniac Hugh Newman takes us on a fascinating journey around the world, examining these mysterious monuments of the megalithic culture from Wessex to Scotland, France to Poland, North America to Africa and India to Japan. "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.

Sujets

• History of architecture

Informations

• Publié par: Wooden Books
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912706198
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Sto ne C i r c l e, J e s e y , C ha nne l I s l a nd s . I n 1 7 85 G e ne a l C o n wa y ha t he s to ne s e mo ve d a nd sh ip e d 5 00 i l e s to h i s ga d e n ne a H e n l e y - o n- a me s , a nd l a c e d i n t hei o rig i na l a a n ge me n t ! F o O l d En g l an d : A P i c tor i al Mus e um of N a t i onal A n t i q uit i e s b y C ha l e s K n igh t , 1 8 4 4.
First published 20 1 7 eBook edition © W ooden Books Ltd 20 1 7 Published b y W ooden Books Ltd. Glastonbury , Somerset. British Libr ary Ca taloguing in Publica tion Da ta N e wman, H. St one Cir c les A CIP ca talogue r ecor d f or this book ma y be obtained fr om the British Libr ary . eBook ISBN: 978-1-9 1 2706-1 9-8 Ph y sical ISBN : 978-1-90426 3-95-1 All rig hts r eserv ed. For permission to r epr oduce an y p art of this meg a lit tle book please contact the publishers. Designed and typeset in Glastonbury , UK . Con v erted and optimised f or digital displa y b y the eBook P artnership, UK.
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Hugh Newman
A big t hank y ou t o t he man y ‘me g alit homania cs ’ w ho inspir e d me t o writ e t his boo k. Thes e inc lud e J o hn Mic he ll, J o hn N e al, Alex and er Thom, P r o f . T er ence Me a d en, Jj A ins w ort h, Andr ew Co llins, J im V ieir a and man y mor e! Ima g e c r e dit s: Mo st pictur es ar e fr om 1 9t h century s our ces, in particu lar R ude Stone Monuments by J ames Fer gus s on, 1 8 72. W e als o lift e d a lar g e number o f p lat es fr om J o hn Mic he ll ’ s gr e at compilation Meg alithomania , 2 0 0 7 . O t her ima g es ar e c r e dit e d w her e t hey appe ar , ex cept t ho s e on pa g es 3 and 4 7 , w hic h ar e by Emmanue l Martin. Man y t hanks t o J o hn Martine au and St ep hen P ar s ons f or t he d e dicat e d e ditin g, pictur e r es e ar c h and guid ance durin g t he c r e ation o f t his boo k. A b o ve : D r a w i n g of Sta n to n D r e w , S o me r s et , U K , b y S a u e l H i e r o n y m u s G i m , A u u s t 1 7 8 9.
Intr oduction 1 Göbekli T epe 2 The N eolithic Explosion 4 The Antiquarian V ie w 6 Construction T echniques 8 Ar chaeo astr onom y 1 0 Meg alithic Geometry 1 2 Alignments and Le y s 1 4 Wh y W er e The y Built? 1 6 A v ebury & Stoneheng e 1 8 Bodmin & Land’ s End 20 Dartmoor & Exmoor 22 Southern Cir cles 24 A v on to Shr opshir e 26 P eak District & Isle of Man 28 Y orkshir e & the N orth 30 The Lak e District 3 2 W ales & Ang lese y 3 4 Lo wland Scotland 3 6 Scot tish Hig hlands 3 8 The Scot tish Islands 40 Irish Cir cles 42 German y & Scandina via 44 Fr ance, Sp ain & P ortug al 46 Malta & N orth Africa 48 The Americas 50 Kar ahung e & Middle East 52 Further East & Do wn Under 54 Modern Stone Cir cles 56 A Glob al Cultur e 58
W i i a m St uk e l e y ’ s G e om e t r i c al Gro un d p l o t of Ston e h e n g e . P ubl i she d i n 1 7 4 0, t h i s i s t he fi r s t a c c u r a te l y i ag i ne d p l a n of t he s i te a s i t wou l d ha ve s to o e f o r e ru i na t i o n .
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S t one circles ju up a w d f m y u m , d u d a m , p ag a da a d qu v a qua a . Th m f am u S h g W h , UK, bu a h m u u ua ha ha lint e ls a d trilit hons d g . M a g am u , bu w h v h u a d f h m d um d h B h I a , da d b w 3 50 0 BC a d 1 50 0 BC , h u w a v d y a mp a p a f u a u u . S h g a w k w f umm u , a d a h v h a 6 0 y a ha h w ha ma y h k w u k y a d a d ap a g m ma k a m a v , w h ma y a ha g g m a f m a d m a u m y m . H w u h m g h y g w u d ha g b affl d a ha - g , a qua a , a d h d p a . I h 1 6 0 0 , Ch - a f d a u a up a u a xp a a , a d hu h d v , g a , w h a d a h f m y h g a figu a p up a u g d . F h w w u h mu - qua d, a p d a d a a g d w h u h p ? A v bu y a g ha a v ag da y w h ma ; a w a f u h mag ud ha , b k up, a hu h u d b u d f m . Wh v mad h mag fi u u had a v y d p u d a d g f g g, u v y g, g m y , m gy a d a m y . A d h y w a a d g up f bu d —a w w h p ag wh h f w , bu d g w a a u y g b a d a v u .
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e stone cir cle genesis 6,50 0 y ears older than Stoneheng e, 7,0 0 0 y ears bef or e the p yr amids of Egypt w er e constructed, pr eda ting the agricultur al r e v olution, a v ast meg alithic complex sa t a top the hills near pr esent da y Şanliurf a, southeast T urk e y . Göbekli T epe ( s ee opp o sit e ) w as flourishing an aston - ishing 1 2,0 0 0 y ears ag o and its pr eserv ed stone cir cles (the oldest in the w orld thus f ar disco v er ed, numbering as man y as 6 0 acr oss the site) exhibit impr essiv e degr ees of technical and artistic skill. The y consist of T-shaped pillars up to 20 f t tall, man y decor a ted with animal r elief s (scorpions, bo ars, lions, etc.) and abstr act human f orms w earing belts with enigma tic ‘H’ and ‘U’ shapes. The taller stones r est in shallo w nests on bedr ock with small supportiv e dry-stone w alls built in betw een. In some enclosur es tw o centr al pillars orient to w ar ds a holed stone, the larg est and oldest is 65 f t wide. An enormous limestone pillar still sits in the nearb y quarry , a stagg ering 24 f t long! Ov er some 3,0 0 0 y ears the cir cles w er e filled in with rubble to cr ea te mounds, and other cir cular enclosur es built on top. Then, ar ound 80 0 0 BC the entir e complex w as car ef ully r econstructed and co v er ed up. Inter esting ly , the oldest rings ar e the bigg est and most sophistica ted. Lik e la ter sites acr oss the w orld, astr onomical alignments ar e e vident. Figur es depicted on the V ultur e Stone ma y be the earliest r epr esenta tions of zodiacal and other constella tions (including Cy gnus) ( opp o sit e, bot t om left ). Our earliest surviving building seems to be an observ a tory , built to tr ack pr ecession, the 25,80 0-y ear cy cle of the pole stars. Unusual cup-marks on the bedr ock and on top of some of the oldest pillars pr efigur e British cup-marks, thousands of y ears la ter .