Overview

A striking and original interpretation of the awe-inspiring Stone Age site from one of the world's foremost archaeologists on death and burial In lively and engaging prose, this book brings to life the imposing ancient monument that continues to fascinate, exploring the theory that the people of Durrington Walls built both Stonehenge and Durrington Walls, and that the choice of stone for constructing Stonehenge has a significance so far undiscovered--that the stone was used for monuments to the dead. Through years of work at the site, the author and his team unearthed evidence of the Neolithic inhabitants and builders which connected the settlement at Durrington Walls with the henge, and contextualized Stonehenge within the larger site complex, linked by the River Avon, as well as in terms of its relationship with the rest of the British Isles. This book corrects previously erroneous chronology and dating; fills in gaps in knowledge about its people and how they lived; identifies a previously unknown type of Neolithic building; discovers Bluestonehenge, a circle of 25 blue stones from western Wales; and confirms what started as a hypothesis--that Stonehenge was a place of the dead--through more than 64 cremation burials unearthed there, which span the monument's use during the third millennium BC.

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9780857207319

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Mike Parker Pearson is an archaeology professor, the author of Earthly Remains, and the coauthor of If Stones Could Speak. He has carried out excavations in South Uist, Madagascar, and at Durrington Walls as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project and has appeared in the National Geographic Channel documentary Stonehenge Decoded and in the NOVA episode Secrets of Stonehenge.

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