Product Description

PRIME TIME BBC2 SPECIAL TIE-IN DUE TO BE BROADCAST END JUNE 2000 'It is deeply impressive...Ancient History: the New Rock 'n' Roll.' The Times Highly illustrated, THE MODERN ANTIQUARIAN is the result of an eight-year odyssey in search of prehistoric Britain. Of the countless sites visited, over 300 of the very best have been selected, their remains photographed and their relationships with the landscape explained. Julian Cope, one of Britain's best known and much loved post-punk visionaries, takes the traveller to the first temples built on these islands in order to shine a light into the shadowy past of a modern people who have been hoodwinked into believing that their history began with the Roman conquest. In the essay section he examines our prehistoric beginnings through the evidence of our megalithic remains and their surroundings, helping us to reconcile where we are Right Now. 'Such a splendid book, splendid in both its illustrations and its prose, rare partners in the archaeological world. I shall use it, of course.' Aubrey Burl, archaeologist and author 'A remarkable fusion of scholarship, practical advice and visionary insight' The Express 'Just visiting the sites is a major achievement...if Cope can be regarded as a barometer of the wider expectations of what archaeology should be doing, and I believe he should, then we must sit up and take note of the implications of this book.' Timothy Darvill, Antiquity 'A fine balance between the academic and the personal and the poetic...Deadly serious about his chosen subject, Cope has amassed an impressive knowledge of our nation's landscape and its monumental masonry circa 3000BC' Evening Standard 'A strange and marvellous artefact -- remarkable for its seriousness' The Independent

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30651 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Julian Cope has come a long way since the Teardrop Explodes. For eight years he has researched Britain's megalithic heritage in order to write about its inspirational and mythic importance.The Modern Antiquarian is quite an achievement, in which the singing space cadet once more reconciles himself to Earth. Book One is a series of ten essays reconstructing British paganism prior to the muscular intervention of Christianity. Seriously subjective, frequently wayward, they collectively seek to recover the Great Goddess, and restore a sense of femininity and spirituality to our landscape, dotted with its long barrows and standing stones. In the process, Cope introduces imaginative etymosophies [sic] and some wonderful chapter headings, such as "Why the Romans were so Heavy", and "Ur Indoors", while indulging his distaste for cities and his love of Roman-bashing, for their corruption of collective folk memory, and the straightness of their roads. Cope's own infectious vision is, understandably, more circular, if not exactly rounded. It would be easy to mock, with its amateur snaps (sometimes including a variously coiffed Cope or family, for scale, one presumes), and homespun New Age philosophy. However, Book Two, a rainbow-indexed gazetteer to over 300 prehistoric sites in Britain, is tremendous. Each entry combines a photograph, Ordnance Survey directions, a paragraph of geo-historical significance, and a personal observational note of Cope's. Occasional poetry surfaces--"Atop Knap Hill I eat my snot/For 'tis the only food I got"--but generally the absurdities are kept at bay, as St Julian leads us on a pilgrimage. There are even charming guidelines for those who use the gazetteer properly, including the invaluable tip to keep a plastic bag down your sock to collect rubbish in (Julian does). Splendidly eccentric, impossible not to enjoy, and as much a map of the errant genius of Cope as the land with which he so passionately communes. --David Vincent

Review
'Erudite (his references range from Pope and Blake to D. H. Lawrence and T. S. Eliot), articulate and lucid, he possesses an admirable degree of self-awareness.' - The Telegraph, September 1995

Sunday Times Magazine
'...expect the pathways to our most far-flung moorland monuments to be worn deep into trenches.’

Customer Reviews

Paranormal in the West Country, and beyond
Our Passionate Friend Julian Cope surprised us all in the 1990's by suddenly coming out as a megalithomaniac. The Modern Antiquarian is partly Julian's very personal take on ancient Britain and how the church and those pesky Romans ballsed it all up for us and partly a gazetteer of ancient sites around Britain, complete with directions, maps, idle jottings and some marvellous photographs.

The gazetteer is arranged geographically with each section colour-coded for ease of reference. Unfortunately some of the background colours are so dense that the print becomes difficult to read. In part one in particular there are some garishly photoshopped images laid out in various eccentric styles so that no two pages look quite the same. But these add to the charm of the book and what it might lack in academic rigour it makes up for in sheer enthusiasm. The binding of the book has come in for some criticism although my own copy is still all in one piece despite constant reference for 4 years or so now.

Cope lists many sites I would never have known about let alone have visited were it not for The Modern Antiquarian. The bizarre Figsbury Ring, near Salisbury, is a good example. There are some other sites listed and described here that I may have been put off from visiting had I not double-checked elsewhere.

Some of the material is already quite dated and some is just downright inaccurate. The entry on Stoney Littleton really needs to be updated as things have improved immeasurably at this site. The information on The Chestnuts in Kent needs some revising and correction. I'm sure there are many others besides.

But whatever the imperfections this is a marvellous and very worthwhile book, funny, informative, at times angry and passionate, always opinionated and all the better for that.

I believe a follow-up, looking at sites across Europe, is now being written; maybe this will carry some updates and corrections. But either way I look forward to it and recommend The Modern Antiquarian to you without hesitation.

Not-Mad Rock Star Writes Guide for Heads and Scholars Alike
So after 8 years of research not-mad rock and popster Julian Cope finally finishes the Modern Antiquarian. The gazeteer, wipe-clean cover and rainbow pages we were always promised are there as are poems and a collection of essays. The essay section won't make the archaeologists happy, but hopefully it will make them think. The sections on landscape temples are especially good. Some might find the etymosophy hard to swallow but just wait till the sequel 'Let Me Talk To The Driver' is published, Er...Look Out! The gazeteer triumphs where others fall short by having a full page and colour photo for almost all the sites covered as well as a description and notes written in the field. Some sites even get one of the aforementioned poems (over 50 of them) my personal favorite was the one for Knapp Hill, which begins 'On Knapp Hill I eat my Snot, For 'tis the only food I've Got'. Julian visited every site in the book and took most of the excellent photographs (unlike the famous archaeologist who wrote a whole paper on the Clava Cairns in Scotland without once leaving his office). All in all the Modern Antiquarian in a scholarly and visionary book which should set the archaeologists talking (if ever they decide to leave their offices).

Julian Cope -an often sadly unrecognised genius
Brilliant. This is one of my all-time favourite books, and it's had such heavy useage in the field that I've bought another copy. They both sit together on my shelf, in all their luminous, rock-album clothed glory.
As you will have noticed from the above, The Modern Antiquarian is split into two sections, the first a collection of highly entertaining and thought-provoking essays on modern and ancient society and life, the second being a gazateer of epic proportions to the significant ancient sites of Britain. The latter is as close to perfection as you could possibly wish for, even down to the O/S co-ordinates and hints on visiting.
The former may prove a little more contentious. The essays are written with an infectious passion, are superby argued, and deliberatly provocative. Yes, they are subjective. The subject matter can be nothing but that. Their aim is not just to inform, but to yank us out of apathy; to make us think laterally; to think in circles, transcend what we have previously thought or been taught. And that can only be a good, and beneficial thing.
It's very easy to get a little 'New Age' dealing with this subject matter. Julian avoids that with the effectiveness of a sledgehammer smashing through lead-crystal glass. He's still a rocker, a brillant one, and so is this book, which took him eight years to research and write, which shows the painstaking research detail that went into it, and it's all the better for it. It certainly opened my eyes. The Modern Antiquarian is worth every penny of the asking price. If you're thinking about buying it, do so. I can promise this much -you won't regret it.