Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52211 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
From an archaeologist and co-author of Fairweather Eden (on the Boxgrove excavations), comes a book that takes us from hard facts to speculation on prehistoric minds. Mike Pitts' Hengeworld unites societies of different dates, places and pottery styles by the action of building "circular enclosed spaces", seeking to "confront real people" from that henge-building Neolithic world. Dealing principally, but far from exclusively, with Stonehenge and Avebury, Hengeworld asks the usual questions concerning how they were built, how they looked in their time and the extent to which astronomy and religion had a part in their purpose. Combining reports of his own digs and new research with a re-examination of evidence gathered in the past, Mike Pitts also makes some significant new discoveries and solves some intriguing mysteries from the recent history of archaeological excavation along the way. Probing beyond the material world, he suggests "new contexts" for Stonehenge which "envisage metaphor and symbol". Hengeworld is supported by clear diagrams and well-documented evidence: there are over 75 pages of appended radiocarbon date tables, notes and bibliographic information. But Mike Pitts also tells a good story, ably capturing the excitement of new discoveries with an almost chatty writing style and touches of humour and suspense. This is a book which amateurs and professionals alike should find valuable and evocative. --Karen Tiley

Synopsis
Pitts, an archaeologist, asks what sort of people designed and built these extraordinary structures. Using computer reconstructions he shows what they looked like - and asks what they are for. This story of the discovery of a lost civilisation that spanned five centuries, a civilisation that now lies mostly beneath the fields of Southern England.

Customer Reviews

Easily digested review of what is known about henge monuments
I read this to get a quick background on henges before taking my American family members to see Stonehenge. Although I am an archaeologist, I don't study the British Isles, and I didn't know very much about the subject. This book gives a good overview of what is known and where those facts came from, which can be important in evaluating why and how our knowledge of "Hengeworld" is limited. The history of excavations was very enlightening, although it is somewhat sad to realize the negative impact that historic excavations have had on these sites.

Disappointing - could have been so much better
The author clearly knows a lot about the subject, but can't decide whether to describe the history of henges or the history of the history of henges. The result is a disjointed mish-mash which jumps about like a grasshopper - as unsatisfying as a novelist who introduces a character only to abandon him/her in the next chapter. Instead of a random brain-dump, the author should have opted for a coherent chronological story of either henges themselves, or the multifarious characters - many real "characters" - who've explored them.

A stone drag[ged]
You're the honoured guest at Mike Pitts' party. He's set up a receiving line. You meet a guest, are given some personal background, there's a bit of chat, perhaps a short show and tell, then on to the next. They're a varied lot - an RAF veteran, a testy lady, students of all kinds, scholars and civil servants. Off to one side huddle a scruffy group of fishermen. They seem unimportant, but they're vital to this book. Everyone here, including you, Pitts hopes, has a common interest - the henges of Britain. Each of them has contributed something to a better understanding of the ditch circles, posthole remnants, standing and fallen stones, and corpses that make up the hengeworld. They all want to know how the henges were built and by what sort of people. Mostly, they want to know why these monuments came to be. Perhaps you can help answer the questions.

Originally subtitled "Why Was Stonehenge Built?", this question remains glaringly unanswered by this book. Yet in pursuing the inquiry, Pitts has provided more information about the sites, their construction and environment than any other single source. Pitts' title reflects his attempt, largely successful, to bring to life the circumstances and people involved in the multiple constructions scattered about the British landscape. He stresses that all the henges underwent successive building or remodeling over the centuries. Ditches and banks established an enclosure, later modified by circles of posts. Sometimes, as at Stonehenge, dedicated residents finished the project with stone monuments. Over the centuries, those people died, or were killed, their bodies interred within the enclosures or nearby.

Pitts explains how information is gleaned on ages of the sites, condition of the artefacts unearthed, morphology of the disinterred corpses. In his quest to show us the lives of the builders and occupiers, he has a face built from skeletal remnants. Don't skip over that image, it may be one of your ancestors. He provides a wealth of other images - many fine maps, tables of artefact ages, photographs of workmen [some at your party] unearthing or restoring the sites.

The "Why?" remains elusive, for many reasons. We have no written records, of course, and the carvings on stones are enigmatic. So is the positioning. If Stonehenge's Heel Stone doesn't mark the midsummer sunrise, why is it placed where it is? Why is there a preponderance of cattle remains at Stonehenge, but pig remains at Woodhenge, only a few kilometres [and years] away? Why are there massive wood constructions, many with human remains adjoining the posts, as well as stone monuments? Why is Stonehenge's construction method such a departure from the remaining henge sites? And why, if they did, should Stonehenge's builders have trekked all the way to southern Wales for building materials? [That's similar to my walking to Toronto, buying the Province's legislature building, tearing it apart and returning it to Ottawa by way of Lake Ontario and the Rideau River - 900 kilometres round trip. Try your own thought experiment in your own locality.]

Pitts proposes Neolithic peoples had the dedication to mount such an expedition. Their motivation, in his view, is ancestor worship. Such doctrines have built the Pyramids, Gothic cathedrals and Greek temples, he reminds us. Faith, dedication and some special talents are all that's needed. Return to our party. The group of fishermen at Pitts' gathering have likely gone off to the pub. After a few pints, they were queried about the tides, weather and currents around the southern coasts of Wales. Some numbers scribbled on a beer mat is given to us as testimony that, yes, 'we could transport your stones 260 miles [Welsh fishermen think Metric is a Czech poet].' Thus Aubrey Burl's insistence Stonehenge came from local stone is disposed of. Perhaps. However, implausible, Pitts has done a well-researched and vividly presented job of viewing the hengeworld. Read it with pleasure. Study it for information gems of the Neolithic world. You won't be disappointed in either case. And you might be motivated to solve some of the issues he lists as needing investigation. [stephen a. haines, Ottawa, Canada]