The Stone Circles of the British Isles

The Stone Circles of the British Isles
Author: Aubrey Burl
Publisher:
Total Pages: 410
Release: 1979
Genre: Great Britain
ISBN: 9780300023985

Synthesizing pertinent archaeological data, the author details the origins, structural features, and significance of Britain's ancient megalithic monuments

The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany

The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany
Author: Aubrey Burl
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780300083477

The spectacular stone circles of western Europe, some nearly 6000 years old, have intrigued viewers through the ages. This beautiful book about these megalithic rings explores their ancestry, methods of construction, and eventual desertion. A substantially revised version of Aubrey Burl's highly praised work The Stone Circles of the British Isles, it offers new insights into the purpose of stone circles. It also provides a new interpretation of Stonehenge and of Callanish in Scotland, the first overview of the cromlechs in Brittany, a discussion of the problems of archaeoastronomy as related to stone circles, a greatly expanded Gazetteer, and an up-to-date list of radiocarbon dates and recent excavations.

A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany

A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany
Author: Aubrey Burl
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780300114065

This practical and knowledgeable guidebook deals comprehensively with the stone circles of Britain and Ireland and with the cromlechs and megalithic "horseshoes" of Brittany. This new edition includes a section on "Druidical" circles, romantic creations of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. "This book is not only an elegant and practical guide, it is also the best single-volume study of this extraordinary phenomenon, embracing 500 monuments from Shetland to Brittany. . . . Confident, erudite, pleasurable, this volume can be recommended as travel guide, archaeology, literature, and sheer good company."--Ian Sheperd, British Archaeology "This is a wonderful book and is a must for anyone remotely interested in things megalithic."--Paul Walsh, Archaeology Ireland

Building the Great Stone Circles of the North

Building the Great Stone Circles of the North
Author: Colin Richards
Publisher: Windgather Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2013-11-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1909686131

Of all prehistoric monuments, few are more emotive than the great stone circles that were built throughout Britain and Ireland. From the tall, elegant, pointed monoliths of the Stones of Stenness to the grandeur of Stonehenge and the sarsen blocks at Avebury, circles of stone exert a magnetic fascination to those who venture into their sphere. In Britain today, more people visit these structures than any other form of prehistoric monument and visitors stand in awe at their scale and question how and why they were erected. Building the Great Stone Circles of the North looks at the enigmatic stone structures of Scotland and investigates the background of their construction and their cultural significance.

Great Stone Circles

Great Stone Circles
Author: Aubrey Burl
Publisher:
Total Pages: 199
Release: 1999
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780300076899

Archaeologist Aubrey Burl, for more than thirty years a specialist in the study of stone circles, selects a dozen attractive and evocative rings for close examination. Each of the twelve sites illuminates a particular archaeological question - the purpose of stone circles, their construction, age, distribution, design, art, legend and relation to astronomy. Burl asks, and offers sometimes surprising answers to questions about Stonehenge: how were its bluestones transported from south-west Wales, why was its Slaughter Stone not used for sacrifice, and why is Stonehenge - the most British of stone circles - not a stone circle and not British? To conclude his account of the strange subtleties of stone circles, Burl reconstructs the social history of Swinside in the Lake District, describing the builders, their way of life, and the ceremonies they performed inside their lovely ring.

Great Crowns of Stone

Great Crowns of Stone
Author: Adam Welfare
Publisher: Royal Commission
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Aberdeen (Scotland).
ISBN: 9781902419558

Stone circles always excite the imagination, and nowhere more so than in the north-east of Scotland, which holds one of the most dense concentrations to be found anywhere in the British Isles. Illustrated with unique plans, this volume examines the facts, myths and mysteries surrounding some of Scotland's most evocative ancient monuments.

Wisdomkeepers of Stonehenge

Wisdomkeepers of Stonehenge
Author: Graham Phillips
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2019-06-18
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1591432987

Reveals how Stonehenge was an extraordinary astronomical calendar used in the cultivation of ingredients for long-forgotten botanical cures • Explores how Stonehenge and other stone circles were ancient healing sanctuaries and celestial calculators for the preparation of natural medicines • Explains how the megalithic priesthood--and their successors, the Druids--developed astonishing memory techniques to preserve knowledge over generations • Draws upon the very latest discoveries from recent archaeological excavations and overlooked historical source material Stonehenge is just one of thousands of stone circles erected throughout Britain and Ireland for over three millennia from 3,000 BC on. How did this building tradition survive for so long, over such a large area and with such complexity and uniformity, when the people of the British Isles lived in separate, isolated communities and left no evidence of a central leadership or obvious communication network? Graham Phillips argues that these stone circles are evidence of an astonishing system of healthcare and preservation of ancient medical knowledge that held together a society scattered across the British Isles. With stones aligned to the sun, moon, and certain stars, these ancient monuments enabled the precise timings necessary for the cultivation of medicinal plants. He explains how the megalithic priesthood possessed medical knowledge well beyond their time and may even have discovered a cure for cancer. Furthermore, because they had no form of writing, the megalithic people developed phenomenal memory techniques to preserve their knowledge over many generations, resulting in a class of wisdomkeepers that were not only healers but the living libraries of their culture. Drawing upon the latest discoveries from recent archaeological excavations and overlooked historical source material, Phillips reveals that the megalithic culture survived far longer than previously thought and that the people who held it together were an enigmatic shamanic sect ultimately called the Druids. Uncovering the secrets of ancient megalithic culture and the purpose of their enigmatic stone circles, Phillips contends that all the evidence has now been gathered to unlock the secrets encoded in the stones--and perhaps discover remedies for diseases still uncured by modern medicine today.

Circles of Stone

Circles of Stone
Author: Max Milligan
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1999
Genre: Megalithic monuments
ISBN: 9781860466618

This book offers detailed historical accounts of these megalithic rings, and recounts the powerful myths and legends that have surrounded them and persist to this day.