Pete G
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Re: Books of possible interest: The Druids
May 14, 2007, 02:25
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Did you read his article in Antiquity last year?
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tiompan
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Re: Books of possible interest: The Druids
May 14, 2007, 08:14
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Cursuswalker wrote:
Willaim Price "wore the fox hat " brilliant .
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Littlestone
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Re: Books of possible interest: The Druids
May 14, 2007, 15:26
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Looks good CW - will put it on my shopping list.
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wysefool
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Re: Piggot
May 14, 2007, 21:05
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Piggots book was good (and he was once a Wantage boy so I'm biased!)
I thought modern druidy was about mead and getting 'sloshed' eight times a year?
(maybe I've met the wrong ones)
Off to 'Getafix'
WF x
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Cursuswalker
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Re: Piggot
May 14, 2007, 23:45
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wysefool wrote:
I thought modern druidy was about mead and getting 'sloshed' eight times a year?
That is one of the sacraments. And why not eh?
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Littlestone
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John Preston: The Dig
May 19, 2007, 11:51
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Apologies, a little off topic I'm afraid but The Dig* by John Preston may be of interest, and perhaps relevant in the wider context of archaeological digs. The novel is based on the excavation of the Sutton Hoo burial mound in Suffolk in the summer of 1939.
"The book begins when Sutton Hoo landowner Edith Pretty hires Basil Brown, a self-taught local archaeologist, to excavate the burial mounds on the field by her house. Her husband, who had died suddenly in 1934, always felt there was something inside them: now, as the end of the world draws near, she wants to know if he was right. Brown slowly digs over the field, finding nothing. He almost gives up. Then, in a moment of revelation, he makes a discovery that will change his life - for better or worse.
"Great archaeological finds, however, are as much a reminder of what gets lost as they are of what endures. Inevitably, Sutton Hoo prompts thoughts of death and of our own insignificance. 'All this talk of decay, of obliteration, of any human imprint being swept away, had left me quite unfit for company,' one of Preston's narrators confesses."**
More here at http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/features/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=Features&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=features&itemid=IPED17%20May%202007%2010%3A14%3A46%3A520
* The Dig by John Preston. ISBN 978-0-670-91491-3. pp231. £16.99.
** http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,2078288,00.html
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Littlestone
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Chris Scarre: The Megalithic Monuments of Britain
Jun 07, 2007, 20:57
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"Scarre reminds us of the inconceivable labour involved in the structures that continue to amaze after four or more millennia. The construction of the enclosures around Avebury required the quarrying of 200,000 tonnes of chalk, but this was dwarfed by the labour demands of Silbury Hill. Containing a third of a million cubic metres of chalk, the great mound is now thought to have originally been a straight-sided polyhedron with up to nine walls. Scarre also reveals new theories concerning Stonehenge, where the surface shaping of some of the stones may have replicated the bark of oak and beech. The great ring could have been a monument for the dead that imitated the wooden dwellings of the living."*
The Megalithic Monuments of Britain & Ireland by Chris Scarre. ISBN 9780500286661. Paperback. 160 pages. RPR of £12.95 though available from Amazon for £9.99.
* http://www.independent.co.uk/arts/books/reviews/article2464170.ece
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Littlestone
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H J Massingham: Downland Man
Jun 26, 2007, 09:25
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Picked this up the other day so haven't had a chance to read it yet. Published by Jonathan Cape Limited in 1926. Twelve chapters which include - Avebury: The First Capital of England. The Structure of Archaic England. Mount Silbury. The Long Barrows. Some 400 pages (letterpress on wove paper) thee maps and several B&W illustrations taken from Colt-Hoar's Ancient Wilshire.
Saw another copy recently (cover a bit battered) for the princely sum of £5.99 if anyone's interested.
Quote on page 26: "Hard to tell yet may be told." (Pepys on Stonehenge).
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Littlestone
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Edited Jul 06, 2008, 07:10
Stonehenge: Rosemary Hill
Jul 06, 2008, 07:04
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"When the landscape painter John Constable contemplated Stonehenge in 1835, he mused that literal representation of the site had "been often enough done". He was not, however, deterred. Instead, he created something utterly unique - a painting that is strangely illuminated, filled with drama, and which sets human figures against the backdrop of the stones.
"Rosemary Hill's Stonehenge accomplishes something similar. It is not primarily an attempt to answer the riddle of what the stones are, but rather a tribute to the lively assortment of people who have dedicated energy and intellect to interpreting the monument over the past three and a half centuries."*
* http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2289314,00.html
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moss
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Re: Stonehenge: Rosemary Hill
Jul 06, 2008, 08:24
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In the 18th century, the antiquary William Stukeley dismissed the architect John Wood's theories as the "whimsys of his own crackt imagination"
Aah, crackt imagination like the cracked mirror - a thousand shards scattered on the ground - is'nt that the story of Stonehenge, pulled and pummelled by every passing whim of our glorious race.... Now waiting to be 'done up' for the Olympics, the government paying lipservice as always to what it will do and the handservant EH spending vast amounts of money that went exactly where - no where but into the pockets of those that would get greedy on anything that goes and will fit into their bank balances very nicely thank you ;)
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