thesweetcheat
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Re: Trethevy Quoit: Cornwall’s Megalithic Masterpiece
Aug 02, 2013, 19:39
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Just like the current Glastonbury thread, the original Trethevy book thread ranged along the border separating those people who want (expect) their opinion to be accepted as fact, and those people who want some evidence, or at least an acknowledgement that the opinion asserted is just that, an opinion.
The comments made and questions asked in that (Trethevy) thread really just highlighted that there were other possibilities than the one being presented as the only "correct" answer. And to be honest they were nothing compared to the response that any theory that did not account for other (more likely) scenarios would be expected to counter if presented to the "expert" community that was so badly denigrated.
I suspect this is a border TMA discussion will no doubt straddle again. I'd like to think TMA won't become another "Mysteries" forum, personally. To question or to challenge shouldn't be demonised. Nigel made a comment in the Glastonbury thread along the lines that evidence is not the enemy of free thought (sorry if I've misquoted), and I completely agree with that.
Fair play to Roy for writing his book and getting it published, but doing so doesn't mean that everyone will automatically accept the contents as being the only answer, or will immediately dismiss the findings of earlier researchers who have come to a different conclusion.
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Littlestone
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Silbury Hill
Aug 04, 2013, 10:49
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Silbury Hill: The Largest Prehistoric Mound in Europe. Edited by Jim Leary, David Field and Gill Campbell.
"Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric mound in Europe, has long been an enigma. Set within the chalk downlands of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, it is traditionally thought to have been the burial place of King Sil. First investigated in 1776, then again in 1849, successive archaeological interventions culminated in Professor Richard Atkinson's televised campaign in the late 1960s. Following the dramatic collapse of the 1776 excavation shaft at the summit of the Hill in 2000, detailed surveys revealed that voids associated with the earlier excavations existed deep within the mound."
Due for publication by English Heritage on 28 November 2013 (and a bargain at a mere £75 ;-) More here.
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moss
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Edited Aug 12, 2013, 07:58
Stone Worlds
Aug 11, 2013, 10:00
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Stone Worlds - Narrative and Reflexivity in Landscape Archaeology:
Barbara Bender, Sue Hamilton and Chris Tilley. Left Coast Press;
"The well-known authors examined the the Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape on Bodmin Moor... especially the site of Leskernick."
Fabulous book, can't put it down, the frontspiece has the early Neolithic 'Propped Stone', it was in all probability because Leskernick Hill did not have a weird tor formation, now how is that for being ingenious.... My book is secondhand £7.50 but new culled from one of the booksellers behind Amazon's front.
Edit; A thread from last year mentions an article written by the authors..
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/headtohead/tma/topic/65613/
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/leskernick/articles/stone/stone.htm
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Littlestone
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Re: Stone Worlds
Aug 11, 2013, 12:53
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Nice poem by Jan Farquharson as well – thanks (will put it up in a mo :-)
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Littlestone
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Edited Oct 13, 2013, 14:05
Shaman: Kim Stanley Robinson
Oct 13, 2013, 14:03
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Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson. The story of a boy's day-to-day struggle to survive in the wilderness captures the brutal conditions of the Ice Age.
“The shaman is a sorcerer, a doctor, a mystic, an engineer and an artist, too: guided by Thorn, Loon is allowed access to a series of underground caverns, where successive generations have painted dramatic scenes on the walls. Robinson has based these specifically on the Chauvet Pont d'Arc cave in the Ardèche, which was discovered two decades ago, and has recently been the subject of Werner Herzog's documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams; his descriptions are vivid and beautiful.
“...this is mainly Loon's story. Through him, we meet the rest of the Wolf pack, a tight tribe of around 40 humans: Schist, the headman, and his wife, Thunder; the other teenage boys, Hawk and Moss; and the old woman, Heather, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of herbs...
“Robinson injects some drama with a conflict against another tribe of ice-dwelling northerners, but this is mostly a simple story of day-to-day survival in the Ice Age. The most moving section of the book is a melancholy friendship between Loon and one of "the old ones", the Neanderthals who had inhabited Europe undisturbed until humans arrived from Africa.”
More here.
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Littlestone
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The Secrets of Stonehenge
Nov 08, 2013, 14:51
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The Secrets of Stonehenge by Mick Manning and Brita Granström.
“Stonehenge has captured the imagination as long as man can remember - long after he can remember what it was built for.
“Throughout it talks in a positive, non-contradictory way but also without dogma and this subject is so controversial to so many that avoiding dogma is a big plus in this book's favour. It also goes back in history to before the henge we see today and shows what excavations have revealed about the site before.
“Couple this history with cartoon like drawings and historical asides this book is a great asset for children to learn from.”
From a review of the book here.
With Christmas around the corner, The Secrets of Stonehenge might be a stocking filler for kiddies with stonehead parents (or for people of any age who just like graphic novels – cough, cough ;-)
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thelonious
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The Living Mountain
Nov 14, 2013, 20:48
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I wonder if anyone else has come across this book - The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd? Written in the 1940's but not published until the 70's. It's a very beautifully written book about the Cairngorms. I thought I'd mention it here as I'm sure a lot of TMA folk would enjoy it. I won't describe it as my words would be too clumsy to do it any justice. Please just google it. This little book has left a lasting impression on me.
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thesweetcheat
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Re: The Living Mountain
Nov 14, 2013, 21:06
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Saw this in the Waterstones in Inverness while we were there recently, wish I'd looked more closely now (there's so much great stuff in there, way better than the Waterstones we have round here).
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thelonious
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Edited Nov 14, 2013, 21:34
Re: The Living Mountain
Nov 14, 2013, 21:34
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Worth picking up if you get another chance. I'm sure you would like it tsc.
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thelonious
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Edited Nov 14, 2013, 21:39
Re: The Living Mountain
Nov 14, 2013, 21:34
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Nice review here
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/30/scienceandnature.travel
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