Customer Reviews

Discoveries: Megaliths (Discoveries (Harry Abrams))

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For anyone who already has a background in prehistory, this is probably a little too general. For someone just learning about the subject, it would be a good book to start with as it is heavily illustrated, covers the history of and personalities involved in the study of these early stone structures, and includes a very nice bibliography of the subject. The latter includes several, in fact mostly, books and articles in French which would require at least a reading knowledge of that language, although this volume is itself in English.

To me, the graphics accompanying the text convey an incredible amount of information. I do not agree that this book doesn't include info about the religious background of these megaliths.

If the book has a weakness it is that it focuses on the French sites. The author is a Frenchman and he favors what he knows the most about, I guess. I would say that half of the sites here are French. And there is no mention that I see of Baalbek or a stone circle discovered in the Golan Heights.

This Discoveries volume, like the rest, was written with the beginner audience in mind, and for that audience it may well fulfill its goal. However, for a 176-page book it offers an amazingly obvious lack of information, perhaps because there are simply far too many graphics which do not support the text but merely illustrate the megaliths in question from various vantage points. There is little to be found on the subject of the stones' religious background, as well as anything about the culture of the people who erected them. At best, this book may be useful in acquiring the basic knowledge of the subject.

Everyone has heard of the famous site at Stonehenge,Newgrange B and Carnac;but there are literally thousands of these types of 'stone sites' scattered throughout Western Europe and the British Isles. It seems they were constructed ,probably by the Celts as long ago 4,000 years and even 6,or 7,000 years B.C. . Ancient history is generally thought to go back to 4,000 years B.C. These 'Stones of Memory' predate that by several milleniums into Antiquity. The more that is understood about them,the more we see that man was much more developed,knowledgeable and societies much more structured than often believed or imagined.
This is a rather small book but packs a great deal in it.It tries to cover this subject and does it very well with an easily understood text and over 200 color photographs,many double page,drawings,maps,and black and white photographs and etchings from the earliest times when Archaeologists tried to determine who constructed them and to make some sense of their purpose.
The book does not pretend to cover everything; but it is certainly a very ood summary for anyone who wants to learn more about the subject.The author is French;the book was translated from French and is definitely slanted to sites in France.This does not distract from its value,though.
There is a good Glossary of terms which apply to the subject,a detailed list of locations of all photos. There is a fairly good list of books for further reading,though many are French.Other books for further reading should not be a problem; as they exist in the hundreds and probably the thousands.
I have a book "The Modern Anntiquarian" by Julian Cope which is a wonderful book on over 300 sites.It includes over 600 photographs,explanations of each site. The author visited each site . Maps and illustrations are included so that they could be found and visited if desired. There are also over 50 poems included. It is a beautiful book and comes in a fine slipcase