The Secrets of the Avebury Stones: Britain's Greatest Megalithic Temple [Paperback]

Terence Meaden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2000

Avebury, less than 20 miles from its more famous neighbor, Stonehenge, is rich in symbols linked to pre-Christian Goddess religions. This book reveals the wonders of the site, the largest and most complex prehistoric monument in Britain, through a lavishly illustrated guided tour encompassing history, archaeology, spirituality, and art.

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Frog Books; First Edition edition (March 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158394009X
• ISBN-13: 978-1583940099
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,022,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Petroglyphic Playboy?, March 26, 2003

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secrets of the Avebury Stones: Britain's Greatest Megalithic Temple (Paperback)

It is interesting to consider which of the many available chemical compounds some "observers" might use when assessing Britain's famous megaliths. Aubrey Burl, leading scholar in the field, contends the local pubs have sufficiently potent solutions. Clearly, something more than simple daylight is required to inspire some of the novel insights published over the years. Meaden's source of inspiration remains obscure. What is vividly clear from this book is that Meaden's imagination far exceeds his vision - or data.

His thesis is that the stone monuments at Avebury are the symbols of an intense Neolithic fertility cult. The shapes of the stones, their various surface irregularities and their "orientation" all represent devotion to a goddess cult. Filled with speculation, vivid photographs, even more vividly interpreted, the book is a testament to what imagination can produce. Meaden states that "left-facing" stones represent Neolithic "femininity," while the "right-facing" ones are "male." There are breasts, vulvas, various orifices, phallic stones and their shadows. It's a provocative parade of lithic seduction. Evidence for his interpretations relies on his own, earlier, work. No other supportive material is provided - except for his portfolio of carefully situated photographs.

While the maps and diagrams are useful, the photographs belie Meaden's attempts to show us something any geologist can explain. The profile of the human face is not a complex shape. A long curve, broken only by a couple of protrusions - the eyebrow, nose and lips. In stone profiles, the chin is nearly universally absent. A face of rock, irregular to start with, is subject to many forms of weathering. A little water, winter-frozen in a cleft, breaks off, leaving a recess with outcrops above and below. Voila! We now have the eyebrow and nose of a "face" seen from the side. Usually, the form can be detected only during certain times of the day when the shadows are longer, leaving the shapes more distinct. Meaden's collection of photographs beautifully depict how this erosion is revealed.

One should always be cautious opening a book with the words "the secrets" in the title. The implication is almost always that the author has made a revolutionary discovery the rest of us dullards have not. This book is an excellent example. While it would be delightful to learn someone has truly revealed a major aspect of Neolithic society, that breakthrough hasn't been achieved here. Perhaps this book stands as a major contribution to the idea of Neolithic "political correctness." It is certainly not a work of scholarship.