Stonehenge Complete, Third Edition [Paperback]

Christopher Chippindale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2004

Since its first and prize-winning edition of 1983, "Stonehenge Complete has established itself as the classic account of this most famous of ancient places. For this new edition, Christopher Chippindale has revised and updated the story to include the latest theories and discoveries. People have puzzled over Stonehenge for centuries, speculating and dreaming about it, drawing and painting it, trying to make sense of it. Here is the story of the one real Stonehenge, as well as the many unreal Stonehenges that archaeologists, tourists, mystics, astronomers, artists, poets, and visionaries have made out of it. New studies in the last decade have revolutionized our knowledge of the complex sequence of structures that make its celebrated profile; remarkably, these new discoveries have been made without new excavations. Stonehenge today is as lively as it ever was. After a period of dissent and confrontation, visitors are once again welcome to see the sun rise over the Heel stone on midsummer solstice day, and some 20,000 people are expected to gather at midsummer dawn this year. As the new edition explains, they are in error: although Stonehenge is indeed astronomically oriented, it is not aligned on the midsummer sunrise at all.

Editorial Reviews

Review

All you ever wanted to know about Stonehenge...is catalogued in this humorously written, beautifully illustrated book. -- The Economist

Always interesting. -- Library Journal

About the Author

Christopher Chippindale is Reader in Archaeology and a curator for British collections at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; 3rd edition (June 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500284679
• ISBN-13: 978-0500284674
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #748,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of what it is not, October 31, 2006

By 

blue jaguar (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Stonehenge Complete, Third Edition (Paperback)

A solid treatment of the written history regarding Stonehenge. The author likes to chuckle at all the theories he believes are incorrect about the origins of the site. However the author spends more time pointing out how everyone else is incorrect rather than providing summaries of any new likely theories as to it's origin and function. For me I was disappointed by this ommission and feel it is unfair to bash others opinions without presenting in equal detail your own.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The book "Stonehenge Complete" is a good read, December 15, 2004

By 

Garry Denke (Plano, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stonehenge Complete, Third Edition (Paperback)

A good book, but Christopher Chippindale failed to mention the first stones brought to Stonehenge in the Late Neolithic Period from the South Wales Coalfield area. Stonehenge's first hauled stones, of course, are the white Early Carboniferous (Mississippian) Period, Arundian Age, High Tor (Birnbeck) Limestone Formation calcium carbonates of its original counterscarp bank (3/4's later moved to Heelstone ditch and Stonehenge's nearest barrow 100 metres east-southeast of Heelstone). These first transported stones overlay Stonehenge's geologic outcrop of white Late Cretaceous Period, Santonian Age, Seaford Chalk Formation calcium carbonates. Other than Christopher Chippindale not mentioning these Stonehenge Whitestones, as they are commonly referred to by BGS (British Geological Survey) geologists, the book "Stonehenge Complete" is a good read.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Title is a Good Indication, November 22, 2004

By 

Benjamin Madore "T. Beleg" (Western Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stonehenge Complete, Third Edition (Paperback)

If you're looking for a good overview of the History of Stonehenge, this is it. This book covers the 800 years of known writing of Stonehenge to convey a good idea of the history of the monument.

The book was originally published in 1983, and still contains some of the historical viewpoints of Britain in that era, but on the whole is fair and well done. There is some removal of the Astronomical material from first edition, and it instead points toward other sources more involved with that one aspect. Likewise, the archeological data is only what is appropriate for this view of Stonehenge and its surrounding monuments.

If you only have one book on Stonehenge, this should be it, and if you plan on visiting the monument, pick it up first and at least browse through. You will understand the monument so much better, and really appreciate it.