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Lynne Kelly

The Memory Code: The Secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island and Other Ancient Monuments Hardcover – February 7, 2017

by Lynne Kelly (Author)

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The discovery of a powerful memory technique used by our Neolithic ancestors in their monumental memory places―and how we can use their secrets to train our own minds

In ancient, pre-literate cultures across the globe, tribal elders had encyclopedic memories. They could name all the animals and plants across a landscape, identify the stars in the sky, and recite the history of their people. Yet today, most of us struggle to memorize more than a short poem.

Using traditional Aboriginal Australian song lines as a starting point, Dr. Lynne Kelly has since identified the powerful memory technique used by our ancestors and indigenous people around the world. In turn, she has then discovered that this ancient memory technique is the secret purpose behind the great prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge, which have puzzled archaeologists for so long.

The henges across northern Europe, the elaborate stone houses of New Mexico, huge animal shapes in Peru, the statues of Easter Island―these all serve as the most effective memory system ever invented by humans. They allowed people in non-literate cultures to memorize the vast amounts of information they needed to survive. But how?

For the first time, Dr. Klly unlocks the secret of these monuments and their uses as "memory places" in her fascinating book. Additionally, The Memory Code also explains how we can use this ancient mnemonic technique to train our minds in the tradition of our forbearers. Full color 24-page insert

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Pegasus Books
Publication date

February 7, 2017
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
ISBN-10

1681773252
ISBN-13

978-1681773254
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“This fascinating narrative offers fresh interpretations of these physical spaces and their archaeological discoveries. Readers interested in preliterate cultures, Neolithic archaeological sites, and memory techniques will find this research thought provoking.”
- Library Journal

“A plausible and provocative hypothesis on how methods of memorization may have laid the groundwork for many mysterious extant monuments.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“Intriguing.”
- Publishers Weekly

“Kelly not only analyzes a variety of techniques used by indigenous people, but also implements the ideas in her own life. Readers can readily implement her ideas and train themselves to use these mnemonic devices just as the ancient ones may have done so long ago.”
- Shelf Awareness

“Kelly presents a compelling argument that appears quite plausible. Some archaeologists might disagree, but Kelly is thinking outside of the box.”
- Choice

“Kelly offers a new viewpoint, showing us people who, faced with a problem, developed an effective way of overcoming it.”
- Cosmos

About the Author

Dr. Lynne Kelly is a science writer and an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University. She lives in Melbourne, Australia and is the author of Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies (Cambridge).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pegasus Books; 1st edition (February 7, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1681773252
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1681773254
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,410,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #535 in Australia & New Zealand History
- #1,336 in Memory Improvement Self-Help
- #3,007 in Archaeology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
54 ratings

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Lynne Kelly

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I am a science writer fascinated by just how much the human brain can memorise - and it's a huge amount if you know the methods.

My most recent book, 'Memory Craft', is the result of years of experimenting with a vast range of memory techniques and the way you can implement them in contemporary life to memorise almost anything and keep your brain active.

My PhD explored the way indigenous cultures encode knowledge without writing, especially the pragmatic stuff - animals, plants, medical knowledge including a pharmacopoeia, laws, navigation, genealogy, history, land and resource rights plus all sorts of ethical metaphors.

I then realised that this understanding offered a new theory on the purpose of Stonehenge and many other archaeological sites.

'The Memory Code' tells the story of these extraordinary memory methods for the non-academic reader. The memory methods draw from Australian, Native American, Pacific and African cultures. The new theory explains the pragmatic purpose of Stonehenge and Avebury in England, Orkney in Scotland, Carnac in France and Newgrange in Ireland, Chaco Canyon in the US, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and the Nasca Lines in Peru among many others.

Cambridge University Press has published the academic version, "Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies" giving a solid peer-reviewed academic reasoning for my ideas.

Writing dominates my life. I started with educational books - 10 of them - logical because I was a teacher. I wrote a novel, "Avenging Janie" and then three popular science books published in Australia, the US and UK: "The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal", "Crocodile: evolution's greatest survivor", and "Spiders: learning to love them". I overcame my arachnophobia a bit too well and now I am obsessed by spiders. I simply adore the gorgeous critters.

But it will be memory systems which will dominate my writing for many years to come. I simply love the stuff!

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Arnold Wentzel

A book that changes both your memory and your view of non-literate cultures

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2017

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I am amazed at the misguided superiority of people who think that some cultures are backward because they did not invent writing. After reading “The Memory Code” it is even clearer how wrong they are. This book explains how non-literate cultures process and transmit practical knowledge. Whereas writing can only do so in a linear and mono-sensory way, the methods of non-literate cultures capture the true interconnected, multi-layered and multi-sensory nature of knowledge. They do so by encoding practical knowledge in the landscape, dances, stories, metaphors, mythology, rituals, objects, genealogies, their own bodies etc. with one often triggering another in complex loops. In comparison writing impoverishes knowledge and is rather primitive. The result is that each person in these cultures can hold more practical knowledge in their minds (about animals, plants, family lines, laws, relationships, seasons, agriculture/hunting methods and so) than most people in modern societies, and their knowledge is more flexible and based on understanding. The author fortunately does not stop there, but also explains these methods and how they can be used today. It made a lot of sense to me because many of the methods are similar to (but go much further and deeper than) the memory methods I taught my student-teachers. I can highly recommend this book both as an antidote to the naïve racist views and as a practical book for improving the memory and understanding of knowledge.

27 people found this helpful

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E. L. Richards

A richer view of pre-history.

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2018

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Another reviewer noted that Ms, Kelly's thesis was guessing at best. Perhaps. Although do other scholars, who seem to believe that pre-literate man was obsessed with spending a great deal of energy building large edifices in order to worship death or the sun, have more evidence on their side? I've always had a hard time wrapping my mind around how arbitrary the modern interpretations seem. (or how aligned to our own obsessions.) If pre-literate people were spending that much energy on activities that didn't support survival, how exactly did they survive?

But even if you don't agree with the theory proposed about prehistoric monuments, Ms. Kelly's book presents a different view of our distant (or not so distant) ancestors. For example, the importance of the calendar (and tracking the sun/stars) for survival--when to plant, when to move on to hunt a migratory herd, when to leave for a festival/marriage feast. Modern man often lives removed from the urgency of the seasons. It's a view that I found evoked a richer, more nuanced culture than is portrayed in many museums or pre-history sites. Not necessarily contradictory, just richer.

The part I loved the most, though, was her experiments personally using the memory techniques and external aids. Especially using walks to encode different knowledge schemas and the serendipity when pieces of two or more schemas intersected to give new insight. Again, I've always puzzled over how we went from no structured knowledge to something as abstract as a calendar. Encoding sequences in the landscape, enriching it over time, seeing the patterns emerge--all seem a plausible path to start the accumulation of knowledge.

What I was disappointed in...the title seemed to promise more about how to use the techniques on your own. you can infer some techniques from the descriptions but nowhere near enough to easily get started. I'm hoping for a book two--hint. Also, as others have mentioned, the descriptions of the multiple memory sites did get a little overwhelming. I would have appreciated more of a narrative nonfiction approach that would have been more immersive even if it might have been less academically correct. After the fourth or fifth example, I was convinced. More examples didn't add a great deal more knowledge. But the book was packed so full, maybe I just was overwhelmed.

17 people found this helpful

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William J. Meegan

Very informative

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2018

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At least for me, this is a very important book; because, I have been studying esotericism in the bible for over 43-years and this work explained to me that the indigenous natives of the world categorized the world as a library of knowledge.

Whereas, the bible is about the psyche, which is essentially all about numerics; but, the textual wording of the texts I believe has the same mythological paradigm as how the indigenous natives codified the landscape of the outer world.

The bible brings both the quadrivium and the trivium together creating the sacred scriptures.

However, Lynne Kelly points out about how the indigenous natives can hear the plants move and/or smell something and know the difference between hundreds of plants and animals and insects.

The esotericism in the bible fails to express the comic understanding of the numerics; thus, both the esoteric and exoteric (five senses) omit the essential ingredients in the amalgamation of the two systems.

Lynne Kelly's work book has clarified many enigmatic questions that have plague me over the past four decades. Because, obtain Christ consciousness allows the psyche to enter the Garden of Eden, which would include inexplicable knowledge that is not available to the inattentive mentality of the uninitiated.

7 people found this helpful

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Amber Polo

Best Book of the Year

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2017

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I loved The Memory Code. I loved the book. I loved the audiobook. Does that sound like a fan girl?
I have recommended this book to many people. It is the best book I've read this year. I read a lot
and seldom use the term "best" for any book. It's brilliant and makes a reader rethink what we call "pre-history"
and gives tips to improve memory (a topic on the minds of many people).

10 people found this helpful

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Robert M. Bittner

A Convincing Thesis and an Inspiring History

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2018

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For anyone interested in the history — and prehistory — of memory techniques as they were/are practiced by oral cultures, this is a must-read. The depth of the author's research and analysis is impressive, as are the lives and memory achievements of the ancient peoples she describes. Note, however, that there may be far more archeological and sociological detail than a casual memory enthusiast will likely want.

6 people found this helpful

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Robert Ferrara

This book identifies a breakthrough concept, which will deepen ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2017

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This book identifies a breakthrough concept, which will deepen your appreciation of pre-literate cultures and how they encoded knowledge and passed it through the generations. This book also exposed me to learning techniques which I had forgotten from my childhood.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

In a way it is surprising that no one has ...

Reviewed in Canada on June 10, 2018

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In a way it is surprising that no one has picked up on the purposes of these ancient sites. All too often things whose purposes are not recognizable at first hand are written off as mere superstition or religious symbols. It makes one wonder how many other things from antiquity are not understood or whose purpose is not recognized. I look forward to her next book which will explain more on how to harness these techniques for modern use.

Client d'Amazon

Extrêmement intéressant

Reviewed in France on November 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

Un livre incroyable qui ouvre le champs des possibles en nous rappelant le pouvoir nos capacités innées.

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