Here we go again -- that latest Stonehenge tome from MPP. The full text has not been released, but there are a few quotations and teasers on the web site publicity. The interesting thing about this book is that it must have been written and edited within the last year -- so there was ample time to incorporate the new information published in 2022 which showed that there was no discernible or unusual ancient "ceremonial complex" in the eastern part of Mynydd Preseli, no preferential use of "bluestone pillars" rather than rough boulders and slabs, and no "quarries associated with a major Neolithic monument complex". Even if there were Neolithic quarries at Craig Rhos-y-felin and Carn Goedog, not a single scrap of evidence has been produced to show that the stones taken from them were associated with any megalithic structures in the local area. And of course there is not a scrap of evidence to show that the bluestones were "brought to" Stonehenge rather than being collected up in the neighbourhood.
In other words, the prevailing philosophy still seems to be: to hell with the truth or with the evidence currently available -- we'll just keep on selling the story and perpetrating the myth we have so carefully manufactured and publicised over the course of the last decade......
Why do fellow archaeologists and publishers allow senior colleagues to get away with this sort of thing?
Stonehenge
A Brief History
Mike Parker PearsonBloomsbury Academic 2023, 208 pp
Paperback £17.99
Published online 8 Feb 2023
Book DOI
10.5040/9781350192263
https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/stonehenge-a-brief-history/
Extract from the book summary:
Some of its stones – the Welsh ‘bluestones’ – came from an already ancient ceremonial complex many miles away
Extract from Ch 3: The First Stonehenge
Whilst some of the stones were probably sarsens, the majority are thought to have been bluestone pillars. These were brought from the Preseli hills in west Wales, from quarries associated with a major Neolithic monument complex.
Book DOI
10.5040/9781350192263
https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/stonehenge-a-brief-history/
Extract from the book summary:
Some of its stones – the Welsh ‘bluestones’ – came from an already ancient ceremonial complex many miles away
Extract from Ch 3: The First Stonehenge
Whilst some of the stones were probably sarsens, the majority are thought to have been bluestone pillars. These were brought from the Preseli hills in west Wales, from quarries associated with a major Neolithic monument complex.
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" Tell me lies
Tell me sweet little lies.... "
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