Solving Stonehenge: The Key to an Ancient Enigma
by Anthony Johnson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Anthony JohnsonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-15
ISBN: 0500051550
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Book Reviews of Solving Stonehenge: The Key to an Ancient Enigma
Book Review: Compelling, innovative and satisfying
Summary: 5 Stars
Tony Johnson's book is a compelling read, not only for the millions of people who are intrigued with the enigma that is Stonehenge, but also for those who like a police procedural which pulls one into the author's thoughts and raises and answers questions as you go. Mr. Johnson starts and ends with the stones. He carefully reviews the historical literature about the site and then constructs his own computer generated plans from which he manages to explain how such a complex structure was made using only a peg and piece of rope. In so doing he removes the need to postulate some Neolithic measuring unit, and aside from the axis being aligned with the winter solstice, he does not need to invoke any complex and contrived astronomical patterns to explain the stones' positions. He places the monument in the context of the Neolithic Wiltshire landscape and makes a major and innovative breakthrough in explaining how Stonehenge was constructed by studying gold jewelry found in a nearby grave. The writing is clear, balanced and self analytical. At no time dose one feel he has an axe to grind - he simply looks at where the stones are or were and with Holmesian logic deduces how they were positioned. In the final chapter he does allow himself some speculation as to the possible purpose of the monument and I found it very satisfying - as I am sure you will when you read it.
Summary of Solving Stonehenge: The Key to an Ancient Enigma
A completely new and convincing solution to the key puzzles of Stonehenge.As Anthony Johnson reveals in this astonishing book, patient detective work and detailed computer analysis of clues hidden within this famous monument can be made to yield remarkable new insights into how the earthwork and stone circle were conceived and laid out.
The story begins with a reappraisal of over 250 years of fieldwork, excavation, and speculation, including John Wood's highly accurate but often overlooked survey of 1740. It is the most important record of Stonehenge ever made, and the only reliable plan of the monumentbefore the fall of several major stones and their subsequent re-erection in the twentieth century.
The prehistoric engineering skills involved in the construction of Stonehenge have long been recognized, but Johnson presents for the first time tangible evidence to show that locked within the symmetry of the stones are precise formulae that determined their numbers, spacing, and relationships. He explains how the Neolithic surveyors set out the fifty-six Aubrey Holes, four Station Stones, and the thirty stones in the Sarsen Circle; and the significance of the horseshoe arrangement of massive trilithons at the heart of the monument. The implications are far reaching, demonstrating that the people who designed Stonehenge in all its phases of construction, spanning over 1,000 years, employed simple and elegant geometric rules.
Elaborate sightline theories, alignments, and astronomical computations are questioned, allowing the rationale behind Stonehenge and other prehistoric sites, some of which conformed to the same model, to be reassessed. 135 illustrations, 35 in color.
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