The Age of Stonehenge

by Colin B. Burgess

Colin Burgess brings to life the history of Britain and Ireland between 3000 and 1000 BC.

Genres: History, Archaeology, European History, Nonfiction

402 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Ian Racey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its main problem is that it's a forty year old science book, so you're always wondering how much of it is out of date. For instance, it was written in the midst of a great reevaluation of radiocarbon dating, and many of the RC dates it presents hadn't yet been realigned to better match with absolute dating. (All Burgess's dates are clearly marked whether they're absolute or radiocarbon dates.) Burgess also abandons the Three Age terminology--Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age--in favour of a series of discrete periods, each named after the location of their representative archaeological site. This is bewildering for the reader, as it means the familiar chronology is replaced with an array of names--the Overton period, Mount Pleasant period, Bedd Branwen period, Knighton Heath period and others--that really have no significance to him, and prevent him from having any real understanding of the relationships between them.

But I learnt a lot here. I was fascinated to learn that the picture I'd always been given of British/Irish (and, in fact, Continental European generally) prehistory--a picture of thin population densities and fairly regular population displacements and migrations--has been essentially abandoned by archaeaologists in favour of a prehistory that's more social organised and in which cultural changes arose more often from indigenous evolution than from the arrival of new populations.

The book does suffer from its first three chapters--145 pages out of the book's total 350--all being introductory in nature. Once we moved onto the chapters on specific topics (populations and social organisation, agriculture and economy, burial and ritual, etc.), it became much more of a pleasure to read.

[Marie Carmean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very educational book filled with lots of interesting data. However, it doesn't make good bedtime reading as it is very scholarly in approach to the subject and more attune to those looking at a Masters in archaeology. I would recommend it to those looking for a higher education in the subject of prehistoric Britain cultures. I did glean some nuggets of info, never-the-less. It is dry and written for those who already understand certain terms commonly used by professionals. My fascination with prehistoric Britain drew me to the book.

[Jordan Swaim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has its moments. Wanted to give it a higher rating, but so much of it read very academic and went on and on about the size or rivet of this beaker or that stone axe. It would probably appeal to archeology buffs more so than a popular audience.

Every few pages, though, there was some incredibly fascinating information about prehistoric albion, which kept it from being a complete snooze fest.

[Arlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Research for novel

[Lee Broderick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed review of the British Neolithic.

[Hanneke Van Keulen · Rating 3 out of 5]

good but if you're only interested in Stonehenge don't bother. Does an excellent job of using archaeological evidence to suggest what life was like at the time. I would have liked it more if he had a painted a more clear picture of how it all tied together.