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The Megalithic European: The 21st Century Traveller in Prehistoric Europe
Julian Cope's long-awaited follow up to The Modern Antiquarian, his bestselling and critically acclaimed guide to ancient Britain. The Megalithic European takes us on a breathtaking journey around prehistoric Europe's first temples. Contents / The Megalithic European is a monumental colour guide to the standing stones and ancient temples of prehistoric Europe. / In a 6-year personal odyssey (leaving no stone unturned) Julian Cope covers 300 of the important sites of Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. / The book looks further, revealing several thousand years of information which scholars have previously ignored, to the Classical temples of the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. / Section 1: a series of essays, looking at the universal desire of all to celebrate and mythologize the landscape in which they have chosen to live, highlighting comparisons with British settlements. / Section 2: a gazeteer of the many ancient sites in Europe that Julian Cope has personally visited, from Ireland to the Netherlands, from Crete to Denmark, discussing many areas outside the European arena, from Mount Ararat in Armenia to Mount Fuji in Japan, via the celebrated Mount Olympus of the Greek Myths to the legendary Tree of Yggdrasil of the Norse Myths.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2004
About the author
Julian Cope
30 books91 followersJulian Cope (born Julian David Cope, on 21 October 1957) is a British rock musician, author, antiquary, musicologist, poet and cultural commentator. Originally coming to prominence in 1978 as the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes, he has followed a solo career since 1983 and initiated musical side projects such as Queen Elizabeth, Brain Donor and Black Sheep. Additional to his own work as a musician, Cope remains an avid champion of obscure and underground music.
Cope is also a recognised authority on Neolithic culture, an outspoken political and cultural activist, and a fierce critic of contemporary Western society (with a noted and public interest in occultism, paganism and Goddess worship).
As an author and commentator, he has written two successive volumes of autobiography called Head-On (1994) and Repossessed (1999); two volumes of archaeology called The Modern Antiquarian (1998) and The Megalithic European (2004); and three volumes of musicology called Krautrocksampler (1995), Japrocksampler (2007) and Detroitrocksampler.
Cope is also a recognised authority on Neolithic culture, an outspoken political and cultural activist, and a fierce critic of contemporary Western society (with a noted and public interest in occultism, paganism and Goddess worship).
As an author and commentator, he has written two successive volumes of autobiography called Head-On (1994) and Repossessed (1999); two volumes of archaeology called The Modern Antiquarian (1998) and The Megalithic European (2004); and three volumes of musicology called Krautrocksampler (1995), Japrocksampler (2007) and Detroitrocksampler.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 25, 2014
Most of the time I was reading Julian Cope's truly weighty tome on truly weighty rock structures, I kept thinking the same thing: this is the most interesting boring book I've ever read.
It was on a friend's recommendation that I even knew this book existed, so I had almost no expectations upon reading it -- save perhaps that it might be a hippy-dippy ramble about the 'power' of ancient stone sacred sites. It is not that, but neither is it an entirely scholarly treatise on megalithic culture around Europe. It tries to be the latter, and occasionally shows signs of the former, but ends up a genial wander around the (mostly Bronze Age) large stone crypts, sacred sites and even a couple settlements in the westernmost reaches of continental Europe, including a few islands and excluding Britain (territory covered in the previous volume, The Modern Antiquarian). The tone he uses is a pleasing mix of touristic knowledge, light-hearted friendliness and every once in a while typical snobbery of someone's obscure obsession.
Though there is a lot of ground covered, what makes this an interesting book is the information it approaches before stopping. I'm curious about how these structures occured and what we know about them, but most times Cope stops just short of enough data to satisfy (perhaps preferring to bait readers into their own exploration). His approach is a bit scattershot, choosing only certain megalithic sites for coverage, using bland measurement data for some spots or offering intriguing but vague anecdotes (personal or historical) for others, and not even captioning all his photos, while giving more detail than necessary on some. What we end up with is a lengthy, mildly entertaining review of a topic that is clearly a passion for Cope, and one that is interesting in a broad way, but not one that's likely to spur any further megalithic interest for the uninitiated and probably not enough to make this a worthwhile addition to libraries of the more informed.
There are loads of photographs and some illustrations, both mostly by Cope himself, some opening essays that confuse more than involve, and the remainder of the book is devoted to a 'gazetteer' detailing his journeys and their sites country-by-country in alphabetic order.
This was a long haul of a book and I'm glad it's over (frankly a little amazed I made it through the whole thing), but I don't regret reading it. I will not, however, be reading his previous megalith book.
It was on a friend's recommendation that I even knew this book existed, so I had almost no expectations upon reading it -- save perhaps that it might be a hippy-dippy ramble about the 'power' of ancient stone sacred sites. It is not that, but neither is it an entirely scholarly treatise on megalithic culture around Europe. It tries to be the latter, and occasionally shows signs of the former, but ends up a genial wander around the (mostly Bronze Age) large stone crypts, sacred sites and even a couple settlements in the westernmost reaches of continental Europe, including a few islands and excluding Britain (territory covered in the previous volume, The Modern Antiquarian). The tone he uses is a pleasing mix of touristic knowledge, light-hearted friendliness and every once in a while typical snobbery of someone's obscure obsession.
Though there is a lot of ground covered, what makes this an interesting book is the information it approaches before stopping. I'm curious about how these structures occured and what we know about them, but most times Cope stops just short of enough data to satisfy (perhaps preferring to bait readers into their own exploration). His approach is a bit scattershot, choosing only certain megalithic sites for coverage, using bland measurement data for some spots or offering intriguing but vague anecdotes (personal or historical) for others, and not even captioning all his photos, while giving more detail than necessary on some. What we end up with is a lengthy, mildly entertaining review of a topic that is clearly a passion for Cope, and one that is interesting in a broad way, but not one that's likely to spur any further megalithic interest for the uninitiated and probably not enough to make this a worthwhile addition to libraries of the more informed.
There are loads of photographs and some illustrations, both mostly by Cope himself, some opening essays that confuse more than involve, and the remainder of the book is devoted to a 'gazetteer' detailing his journeys and their sites country-by-country in alphabetic order.
This was a long haul of a book and I'm glad it's over (frankly a little amazed I made it through the whole thing), but I don't regret reading it. I will not, however, be reading his previous megalith book.
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April 8, 2009http://nhw.livejournal.com/1001552.html[return][return]This subject has long been a fascination of mine. Cope has some thoughts about sacred landscapes and what you can tell about the monuments just by looking at them and feeling what the builders must have intended. There is a nice gazetteer section covering the Belgian and Irish monuments - I really hadn't appreciated that there was so much in the Sligo area! - plus various other parts of Europe, some of which I knew about (Brittany, the Mediterranean, especially the Maltese cart ruts and temples which I saw aged 8) and some of which I didn't (the monuments dotted all over Denmark and southern Sweden). Illustrated with gorgeous pictures as well, some including Cope himself or else his wife Dorian.[return][return]The maps are not always terribly clear, and I wonder how much this would actually help me find some of the sites - I shall hope to put it to the test at W
April 19, 2012
Essential continuation of the Julian Cope story. The 'better' editing is a shame because it's toned down his enthusiasm. But still he works in the John Aubrey tradition, valuing field work over received wisdom.
July 2, 2013
As with the Megalithic Britain, this is fully detailed guide to Europe's Megalithic stones and structures: maps and photographs and lots of fabulous descriptions..
Another book you need a copy of in your car!
Another book you need a copy of in your car!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews