A Little History of Astro-Archaeology: Stages in the Transformation of a Heresy

by John Michell

Stonehenge today is a battlefield, not only for police and festivalgoers at midsummer but also for rival camps of archaeologists, astronomers, and other researchers into the mysteries of prehistoric religion and science. Controversy flared up in 1963, when Gerald Hawkins made early use of the computer to identify Stonehenge as an observatory for the sun and moon and an instrument for predicting eclipses. Further studies of megalithic sites by Alexander Thom proved that many of them were also related to the seasonal positions of the heavenly bodies. The study of astro-archaeology has now expanded worldwide, bringing new revelations about the mystical sciences of antiquity. This "little history" summarizes the issues involved in astro-archaeology, and illustrates its principal sites and personalities. Included are recent findings of British scientists, whose records of anomalous levels of natural energies at stone circles are in accordance with the magical reputations of such places in local folklore. The present state of research and the exciting prospects for astro-archaeology in the future are summed up in the final chapter. 97 b/w illustrations. Previously published under the title Secrets of the Stones.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Archaeology

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

John Frederick Carden Michell was an English writer whose key sources of inspiration were Plato and Charles Fort. His 1969 volume The View Over Atlantis has been described as probably the most influential book in the history of the hippy/underground movement and one that had far-reaching effects on the study of strange phenomena: it "put ley lines on the map, re-enchanted the British landscape and made Glastonbury the capital of the New Age."

In some 40-odd titles over five decades he examined, often in pioneering style, such topics as sacred geometry, earth mysteries, geomancy, gematria, archaeoastronomy, metrology, euphonics, simulacra and sacred sites, as well as Fortean phenomena. An abiding preoccupation was the Shakespeare authorship question. His Who Wrote Shakespeare? (1996) was reckoned by The Washington Post "the best overview yet of the authorship question."

Reviews

[Chris Marchan · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Michell never disappoints. This book is no exception. Michell covers the progression of the new science from the beginning and is open-minded enough to speculate upon tangential considerations which fall outside the realm of clinical verification. Michell is the godfather of "Earth Mysteries", especially in the light of sacred geometry. He is never didactic, though quite thorough. Many photos, diagrams and illustrations help to familiarize the reader with a well informed overview of the unfoldment of our recent revelations in regards to the astronomical connections to the megalithic sites of Britain and beyond.

[Graham Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts as a sympathetic but basically fair survey of the history of astro-archaeology. Ends up a bit more acid-fuelled and fantastic. Interesting to read if only for the discovery of the rational kernel behind ley lines and similar New Age absorptions.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, and odd, little book that can be read in an afternoon. It is as it says a, "A Little History of Astro-Archaeology: Stages in the Transformation of a Heresy." The book is of interest on several levels. On the first level it is a history of a newish multi-disciplinary field of study. Archeology in general roughly came out of the early British antiquarian movement. This book details the history from this period to the current developments at the time of it's writing in the 1970's. The early antiquarians had pointed out the possible astronomical significance of the sites and the work has continued slowly since that time. The second level of interest is that of the politics of the field of archeology. From the time archeologist legitimized themselves from their antiquarian forebears they considered themselves better. Part of this was throwing away a great part of the work of the antiquarians that did not seem to correlate with the prevailing dogma based on Darwinian progress. This book also walks through the field of archeology embracing the heresy of Astro-Archaeology. This was primarily done by astronomers taking a lay interest in archeology and doing good academic work. Of course the work was hard and the archeologist fought it tooth and nail, and sometimes still do. The third level of interest is it's inclusion of two somewhat mystical ideas that came from Astro-Archaeology, and some how bizarrely proved to be not all together wrong. The first was the work of antiquarian Alfred Watkins, with his idea of ley lines. The second was the work of his German counterpart Wilhelm Teudt, who developed similar ideas. Teudt's work was before the second world war, and was adopted by the Nazi. Of course all of this was discarded after the war for being inline with Nazi propaganda, but nerveless was an early German strain Astro-Archaeology. Both men combined solid academic work with their mystical theories that had much in common with Feng-Shui. Remarkably some of their work has been vindicated by latter research. This book has much of interest that is not covered elsewhere. If you are interested in the subject matter, it is quite fascinating!

[Dan Zarfati · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a simple, well written book by John Michel, he develops here all the concepts that he is known for, and gives us very good pictures of interesting astronomical alignments and ley lines. He provides a chronology for the astro-archaeology research, and itt is a delicious read, full of great information, I recommend.