The (First) Book That I Read about Stonehenge After Visiting Stonehenge

Here's my latest Goodreads review, with some blog-only bonus content!

Stonehenge: Making Sense of a Prehistoric Mystery by Mike Parker Pearson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked up this book after a visit to Stonehenge, wanting a deep dive that was also accessible to me with my novice, non-science background. I won’t say that absolutely none of the book was over my head, but overall it was exactly what I wanted. Pearson does go into a lot of depth, but he defines all his terms, provides a lot of background, includes numerous diagrams and other illustrations, and overall builds geographic, cultural, and historical context as he writes about the history, archaeology, and perceptions over time of Stonehenge.

I see now that Pearson has written several other books, all of which look more in-depth than this one, so I think I made a good choice for a first text on Stonehenge (other than The History of the Kings of Britain, of course, which clearly explains the origin of Stonehenge in its present location). I’m looking forward to reading Pearson’s other books and following the references that I flagged in this book. I’ve already followed up on one mention, Star Carr, and found myself signing up for a four-week MOOC about the site!

If you don't make a gingerbread model of something, do you even love it?!?

I found the writing about the construction of Stonehenge harder to wade through--so many cremations and pits and barrows and earthworks and putting the stones here and moving them there and adding some more and digging more holes, etc.!--but the conjecture about who made them, why they were made, and what else they were thinking and doing at those times was vivid and easier for me to follow. I was very interested in the brief reference Pearson made to possible execution burials from 400-800; I’ve just finished reading The Sutton Hoo Story: Encounters with Early England, in which he also discusses likely execution burials at the mounds. His theory is that the executed were deliberately buried there because it was an unconsecrated, “pagan” location, which would also make sense for Stonehenge.

Another interesting (to me) conversation between Sutton Hoo and Stonehenge is their different histories of excavation. Although Sutton Hoo had several robberies, resulting in the probable loss of most of its physical artifacts, it’s lucky that its first official excavation wasn’t until the 1800s, and most of the damage that excavation did was having all the ship rivets they uncovered melted down and turned into horseshoes. But Stonehenge, Pearson makes clear, has suffered endless excavations--the first official one was led by King James I!--and therefore who knows what potential discoveries have been lost.

I think I might most enjoy learning about historical depictions and ongoing cultural utilization of Stonehenge, so I’m very glad that Pearson included a history of these in his final chapter. His mention of the Lucas de Heere watercolor (there’s an excellent digital copy of this image on Wikipedia) led me down a rabbit hole of looking up other historical artworks that feature Stonehenge. Now I have quite a mental collection of Stonehenge and quasi-Stonehenge art!

Pearson’s single paragraph on the 1985 Battle of the Beanfield led me down another rabbit hole, and I highly recommend finding the short 1991 documentary, “Operation Solstice,” on YouTube to learn more about it. I was surprised to see how relatively raucous and populated current Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge are, compared to how careful and regimented typical English Heritage-run visits to the site are, and now I’m wondering if there’s a connection between these “New Age travellers” who made up the “Peace Convoy” and current attendees of the Solstice celebrations. Did the free festival people finally get to come back, or are these all-new hippies?

Pearson also covers the history of scientific interpretations of Stonehenge, and I think that these are also fascinating. The more probably wrong they are, the better! Good old Stukeley, theorizing that Stonehenge was a temple for Iron Age druids.

This probably could be the sole book that you read about Stonehenge, and you’d come away with enough understanding of it to make a trip there even more enjoyable, or to monopolize the conversation at your next party, but if you’re very interested in Stonehenge, I think you’re really going to like this as a jumping-off point. Thanks to Pearson’s bibliography and in-text references I’ve got several more books and articles on my reading list now!

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