Great stone circles
Subtitle: fables, fictions, facts
By: Aubrey Burl.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 199
Subjects: Stone circles -- England; Megalithic monuments -- England; Stonehenge (England); England -- Antiquities
Description: Archaeologist Aubrey Burl, for more than thirty years a specialist in the study of stone circles, selects a dozen attractive and evocative rings for close examination. Each of the twelve sites illuminates a particular archaeological question - the purpose of stone circles, their construction, age, distribution, design, art, legend and relation to astronomy.

Burl asks, and offers sometimes surprising answers to questions about Stonehenge: how were its bluestones transported from south-west Wales, why was its Slaughter Stone not used for sacrifice, and why is Stonehenge - the most British of stone circles - not a stone circle and not British?

To conclude his account of the strange subtleties of stone circles, Burl reconstructs the social history of Swinside in the Lake District, describing the builders, their way of life, and the ceremonies they performed inside their lovely ring.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [194]-196) and index.