The Recumbent Stone Circles of North-East Scotland - Hardcover

Adam Welfare

9781902419558: The Recumbent Stone Circles of North-East Scotland

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1902419553 ISBN 13: 9781902419558

Publisher: Non Basic Stock Line, 2011

Stone circles are among the most spectacular surviving ancient structures you could ever hope to visit. Silhouetted on a skyline, they dominate the landscape for miles around, presenting a range of architectural devices that draw the visitor to confront a massive horizontal slab placed between two pillars on a southern arc. These recumbent slabs - altar stones in popular folklore - are doorways to another world, to the people who farmed the landscape some 4,000 years ago. While some circles have suffered grievously - plundered of their stones and ploughed up in the 18th and 19th centuries - their enigmatic legacies continue to excite the imagination, and nowhere more so than in the north-east of Scotland, which holds one of the most dense concentrations to be found anywhere in the British Isles. Illustrated by unique plans and photographs, 'Great Crowns of Stone' draws on the work of antiquarians and over ten years of the most recent archaeological research to examine the facts, myths and mysteries surrounding some of Scotland's most evocative ancient monuments.

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About the Author:

Adam Welfare is an archeological investigator for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) specialising in the study of stone circles.

Review:

`A masterpiece of careful analysis ... far better than anything that has been written on the subject before. It gives rise to ideas that may have an application far beyond the study area, and even beyond Scotland altogether.' * Richard Bradley, The Prehistoric Society * `Detailed but never dry, this is a magnificently glossy tome for the coffee table but also for the back seat of the car as you seek out Scotland's ancient stone circles for yourself.' * Scotland in Trust * `Thorough, scholarly, beautifully illustrated ... Sheds fascinating new light on Scotland's most enigmatic stone circles.' * Current Archaeology *

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