Tower and Town, September 2022 (view the full edition)Mike Pittes - How To Build Stonehenge
But knowing where the stones originate (it has long been established that the smaller bluestones were transported all the way from the Preseli hills in south-west Wales) is just one small piece in the jigsaw when it comes to working out how our ancestors created one of the nation's best known and loved ancient monuments. Indeed, the first word of the book's title is key in this enthralling 'howdunnit', as archaeologist, journalist and all-round sleuth Mike Pitts (author of Digging Up Britain and Digging for Richard III, among others) draws on his lifelong expertise: how did our Neolithic forebears get the stones, many of which weigh 20 tonnes or more, to the site? How were the stones cut, shaped and raised? How has Stonehenge been restored after centuries of vandalism? Pitts, the Poirot of prehistory, will reveal all... Ben Tarring |
A rhetorical question for all you Marlborough readers: who among you did not experience a frisson of warmth, pride and excitement when it was decisively revealed two years ago that the vast sarsens that make up most of the stone circle of Stonehenge came from West Woods, a couple of miles outside Marlborough?