부산대학교 도서관

Taking a chronological approach from the earliest human settlement to the present day, archaeologist Pryor presents scholars' understanding of Stonehenge as a religious landscape from its inception to abandonment. Once looked at as an isolated circle of stones remarkable mainly as an engineering feat, Stonehenge is now understood as a focal point of a vast religious worldview that spread over a large portion of southern England. Construction and ritual activity at the monument site may date from about 3300 BCE to 1500 BCE, at which time the religious landscapes of Britain changed to reflect a different belief system. Stonehenge was part of a sacred landscape guiding the ritual journey from the land of the living to the realm of the ancestors. The monument was changed continuously as Britons refined their ideas of the afterlife. At the same time, the surrounding earthen mounds, burial chambers, and other significant landscape features were in flux. Britons tweaked their landscape as they refined their worldview. Stonehenge was constantly “under construction.” So many misconceptions about Stonehenge have been promoted in the past that this well-informed publication is a required purchase for libraries. Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries.