Re: A Distant Prospect of Wessex | Forum

Books of possible interest

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moss Dec 9, 2011 10:58:34

Replying to Robot Emperor

Well this book is sort of literary plus archaeology...

A Distant Prospect of Wessex: Archaeology and the Past in the Life and Works of Thomas Hardy; By Martin JP Davies
A very long revue in Britarch on this thesis turned book (fascinating and readable) it traces the archaeological threads in Hardy's stories. Apparently he was friends with General Pitt Rivers (Britains first inspector of Ancient Monuments). Not sure if Hardy's house Max Gate was built on top of a neolithic monument, but there was a megalithic stone unearthed, which gave rise to the poem "The Shadow of the Stone".
Mandatory pic of Stonehenge on the front...

http://www.plodit.com/buy-a-distant-prospect-of-wessex-archaeology-and-t--9781905739417.html

Robot Emperor Dec 9, 2011 12:50:43

Replying to moss

moss wrote:

Well this book is sort of literary plus archaeology...

http://www.plodit.com/buy-a-distant-prospect-of-wessex-archaeology-and-t--9781905739417.html

Cheers for that man. I'm going to check this out, was thinking what to ask for at Christmas.

Forgot about this thread or I would have posted a postscript that all three of the books I mentioned (On Deep History and the Brain, Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion, and especially After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC) were fantastic, all have made a lasting impression. I can feel my brain subtly rewiring itself, long held opinions gently unravelling.

Steven Mithen’s After the Ice: A Global Human History especially is a close “must have” for anyone interested in the archaeology of this period. A fair few here I would think…

tiompan Dec 9, 2011 13:34:32

Replying to moss

moss wrote:

Not sure if Hardy's house Max Gate was built on top of a neolithic monument, but there was a megalithic stone unearthed, which gave rise to the poem "The Shadow of the Stone".
Mandatory pic of Stonehenge on the front...

http://www.plodit.com/buy-a-distant-prospect-of-wessex-archaeology-and-t--9781905739417.html

Max Gate and garden is built on what is left of the Flagstones enclosure , a twin of the early phase 1 Stonehenge . The rest of it was removed for the Dorchester bypass . The monument had a burial at it's centre sealed by a large sarsen and when Max Gate was being built a sarsen was found covering charred bones ,both stones were used as garden features .