Stonehenge: A New Interpretation Of Prehistoric Man And The Cosmos, John North, c. 1996; IN PROGRESS

I first found this book while browsing the shelves at the South Lake, TX, public library. It's a very difficult book, very, very detailed.

I have ordered a remaindered copy through a reseller through Amazon. It will arrive in a few days.

[Update: it arrived very, very quickly. Brand new book: $3.15. Shipping: $3.99.]

An encyclopedic book.

Eleven-page glossary.

Preface.

more than 4,000 years ago; 5th millennium BC; no written history; Neolithic
Wessex; at least a 1,000 years before the site was built, humans were involved in religious practices
research begins with the "long barrows"
the barrows: related to the very brightest stars were observed rising and setting over the barrows
3D: long barrows ad timber circles
cosmos:
order, harmony, and proportion
Pythagoras first to use cosmos in this sense -- and Stonehenge had stood for 2,000 by this time
cosmos: a geometrically ordered monument aligned on the universe of stars, Sun and Moon,and an embodiment of the spiritual forces they represented to most of mankind.
can dimly perceive the beginnings of mathematical astronomy, the oldest of the exact sciences, not to metion the roots of geometry of proportion -- which was destied to have an aimporatant plae in ancient Greek philosophy and science

 

Chronology.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Leptolithic period

Chapter 2: The Long Barrows -- a very, very long chapter

Chapter 3: Cursus and Enclosure

Chapter 4: Stars in Chalk

Chapter 5: Sun and Moon -- a very, very short chapter

Chapter 6: Avenue and Row

Chapter 7: Treehenge and Aubrey Circle -- a long chapter

Chapter 8: The Great Treehenges

Chapter 9: Stonehenge Astronomy -- A Historical Prologue

Chapter 10: Stonehenge -- An Inventory

Chapter 11: The First Three Stonehenges -- another very long chapter

Chapter 12: Lozenge and Calendar

Chapter 13: Ritual and Belief

Appendix 1: Radiocarbon Dating

Appendix 2: The Astronomical Framework

Appendix 3: Tables of Directions

Appendix 4: Heliacal Rising and Setting

Appendix 5: The Rising and Setting of Venus

Appendix 6: Alignment in Later Religions

Bibliography: 12 pages

Index: 13 pages