Further reading

The Henge Monuments of the British Isles: Myth and archaeology by Jan Harding (Tempus 2003) paperback £17.99
A comprehensive and accessible guide to the henge monuments of Britain and Ireland. Drawing on a full range of up-to-date information, Jan Harding covers the full range of these monuments and their possible meanings from southern England to the Scottish islands.

Hengeworld by Mike Pitts (Arrow, 2001)
Mike Pitts, an archaeologist, asks what sort of people designed and built these extraordinary structures. Using computer reconstructions he shows what they looked like and asks what they are for. Combining reports of his own digs and new research with a re-examination of evidence gathered in the past, Pitts also makes some significant new discoveries and solves some intriguing mysteries from the recent history of archaeological excavation along the way. Probing beyond the material world, he suggests 'new contexts' for Stonehenge which 'envisage metaphor and symbol'. Hengeworld is supported by clear diagrams and well-documented evidence: there are over 75 pages of appended radiocarbon date tables, notes and bibliographic information.

From Sickles to Circles: Britain and Ireland at the time of Stonehenge edited by Alex Gibson and Alison Sheridan (Tempus, 2005) paperback £30
Drawing on the expertise of more than 20 leading Neolithic and Bronze-Age scholars, the rich and complex variety of Neolithic Britain and Ireland is reflected in studies that range from megaliths, Scottish passage-graves and chambered cairns in Orkney to hostilities in early Neolithic Ireland and flintwork in Northern Ireland. The Bronze-Age section includes wide-ranging reviews of Beaker burials, Bronze-Age artefacts and Bronze-Age chronologies.

Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland before the Romans by Francis Pryor (Perennial, 2004) paperback £9.99
An authoritative and radical rethinking of the whole of British history before the coming of the Romans, based on remarkable new archaeological finds. So many extraordinary archaeological discoveries (many of them involving the author) have been made in the last 30 years that our whole understanding of British prehistory needs to be updated. So far only the specialists have twigged on to these developments; now, for the first time, Francis Pryor broadcasts them to a much wider, general audience.

Neolithic Britain and Ireland by Caroline Malone (Tempus, 2001) paperback £10.75
Well-illustrated guide covering how Neolithic people lived off the land; domestic settlements; causewayed enclosures; burials and tombs; monumental landscapes (including henges and circles); artefacts, technology and craftsmen; and the 'neolithic achievement' in developing the new skills and customs that led to 'new levels of social complexity'.

Prehistoric Settlements by Robert Bewley (Tempus, 2003) paperback £17.99
This book traces the variety and development of prehistoric settlements in Britain through 8,000 years, from the hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic to the tribes of the Iron Age in the years before the Roman invasion. Examining key sites such as Star Carr, Bodmin Moor, the Dartmoor reaves, and hillforts and farmsteads, Bewley concentrates on two central themes: the close relationship between the individual settlement site and the wider landscape; and the ways in which archaeologists discover, interpret, and reinterpret prehistoric settlements.

The Significance of Monuments by Richard Bradley (Routledge, 1998)
The author traces the history of Neolithic and Bronze-Age burial mounds, henges, stone circles and barrows since their first appearance 6,000 years or more ago. He provides insights into what they might have meant to, and their role in the lives of, prehistoric people in Europe.

Understanding the Neolithic by Julian Thomas (Routledge, 1999) paperback £22.99
Julian Thomas presents a sometimes controversial investigation of the period 4000-2200 BC. Whilst examining the archaeological evidence of the period, the book challenges the assumptions and prejudices that have shaped archaeologists' accounts of the distant past and presents fresh interpretations informed by social theory, anthropology and other disciplines.

Text only