Those familiar with Neolithic monumentality may well question whether yet another book on Stonehenge is required. How to build Stonehenge, however, offers a refreshing perspective on “the famous rocks” (p. 7), focusing less on their archaeological intricacies and more on the logistics and mechanics of quarrying, dressing, transporting and raising the varied megaliths that comprise Stonehenge. This more tightly focused lens offers a lighter read (at 218 pages) than previous popular books on Stonehenge, and dovetails in a timely manner with the results of recent geological and archaeological investigations into the sources of the monument's bluestones and sarsens, and high-resolution laser scanning of its surviving stones. How to Build Stonehenge effectively draws together this work, along with key historic and ethnographic case studies, to offer one of the most convincing and visually stunning proposals for the construction of Stonehenge to date.
As much as the book focuses on the practicalities of construction, Chapter 1 still allows for an appreciation of Stonehenge in its landscape, with reference to how the changing historic routeways across Salisbury Plain have shaped visitors’ experiences of the monument through time. In somewhat breathless prose—no doubt a nod to antiquarian writings on the subject—the latter part of the chapter gently introduces the reader to the various named megaliths found at Stonehenge (e.g. the Heelstone and the Altar Stone) and its related earthworks. A necessarily simplified characterisation of the site is provided, with technical information interspersed by fascinating vignettes into the research history of Stonehenge and the folklore surrounding the site.
Chapters 2 and 3 do an excellent job of summarising the complicated and long-running debates around the provenance of the bluestones and sarsen stones at Stonehenge, respectively. Chapter 2 details the diversity of bluestone types and their attribution to both surviving and missing stones at Stonehenge, as well as providing an up-to-date list of the various bluestone sources identified throughout Wales. Arguments for the glacial transport of bluestones are considered, forensically dissected, and roundly dismissed, paving the way for a discussion later in the book of their quarrying and transportation by humans. Chapter 3 focuses on recent research pinpointing the probable source of the sarsen stones as West Woods, Wiltshire. Here, more caution is recommended, and a prediction offered that additional sources will be discovered as analytical precision increases.
With the facts established, Chapters 4–6 deal with the inevitably more speculative issues of Neolithic construction logistics and mechanics. Transport is addressed first, and Chapter 4 begins with a brief history of sea-based bluestone transport route proposals and how these were influenced by bluestone sources now shown to be erroneous (i.e. Milford Haven). An overland route through various river valleys is argued to be most plausible based on the existence of recently identified inland bluestone sources. In terms of transport techniques, frozen ground, oxen traction and rollers are rejected, but various over-engineered solutions are given perhaps more credence than they deserve (e.g. carved-stone ball bearings). Ultimately, however, the ethnographically documented movement of megaliths on the Indonesian island of Sumba—whereby stones are strapped to a sledge and hauled over timber sleepers by crowds of people—form the template to Pitts’s proposals. Although surviving examples of the requisite materials in Neolithic Wessex are acknowledged as lacking, rope, trackways and carpentry are shown to have existed elsewhere throughout prehistory. The ability to simply carry stones weighing up to around three tonnes is also illustrated with additional ethnographies from north-eastern India, and is demonstrated as applicable to at least some of the bluestones at Stonehenge whose average weight has recently been established at around two tonnes.
Chapter 5 situates the transport and raising of the bluestones within a phased chronological framework established for the construction of Stonehenge. Here, the book adopts more of a journalistic tone as the putative route is revealed via a series of reported meetings with archaeologists excavating bluestone quarries within the Preseli Hills. Evocative photographs of historic stone-moving ceremonies, combined with thick description, successfully convey some of the magic associated with collective construction. Chapter 6 deals with the sarsens in a similar manner, sketching out potential routes off the Marlborough Downs and up onto Salisbury Plain. With stones weighing over 30 tonnes, analogous parallels (ethnographic or otherwise) are limited, but here, a sledge and trackway is again proposed. Equally fascinating is the consideration of how the architecture of Stonehenge itself limits the order of construction and how this relates to the ramped stone sockets so far excavated.
Excellent use is also made of the few reports published detailing the English Heritage laser scan survey of the stones (although the survey data remain inaccessible). Numerous observations are brought to life through wonderfully detailed imagery and are considered in relation to construction, including the famously ‘mistakenly’ carved mortises on the upper surface of lintel 156, the varying quality pick-dressed finishes applied to various uprights, and the ‘tea-tray’ dishing visible on the upper surface of stone 22. The final chapter focuses on the afterlife of Stonehenge, or at least its use and abuse after its primary phases of construction had ceased. Details of the destructive ‘remedial’ works undertaken in the 1950–1960s by the Ministry of Works remain shocking, as do the earlier, better-known examples of damage by tourists that occurred before Stonehenge was finally fenced off in 1901 (although at least some of these claims are suggested to be exaggerated). The intriguing possibility that Stonehenge was partially destroyed during the Beaker period is also explored.
Overall the scope of the book is perhaps reflective of a broader revival of British archaeological interest in the mechanics of monument building, following a sustained focus on its social implications from the 1970s onwards. Research trends are often cyclical and, as noted in the text, this volume is the first in around 60 years to unashamedly foreground the literal construction of Stonehenge, following Richard Atkinson's contributions in the late 1950s. There are some less welcome relics from the 1950s, however, such as the repeated exclusion of women from narratives of construction: “the entire circle could have been built in a second season, 1,000 men offering 15 teams of 60 or 70” (p. 190). There is little archaeological evidence supporting this position, and its repetition will hardly redress the long-standing gender imbalance associated with this field of study that the author himself acknowledges (p. 86). Chains of inference are also sometimes (perhaps inevitably) stretched: a rejection of the ‘principle of least effort’ is used to dismiss the hyper-efficient megalith transportation techniques dreamed-up by modern engineers, but later appears to be accepted, repackaged as simplicity and used to determine the most likely route for the transportation of the bluestones.
The above issues aside, the book is a highly readable synthesis of recent research and a welcome contribution to the field of megalithic construction studies. Archaeologists’ reticence to propose theories on megalithic construction techniques are by now well known. In a personal communication with the author, Ros Cleal notes that, some 20 years ago, “archaeologists never address the one question visitors to Stonehenge always ask: how was it built?” (p. 233). In this sense, How to build Stonehenge is both long overdue, from a public engagement perspective, and maybe even desperately needed in a world increasingly filled with problematic pseudo-archaeological conspiracy theories—often acting as gateways to yet darker conspiracy theories—which thrive in the absence of evidence-based proposals from archaeologists. Let us hope this book will cut through the noise and inspire a generation of future researchers.
