Stonehenge is one of the world's most famous monuments. Who built it how and why are questions
that have endured for at least 900 years but modern methods of investigation are now able to
offer up a completely new understanding of this iconic stone circle. Stonehenge's history
straddles the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age though its story began long
before it was built. Serving initially as a burial ground it evolved over time into a sacred
place for gathering feasting and building and was remodelled several times as different
peoples arrived in the area along with new technologies and customs. In more recent centuries
it has found itself the centre of excavations political protests and even conspiracy theories
embedding itself in the consciousness of the modern world. In this book Mike Parker Pearson
draws on two decades of research the results of recent excavations and cutting-edge scientific
analyses to uncover many of the secrets that this prehistoric stone circle has kept for 5 000
years. In doing so he paints the most comprehensive picture yet of the history of Stonehenge
from its origins up to the 21st century and reveals how in some ways trying to explain its
power of attraction in the present is harder than explaining its purpose in the ancient past.
