Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T12:53:54.178Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stonehenge for the ancestors: the stones pass on the message

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

M. Parker Pearson  and
Ramilisonina
M. Parker Pearson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, England
Ramilisonina
Affiliation:
Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie, Université d'Antananarivo, BP 564, Madagascar
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

ANTIQUITY has had a long tradition of publishing pieces on Stonehenge, represented in our cover design. Here we present an intriguing and thought-provoking paper, which draws an analogy with Madagascar to help explain the meaning of the enigmatic monument.

Keywords

StonehengeAveburytimber circlehengeMadagascaranalogyancestor
Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 72 , Issue 276 , June 1998 , pp. 308 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahern, E. 1973. The cult of the dead in a Chinese village. Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Allen, M.J. 1995. Before Stonehenge, in Cleal, et al.: 41–62.Google Scholar
Allen, M.J. 1997. Environment and land-use; the economic development of the communities who built Stonehenge (an economy to support the stones], Proceedings of the British Academy 92: 115–44.Google Scholar
Allen, M.J. & Bayliss, A. 1995. Appendix 2: the radiocarbon dating programme, in Cleal, et al.: 511–35.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R.J.C 1979. Stonehenge. Revised edition. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R.J.C 1987. Stonehenge and neighbouring monuments. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Barclay, A., Gray, M. & Lambrick, G 1995. Excavations at the Devil’s Quoits, Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, 1972–3 and 1988. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology.Google Scholar
Barrett, J.C. 1997. Stonehenge, land, sky and the seasons, British Archaeology 29: 8–9.Google Scholar
Bender, B. 1998. Stonehenge: making space. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. 1995a. People into places: Zafimaniry concepts of clarity, in Hirsch, E. & O’Hanlon, M. (ed.), The anthropology of landscape: perspectives on place and space: 63–77. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloch, M. 1995b. Questions not to ask of Malagasy carvings, in Hodder, I. Shanks, M. Alexandri, A. Buchli, V. Carmen, J. Last, J. & Lucas, G. (ed.), Interpreting archaeology: finding meaning in the past: 212–15. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1997. Rock art and the prehistory of Atlantic Europe: signing the land. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Burl, A. 1979. Prehistoric Avebury. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, A.C. 1996. More dating evidence for human remains in British caves, Antiquity 70: 950–53.Google Scholar
Chidester, D. 1990. Patterns of transcendence: religion, death, and dying. Belmont (CA): Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Chippindale, C. 1983. Stonehenge complete. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Chippindale, C Devereux, P. Fowler, P. Jones, R. & Sebastian, P. 1990. Who owns Stonehenge? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cleal, R.M.J 1995. Pottery fabrics in Wessex in the fourth to second millennia BC, in Kinnes, & Varndell, (ed.): 185–94.Google Scholar
Cleal, R.M.J., Walker, K.E. & Montague, R. 1995. Stonehenge in its landscape: twentieth-century excavations. London: English Heritage. Archaeological report 10.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B.W. & Renfrew, A.C. (ed.). 1997. Science and Stonehenge, Proceedings of the British Academy 92.Google Scholar
Cunnincton, M.E. 1929. Woodhenge. Devizes: Simpson.Google Scholar
Cunnincton, M.E. 1931. The ‘Sanctuary’ on Overton Hill, near Avebury, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 45: 300–35.Google Scholar
Dames, M. 1976. The Silbury treasure: the great goddess rediscovered. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. 1997. Ever increasing circles: the sacred geography of Stonehenge and its landscape, Proceedings of the British Academy 92: 167–202.Google Scholar
David, A. & Payne, A. 1997. Geophysical surveying within the Stonehenge landscape: a review of past endeavour and future potential, Proceedings of the British Academy 92: 73–113.Google Scholar
Earle, T. (ed.). 1991. Chiefdoms: power, economy, and ideology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Edmonds, M. 1995. Stone tools and society: working stone in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Evans, J.G. 1984. Stonehenge — the environment in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age and a Beaker-age burial, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Magazine 78: 7–30.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1956. Nuer religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gathercole, P. & Lowenthal, D. (ed.). 1989. The politics of the past. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. 1994. Excavations at the Sarn-y-bryn-caled cursus complex, Welshpool, Powys, and the timber circles of Great Britain and Ireland, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 60: 143–223.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. 1995. First impressions: a review of Peterborough Ware in Wales, in Kinnes, & Varndell, (ed.): 23–39.Google Scholar
Haggarty, A. 1991. Machrie Moor, Arran: recent excavations at two stone circles, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 121: 51–94.Google Scholar
Hawkins, G.S. 1966. Stonehenge decoded. London: Souvenir Press.Google Scholar
Hodder, I. 1982. The present past: an introduction to anthropology for archaeologists. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Hoyle, F. 1966. Speculations on Stonehenge, Antiquity 40: 262–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, D.H. 1994. Nuer prophets: a history of prophecy from the Upper Nile in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joussaume, R. & Raharijaona, V. 1985. Sepultures mégalithiques a Madagascar, Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Francaise 82: 534–51.Google Scholar
Kinnes, I. & Varndell, G. (ed.). 1995. ‘Unbaked urns of rudely shape’: essays on British and Irish pottery for Ian Long-worth. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Kus, S. & Raharijaona, V. In press. Between earth and sky there are only a few large boulders: sovereignty and monumentality in central Madagascar, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17.Google Scholar
Layton, R. (ed.). 1989a. Conflict in the archaeology of living traditions. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Layton, R. 1989b. Who needs the past?: indigenous values and archaeology. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Lebras, J.-F 1971. Les transformations de l’architecture funéraire en Imerina. Antananarivo: Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie.Google Scholar
Lehmann, A.C. & Myers, J.C. 1993. Ghosts, souls, and ancestors: power of the dead, in Lehmann, A.C. & Myers, J.C. (ed.), Magic, witchcraft, and religion: an anthropological study of the supernatural: 283–6. Palo Alto (CA): Mayfield.Google Scholar
Mack, J. 1986. Madagascar: island of the ancestors. London: British Museum.Google Scholar
Mackie, E. 1977. The megalith builders. Oxford: Phaidon.Google Scholar
Malone, C. 1989. Avebury. London: Batsford & English Heritage.Google Scholar
Mercer, R.J. 1981. The excavation of a Late Neolithic henge-type enclosure at Balfarg, Markinch, Fife, Scotland, 1977–8, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 111: 63–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musson, C.R. 1971. A study of possible building forms at Durrington Walls, Woodhenge and the Sanctuary, in Wainwright, & Longworth, : 363–77.Google Scholar
Ndema, J. 1973. Fomba Antakay (Bezanozano). Fianarantsoa: Ambozontany.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M. 1992. Tombs and monumentality in southern Madagascar: preliminary results of the central Androy survey, Antiquity 66: 941–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker Pearson, M. 1993. Bronze Age Britain. London: Batsford & English Heritage.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M., Godden Heurtebize,, K. Ramilisonina, G. & Retsihisatse. 1996. The Central Androy Project: fourth report. Unpublished manuscript, Universities of Sheffield and Antananarivo.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. 1947–48. Excavations at Cairnpapple Hill, West Lothian, 1947–8, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 82: 68–123.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. & Simpson, D.D.A. 1971. Excavation of a stone circle at Croft Moraig, Perthshire, Scotland, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 37: 1–15.Google Scholar
Pitts, M. & Whittle, A. 1992. The development and date of Avebury, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 58: 203–12.Google Scholar
Pollard, J. 1992. The Sanctuary, Overton Hill, Wiltshire: a reexamination, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 58: 213–26.Google Scholar
Pollard, J. 1995. Inscribing space: formal deposition at the later Neolithic monument of Woodhenge, Wiltshire, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 61: 137–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, A.C. 1973. Monuments, mobilization and social organization in Neolithic Wessex, in Renfrew, A.C. (ed.), The explanation of culture change: models in prehistory: 539–58. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Richards, C. 1996. Henges and water: towards an elemental understanding of monumentality and landscape in Late Neolithic Britain, Journal of Material Culture Studies 1: 313–36.Google Scholar
Richards, C. & Thomas, J. 1984. Ritual activity and structured deposition in Later Neolithic Wessex, in Bradley, R. & Gardiner, J. (ed.), Neolithic studies: a review of some current research: 189–218. Oxford; British Archaeological Reports. British series 133.Google Scholar
Richards, J.C. 1990. The Stonehenge environs project. London: English Heritage. Archaeological report 16.Google Scholar
Richards, J.C. 1991. Stonehenge. London: Batsford & English Heritage.Google Scholar
Richards, J.C. & Whitby, M. 1997. The engineering of Stonehenge, Proceedings of the British Academy 92: 231–56.Google Scholar
Ruggles, C. 1997. Astronomy and Stonehenge, Proceedings of the British Academy 92: 203–29.Google Scholar
Sahlins, M. & Service, E.R. (ed.). 1960. Evolution and culture. Ann Arbor (MI): University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Scott, J.G. 1988–89. The stone circles at Temple Wood, Kilmartin, Argyll, Glasgow Archaeological Journal 15: 53–124.Google Scholar
Service, E.R. 1962. Primitive social organization: an evolutionary perspective. New York (NY): Random House.Google Scholar
Smith, I.F. 1965. Windmill Hill and Avebury: excavations by Alexander Keiller 1925–1939. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Smith, R.J.S., Healy, F. Allen, M. Morris, E. Barnes, I. & Woodward, P. 1997. Excavations along the route of the Dorchester by-pass 1986–1988. Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology.Google Scholar
Startin, D.W.A & Bradley, R. 1981. Some notes on work organisation and society in prehistoric Wessex, in Ruggles, C. & Whittle, A. (ed.), Astronomy and society in Britain during the period 4000–1500 BC: 289–96. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British series 88.Google Scholar
Stkadman, L.B., Palmer, C.T. & Tilley, C.F. 1996. The universality of ancestor worship, Ethnology 35: 63–76.Google Scholar
Stewart, M.E.C 1985. The excavation of a henge, stone circles and metal working area at Moncrieffe, Perthshire, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 115: 125–50.Google Scholar
Swanson, G.E. 1964. The birth of the gods: the origin of primitive beliefs. Ann Arbor (MI): University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Tilley, C. 1996. The power of rocks: topography and monument construction on Bodmin Moor, World Archaeology 28: 161–76.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 1991. Rethinking the Neolithic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ucko, P.J., Hunter, M. Clark, A.J. & David, A. 1991. Avebury reconsidered: from the 1660s to the 1990s. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G.J. 1979. Mount Pleasant, Dorset: excavations 1970–1971. London: Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G.J. 1989. The henge monuments: ceremony and society in prehistoric Britain. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G.J., Evans, J.G. & Longworth, I.H. 1971. The excavation of a Late Neolithic enclosure at Marden, Wiltshire, Antiquaries journal SI: 177–239.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G.J. & Longworth, I.H. 1971. Durrington Walls: excavations 1966–1968. London: Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Watson, J. & Rawski, E. (ed.). 1988. Death ritual in late imperial and modern China. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar
Whittle, A. 1997a. Sacred mound, holy rings: Silbury Hill and the West Kennet palisade enclosures: a Later Neolithic complex in north Wiltshire. Oxford: Oxbow Monograph 74.Google Scholar
Whittle, A. 1997b. Remembered and imagined belongings: Stonehenge in its traditions and structures of meaning, Proceedings of the British Academy 92: 145–66.Google Scholar
Woodward, A.B. & Woodward, P.J. 1996. The topography of some barrow cemeteries in Bronze Age Wessex, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 62: 275–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar