Author: Peter Hargreaves

Disappointing. Has that curate’s egg quality of being good in parts. There are good chapters: -Colin Renfrew puts forward the big idea sedentism explains the “sapient paradox”, that new behaviour, evidenced in the archaeological record, appeared only gradually and with a long delay after appearance of modern Homo sapiens. -the always marvellous Steven Mithen writes … Continue reading Review: Archaeological Theory Today by Ian Hodder (editor) (2001) Assessment 3 out of 10

Wonderful, goes beyond Archaeology to provide a history of attitudes to death. Whilst discoveries have continued since its publication, this book remains a wonderful text. Its goes beyond archaeology to provide a history of attitudes to death and burial. There is so much here. To what extent do changing funerary rituals reveal social structure or … Continue reading Review: The Archaeology of Death and Burial by Mike Parker Pearson (2003) Assessment 8 out of 10

Rather disappointing There is quite a lot on the evidence from particular sites, but I was hoping for a much bigger study of the landscape and how its development marked changing ritual, society and economy. The suggestion Stonehenge may have been an oracle is interesting but neither substantiated nor fully explored.

Thought provoking, if not the easiest read. Bradley suggests that pits, where grain was stored over the winter, were a metaphor for regeneration. The grain was buried and then planted in spring, coming back to life. Pits were cleaned and reused until they became the place of special deposits. These included animals and quern stones, … Continue reading Review: Ritual and Domestic Life in Prehistoric Europe by Richard Bradley (2005) Assessment 8 out of 10

An extremely readable account, revising the Stonehenge Timeline. The Stonehenge Riverside Project, which Parker-Pearson led from 2003 to 2009, stressed the unifying importance in the Landscape of the River Avon, proving the Avenue connected it to Stonehenge and a short, 150 metre long, but wide, causeway connected it to Durrington Walls. Durrington Walls is an … Continue reading Review: Stonehenge; Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery by Mike Parker Pearson (2013) Assessment 7 out of 10

This is a great Book, but not easy reading. It should be read and re-read as a source book for further study. It runs to 686 pages, plus maps, family trees, a glossary, index, notes, chronology. and lists of emperors, and German and Italian kings, The product of a lifetime’s study, it covers the thousand … Continue reading Review: The Holy Roman Empire; a Thousand Years of Europe’s History by Peter H Wilson (2017) Assessment 8 out of 10

This is a short but thought provoking Book. It melds the author’s experiences as a war-journalist with conclusions from anthropological and psychological research. Why did so many Europeans in frontier and colonial America join native tribal groups, but virtually no-one made the move in the opposite direction? Why do many war survivors, from the London … Continue reading Review: Tribe; on Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger ( 2016) Assessment 7 out of 10

Recommended; reading it made it less likely I shall return to Japan  I read this book having cycled in Japan. Entranced by its beauty and the courtesy of its people, I wished to return. The book is lyrically written by a Japanese speaking, Oxford educated, American. Throughout it is tinged with regret, for the damage … Continue reading Review: Lost Japan by Alex Kerr ( 2015) Assessment 8 out of 10

A sweeping account of how the First World War ended not cleanly, but in chaos The Central Powers expected victory after their successes in 1917, defeating Russia and with the near collapse of Italy. This lead to the perception of “being stabbed in the back” when, in November 1918, the war on the Western Front … Continue reading Review: The Vanquished; Why the First World War Failed to End 1917-1923 by Robert Gerwarth ( 2017) Assessment 7 out of 10

Oral history, which helps explain Albania’s strangeness, but not in a good way. Albania is a strange mountainous country, little known and little visited by other Europeans. Six Albanians tell how they survived the Communist dictatorship which continued for 47 years, 40 under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. All were affected, variously compromised or persecuted. … Continue reading Review: Life is War: Surviving Dictatorship in Communist Albania by Shannon Woodcock (2016) Assessment 5 out of 10