Despite its being one of prehistory's most alluring landmarks, before the Stonehenge Riverside Project led by noted archeologist Mike Parker Pearson, only half of Stonehenge itself -- and far less of its surroundings -- had ever been investigated, and many records from previous digs are inaccurate or incomplete. With fresh evidence based on seven years of unprecedented access to the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, this excavation replaces centuries of speculation about even the most fundamental mysteries of Stonehenge with hard proof. Stonehenge changes the way we think about the site, correcting previously erroneous dating, filling gaps in our knowledge about its builders and how they lived, clarifying the monument's significance both celestially and as a burial ground, and contextualizing Stonehenge -- which sits at the center of one of the densest prehistoric settlements in history -- within the broader landscape of the Neolithic Age.

マイク・パーカー・ピアソンによる本作は、単なる発掘記録を超え、数千年の沈黙を守る巨石群に生命を吹き込む壮大な叙事詩です。空想の対象だったストーンヘンジを、生者と死者の世界を繋ぐ「祈りの回路」として再構築した視座は、学術書でありながら一級の文学的な興奮を呼び起こします。 特筆すべきは、遺跡を単体ではなく広大な「風景」の一部として捉え、当時の人々の息遣いを鮮やかに描き出した点です。緻密な科学的実証が、時として神話よりも劇的であることを証明する著者の筆致は、歴史の深淵に挑む者の情熱に満ちており、読者を未知なる太古の旅へと力強く誘います。