On Stonehenge by Fred Hoyle [FIRST EDITION TRADE PAPERBACK] 1977 • W.H. Freeman

On Stonehenge by Fred Hoyle 

FIRST EDITION TRADE PAPERBACK [1977] W.H. FREEMAN & CO. 

Double wide trade paperback in excellent condition. *Includes a fold-out poster featuring The Official Ground Plan of Stone Henge, still mint and attached.  

Cover has some visible rub wear.  Reads like new.  *short gift inscription from '77 on front endpaper.

G.S.Hawkins and C. A. Newham have each argued that Stonehenge, the arrangement of massive, hand-hewn stones on England's Salisbury Plain, was, in fact, an astronomical calculator of surprisingly high accuracy.  In this book Fred Hoyle places the argument on a firm scientific footing. "The purpose of Stonehenge," writes Hoyle, "was to predict the occurrence of eclipses."

By the time Stonehenge was erected, stoneage people had observed the sky for more than 10,000 years. No doubt they recognized the constellations and the paths of the sun and moon. "If,' argues Hoyle, "the religion of the stoneage people was concerned with the worship of the Sun and Moon as divinities, eclipses would be events of great importance. Successful predictions ahead of time would confer power and prestige on those who understood how the predictions might be made." Perhaps this is why paleolithic Britons dragged thirty-five ton stones more than two hundred miles to erect this mysterious monument.

In On Stonehenge Hoyle presents the evidence for Stonehenge as an astronomical calculator, and he shows how paleolithic astronomers may have made their calculations. Along the way, he offers readers a generous helping of provocative speculation on such topics as the origins of the concept of an invisible, all-powerful god and the "unlucky" number thirteen.  On Stonehenge is fascinating reading for the scientist, the student, and the lay reader.