Cope is also a recognised authority on Neolithic culture, an outspoken political and cultural activist, and a fierce critic of contemporary Western society (with a noted and public interest in occultism, paganism and Goddess worship). Most people are familiar with Stonehenge, but unaware that this is only the tip of the ice...er, stone-berg, as it were. Cope varies between narrative (of his visits) and semi-scholarly studies, and he manages to make it all quite interesting.

The Modern Antiquarian: A Pre-Millennial Odyssey Through The Modern Antiquarian: A Pre-Millennial Odyssey Through

This book shines a powerful light onto the past of a nation hoodwinked into believing that its history began with the Roman conquest. Cope’s deft prose examines our prehistoric beginnings through the evidence of megalithic remains and their surroundings, allowing us for the first time to reconcile the tapestry of our past with modern life. In fact, Cope tells the reader, Stonehenge is unrepresentative, a late add-on -- "a fashioned Bronze Age power statement" erected "centuries after the height of megalithic building." within that transformed the assumed banality of the English landscape into something magical and eternally compelling. My all-time favourite prehistoric artefact’: the silver Gundestrup cauldron, uncovered in 1891 in Denmark. Photograph: British MuseumCurators Farley and Weetch are refreshingly defiant in defining the Celt as inclusively as possible – at pains throughout to provide maps and more maps of the Celtic worldview as its truth has migrated down the centuries. We moderns may too-often suffer from a mixing up of historical sequences, but better that, surely, than risk raising a population that is entirely not-arsed about its past. The proliferation of armchair archaeologists across the UK attests to the continued fascination that the ways of our ancestors invoke in so many of us. By keeping steadfastly to their inclusive vision of all things Celt, Farley and Weetch are helping to instil in future generations the kind of open-mindedness that has enabled our democracy to thrive.

Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope, First Edition - AbeBooks Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope, First Edition - AbeBooks

Eery and unlikely arrangements, precariously balanced and perched stones, odd alignments, sadly broken and toppled remnants, huge barrows -- and all of it ancient and storied.One piece -- "The Book of Ur" -- includes a detailed etymosophy (your guess is as good as ours) of words such as "Ur" and "Koeur".