English Heritage forced to pulp its aptly titled Ghastly Book Of Stonehenge over crass errors

Stonehenge: The guide, meant for children, is riddled with mistakes

The Government body responsible for maintaining the nation's historic monuments has been forced to withdraw a children's guide to Stonehenge because it was littered with factual errors.
The book, called The Ghastly Book Of Stonehenge, has become a laughing stock among archaeologists because of its many blunders.
English Heritage, which receives £129million a year in Government funding, has recalled 4,500 copies of the £3 book and now plans to pulp them.

A spokeswoman said last night that an 'incorrect proof' – an earlier, unedited version of the book – had been sent to the printers.
The schoolboy errors include a passage in which the Bronze Age was mistakenly placed before the Stone Age, and an Ice Age mammoth was used to illustrate a chart showing Iron Age to medieval times.
Mammoths finally became extinct around 1700BC – almost 1,000 years before the Iron Age began in Britain.
An entry about 5th Century king Aurelius Ambrosius – believed to be the historical basis for King Arthur – mistakenly called him Aureole Ambrosias, a spelling error that appears to have been copied from the internet.
One paragraph states that Bronze Age bluestones, which archaeologists believe were transported to the site in Wiltshire from Wales, arrived in around 2550BC, while 'about 200 to 300 years' later, 'New Stone Age people added some much bigger stones'.
Grammatical errors are also rife, including examples such as 'Prehistoric carvings of daggers and axes on the stones is discovered by a photographer'

Distances and directions on maps are often wrong or contradictory with the stone circle at Avebury said to be 'about 20km' from Stonehenge in the text while on the fold-out map it's 46km.
Page references are often wrong and anyone who wanted to find the entry about Merlin and Aurelius Ambrosius would be directed to Page 30, when it's actually six pages later on.
The mistakes in the book, by children's author Tracey Turner, were spotted by a reader of British Archaeology magazine, which lampooned the errors in its latest edition.
Editor Mike Pitts said: 'I couldn't believe it. It was supposed to be written in a style that makes it accessible to children but the result was a catalogue of errors too many to list, so I thought it our duty to publish the story.
'Not only that but the book was written in a style that really pokes fun at the people of the past in a condescending way and I think that devalues and demeans what happened at Stonehenge.
'There's even a silly reference to a site at Robin Hood's Ball near Stonehenge as being "a prehistoric nightclub".
'King Aurelius Ambrosius is a central mythical figure in the story of Stonehenge who is said to have told Merlin to build the Henge on the site of a great and bloody battle but to spell his name wrong so that he becomes King Nipples Rice Pudding just takes the biscuit.'
An English Heritage spokeswoman said last night: 'The Ghastly Book of Stonehenge was withdrawn as soon as it became apparent an incorrect proof containing a number of factual errors had gone to print.
'The Ghastly series was conceived in 2005 as part of a wider strategy to improve family learning at our sites.
'However, over the past couple of years, publishing at English Heritage has undergone quite a radical rethink and we are unlikely to be printing books such as these again.
'We will instead focus on providing free, downloadable resources to support teachers and families visiting our website.
'We have also completely reviewed our editorial procedures to ensure that such a mistake doesn't happen again.'

'Bring your own barbecues' were popular at Stonehenge 5,000 years ago

Stonehenge was a popular area for feasting in the Neolithic period

Stonehenge attracts thousands of Druids, tourists and music festival revellers from far afield each year. Now a new analysis of ancient animal teeth has revealed it was a popular feasting area as far back as 5,000 years ago.
Stone-age people drove cattle across the country to 'bring-your-own' beef barbecues near Stonehenge, the tests revealed.
The analysis of the teeth found at Durrington Walls, a 5,000-year-old village, showed the animals had come from at least 60 miles away.


Dr Jane Evans from the British Geological Survey said the discovery showed a number of feasts were held at the Stonehenge site.

She added that people travelled from as far away as Wales to get there but brought their own food rather than shopping for beef locally.

'People are coming from considerable distances and dispersion in order to have feasts,' Dr Evans said.

'People were bringing their food supplies to this site. There wasn't a farming community that supplied travellers with local beef. It was a case of bringing your own beef barbecue.'
The discovery was made by analysis of different types of a chemical element called strontium found in the soil and absorbed through food into animal and human teeth.
Different types or isotopes of strontium are found in soils of different geological make-up, and the nearest match to those found in the cattle teeth are in Wales, Dr Evans said at the BA Festival of Science in Liverpool.
The Stone Age Neolithic site is a massive circular earthwork close to Stonehenge that was used from around 3,000 BC to 2,500 BC, until around the time the stones at Stonehenge were put in place in the Bronze Age.
An archaeological dig at the site in the 1960s revealed a circular timber structure and a vast collection of animal bones.

Dr Evans added the discovery shed light on communications and movement in the Neolithic period, and showed the already-known relationship between the Stonehenge area and Wales stretched back into the Stone Age.

Heavy rock music: Stonehenge was a 'neolithic rave venue'

The mysterious Stonehenge was a dance arena for ancient revellers listening to 'trance-style' music, according to one professor who is an expert in sound.

Stonehenge has baffled archaeologists who have argued for decades over the stone circle's 5,000-year history - but now academic Dr Rupert Till believes he has solved the riddle by suggesting it may have been used for ancient raves.
Part-time DJ Dr Till, an expert in acoustics and music technology at Huddersfield University, believes the standing stones of Stonehenge had the ideal acoustics to amplify a 'repetitive trance rhythm' not dissimilar to some kinds of modern trance music.

Stonehenge would have had strange acoustic effects thousands of years ago


The original Stonehenge probably had a 'very pleasant, almost concert-like acoustic' that our ancestors slowly perfected over many generations. Because Stonehenge itself is partially collapsed, Dr Till, used a computer model to conduct experiments in sound.
The most exciting discoveries came when he and colleague Dr Bruno Fazenda visited a full-size concrete replica of Stonehenge, which was built as a war memorial by American road builder Sam Hill at Maryhill in Washington state.
He said: 'We were able to get some interesting results when we visited the replica by using computer-based acoustic analysis software, a 3D soundfield microphone, a dodecahedronic (12-faced) speaker, and a huge bass speaker.
'We have also been able to reproduce the sound of someone speaking or clapping in Stonehenge 5,000 years ago.

'The most interesting thing is we managed to get the whole space (at Maryhill) to resonate, almost like a wine glass will ring if you run a finger round it.

'While that was happening a simple drum beat sounded incredibly dramatic. The space had real character; it felt that we had gone somewhere special.'

Building on previous research, Dr Till believes ancient Britons had a good ear for sounds and shaped the stones to create the best acoustics.

He went on: 'Other archaeologists' research shows that Stonehenge has a specific acoustic design. The stones are all curved and reflect the sound perfectly. The lintels are also curved. They must have noticed that when they placed a stone in a particular place it would have sounded different.'
Dr Till recently spoke to academics at Bristol University about Stonehenge rituals and a research network is being set up to look closer at Neolithic sites.

'There are two main theories about what Stonehenge was used for,' he says.

'One is that it was a healing space, the other that it was a place of the dead.
'Both of these imply ritual activity, but very little is actually known about the way people sang, danced or performed rituals there because these things left no trace in the archaeological record.

'However, our research shows that there are particular spots in the site that produce unusual particular acoustic effects, intimating that perhaps a priest or a shaman may have stood there, leading the ritual.

'This kind of ritual may also have been for healing, so this acoustic study may tie the two main competing theories about Stonehenge together.'
The data is still being analysed, but it is clear that Stonehenge did have a 'very unusual sound' says Dr Till.

'By simulating this sound we can hope to understand more about English culture from 5,000 years ago, and perhaps better understand both our ancestors and our culture today.'