Nicholas MannAvebury Cosmos: The Neolithic World of Avebury henge, Silbury Hill, West Kennet long barrow, the Sanctuary & the Longstones Cove

A favorite subject of mine. The book is very informative.

Avebury Cosmos by Nicholas R. Mann opens the doorway we always knew was there at the stone circles. Behind that doorway is the answer to the question "Why?" Mann provides star charts, reconstructed graphics of the hills and rivers along with our ancestor's construction projects to help us understand their sacred space. He examines three circles in one place: the earthworks and stones at Avebury, the hills surrounding that complex, and the stars which circled Avebury in each of 3 millennia BCE when these monuments were constructed. Therein lays the answer to why? The Avebury complex is the Milky Way.From the chalk white ditch to the sealed Long Barrow to the last elevation at Silbury Hill, Mann illustrates in detail how the builders saw their skies and how the skies were changing because of the precession of the Equinox. The stones reveal the changes in the sky. The stars slipping below the horizon out of sight indicate the reason for changes on the ground. Kennet Long Barrow was sealed as the celestial changes were nearly complete when it no longer marked the constellation we call the Southern Cross. Silbury Hill was erected as a last ditch effort to memorialize that vanishing constellation. From the first earthworks at Windmill Hill to the final building of Silbury Hill, the ancestors labored for three thousand years to bridge the gap between the Gods and Humankind. It was a collective cooperative effort. Mann understands that the Ancestors interacted with the sky. They built a bridge for connection with it. Avebury was not an observatory for the advancement of science, something we would more easily understand. It was a testament of their relationship with the night sky.Nicholas Mann has given us a fine accounting of this bond with the celestials. He is careful, more careful than I, to avoid ascribing motive or spiritual principles to his analysis of the land and stars. Given the generations upon generations of celebrants at Avebury, he explains that the site is inclusive. It allowed the people to explore their relationship to the Cosmos in myths that made sense to them. Still, he offers the reader sufficient basis to draw some spiritual conclusions from their own experiences with the World Tree, tiered shamanic worlds and the circle. I delight in his observation that Avebury is itself a quartered circle, marked by Cygnus and the Southern Cross on the north-south axis and by the ecliptic crossings of the Sun on the east-west axis against the constellations of Sagittarius and Gemini. I cheer his recognition of the Axis Mundi encircled by the Milky Way as the World Tree. These acknowledgements fit my own cosmos, but Mann leaves room for all of us. The work is scientific. It is footnoted and indexed. It lacks a glossary of scientific terms. Avebury Cosmos is highly recommended for the student of history, the neo pagan seeking to re-create sacred space, or the curious tourist in Avebury who asks "what was this all about anyway?"

Clearly in writing this book Mr. Mann has been touched by Awen. It is not a book, so much as a breakthrough in understanding and envisioning the ancestral tribes and the worldview that informed the building of the great megalithic monuments. What Mr. Mann does that no other geomancer has achieved (and he has done it so well!) is to vividly evoke the world of the ancient peoples in a way that leaves us feeling we are there. The stunning spectacle of the changes in the night skies in relation to the sacred landscape provides a missing piece that illuminates why and how the ancestors constructed their societies and monuments as they did. However, Mr. Mann's book goes so much further, for by illuminating the ancestral worldview in such vivid detail, he also illuminates how modern, mainstream societies and belief systems have continued instinctively copying the cosmic pattern, but without the enlightened understanding of what we are seeing. The implications of this revelation are far-reaching; implicit within them is a key to how we might restore balance in our own time and world.A good dose of fact is balanced here by a measured re-envisioning of what the facts imply about life in ancient times. While some scholars may object to exploring anything that cannot be definitively proved, for your average person who is seeking profound, yet practical insight into the ancestral world and mind--and perhaps even a glimpse into the spiritual landscape and worldview of our own time--nothing can touch this book. It is well written, easy to understand, well illustrated, makes cogent arguments, is well-researched, and paints a picture of why and how these monuments were used that is completely captivating and utterly unforgettable. I have read many superficially similar books that mostly talked about what they could not (or dare not) say. This book is different; by drawing upon all of the evidence across disciplines, it delivers everything it promises, and more. A brilliant, original, insightful piece of work that will change the way all of us see and understand the ancestors, the night skies, society and the cosmic order.

This is a wonderful read - I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It really made me think HOW sophisticated were the Neolithic peopleNicholas Mann's astronomical understanding is great - solar,lunar and stellar cycles are tied into the precession wobble of the earths axis during the Neolithic especially including the demise of the southern cross below the horizon. He recreates a model of Neolithic cosmology both in the astronomical sense and the social sense that is convincing. It does suggest that the Neolithic sky watchers had an extremely sophisticated appreciation of the cosmos - well beyond the cycles of the sun and the short and longer term cycles of the moon. Many of the orientations are stellar relating to specific individual bright stars and view sheds from and towards monuments/landscape features during the Neolithic. Star patterns and the Milky Way as we cannot see them today are considered as their patterns have now disappeared below the southern horizon.This appreciation of sky watching with landscape and monument referencing may possibly be true as in the Neolithic where else can one place myths, memories and beliefs but in structures that appear unchanging. I do wish the diagrams in the pb edition were more clear. But there are many "star targets" that need to assessed not just at Avebury but elsewhere to observe if this a coincidence or a wider spread southern 'British' phenomena which would enhance its credibilty. I can appreciate the role of the sun and moon in Neolithic cosmology as established at Stonehenge and Newgrange but the stellar orientations and their gradual change over millennia is hard to envisage within social memory - how long does our social memory survive today even with our more sophisticated records and how long does it really affect our lives re general knowledge of historical events? But perhaps memory is different today. I can perceive the importance of the cycles of the sun and the moon but it gets harder with the 'enth' most visible star rising over the edge of a particular hill. I am not convinced that the Neolithic sky watching was that developed. Has this model been applied elsewhere in southern Britain?Other models need to be considered such as the closure of Avebury as a sacred place by the construction of the bank to keep entities in and exclude this place from the ordinary world except on special occasions. The chronology of the Avebury archaeological landscpe is itself is still up for overall interpretation - Silbury Hill is pretty good. Social responses to the introduction of Beaker/ Copper technology and the reaction of the Grooved Ware culture by creating 'new monuments' needs to considered. Several other major southern long barrows close to Avebury were closed well before c.2500 BC only having a short lifespan of use.Assumptions are made as to the geology of the sarsens - they are not linked glaciation in any way but are 'duricrusts' created way back in geological time. During the Pleistocene this concreted sandstone palaeosol (with root holes) was fractured and sludged downslope under periglacial conditions- Clatford Bottom is both a wonderful name and example.The stellar astronomical orientations I think need to be tested on a wider basis to see if there is a wider pattern. BUT nonetheless this is a well researched enjoyable read that stretches the brain. Well worth a read.

I've spent many hours at Avebury over the years but it has taken until now to find an interesting well researched book about the area. The amount of detail contained in this book is staggering, and not a little daunting. However, a word of warning, to get the best from it you need to know the Avebury area reasonably well and it also helps to know something about the night sky. It is a book that will repay many re-readings as there is too much in it to take in at one go.The only reason I haven't given it five stars is that there are numerous black and white photos and diagrammes which do not reproduce very well and are difficult to see clearly. Apart from that minor problem it is an excellent book

I love Avebury and was looking for a book upon Avebury that looked at Avebury from a cosmic viewpoint, with depth. This fitted the bill. I would recommend it.

A glance at the bibliography gives a clue to the zeitgeist. It has some good appendices explaining the astronomy of the galaxy. There is a lot of conjecture and endless repetition, possibly in the hope that continually repeating a statement will make it true. This strategy will be familiar to archaeologists. Like so many other authors who have attempted to analyse Avebury and other stone settings, he makes the situation more far complex than it need be, and in doing so, misses the more likely, more interesting human answers. The tilt of Avebury is never explained. Sigh.The overall thesis is inconsistent: on the one hand they are sophisticated astronomers, but are still the superstitious savages of traditional history myths. The people are alleged to be clever enough to track star movements over thousands of years, but stupid enough to be surprised when one dipped below the southern horizon. But if they were monitoring the gradual change of precession there would be no sudden surprises or crises, as suggested. Most of the familiar stars were reliably continuing their paths-so actually-no panic. Eventually the symmetry of the bright stars around the polar circle (not mentioned) faded, but by then they were busy in the bronze arms dealing trade. The main problem with any single cause/effect logic of astronomical alignments or geometry, is that it ignores the real achievements of Neolithic people, and other reasons for the constructions.There is as much fiction as fact, but it’s a rattling good read regardless.

lovely