Ley Lines: The Greatest Landscape Mystery

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Tan jones eschewed the laboriously intricate mappings of earlier ley line-hunters, and instead followed their instinct. As David Newnham wrote in 2000: "Throughout the 60s and 70s, ley-line theory was to mutate and bifurcate, to bend with every passing fad, so that it frequently seemed as though its only purpose was to highlight the failings of our own times.

First discovered in modern times by the legendary Alfred Watkins who first coined the term, they have been rigorously studied over the last fifty years. The Old Straight Track got a somewhat unexpected kickstart in 1969 with the appearance of hippy guru John Mitchell’s seminal The View Over Atlantis.You have to think that if Watkins were to come back today, he would be horrified by what has happened to his vision of a system of trade routes. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Very comprehensive book, easy to read, full of information, full coverage on all main aspects of the phenomena, best book for a full introduction on the subject who also displays plenty of examples on the subject. The author gives an update of the theories behind the straight lines, quoting in detail from a variety of sources. It was later edited by Paul Screeton, who also wrote the book Quicksilver Heritage, in which he argued that the Neolithic period had seen an idyllic society devoted to spirituality but that this was brought to an end through the introduction of metal technologies in the Bronze Age.

Tracks were set out visually – by lighting beacons on high points, for example – and then lining up markers and key points across the intervening land, including mounds and moats, stone circles and more. The local Episcopal church (ringed, bottom) has its main roof ridge aligned to the corner stones of its burial ground and Mausoleum 2.The bubble was burst, a little, in the late 1980s when scholars Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy worked out that the density of archaeological sites in the British landscape is so great that a line drawn through virtually anywhere would "clip" any number of significant places. Attitudes to the archaeological establishment varied among ley hunters, with some of the latter wanting to convert archaeologists to their beliefs and others believing that that was an impossible task. Hutton noted that this pulled along "a potential fissure between rationalism and mysticism which had always been inherent in the movement". He presented this as a challenge to archaeologists, urging them to examine his ideas in detail and stating that he would donate a large sum of money to charity if they could disprove them. He proposed the existence of a network of completely straight roads that cut through a range of prehistoric, Roman, and medieval structures.

Whether your interest is simply to walk and enjoy the gloriou s countryside of the region, with its high sweeping skies, or whe ther you enjoy tracing its archaeology and history, this book wil l be both useful and enriching.In suggesting that prehistoric Britons were far more advanced in mathematics and astronomy than archaeologists had previously accepted, Thom's work was seen as giving additional credibility to the beliefs of ley hunters. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today. A statistical analysis of lines concluded: "the density of archaeological sites in the British landscape is so great that a line drawn through virtually anywhere will 'clip' a number of sites. In this book, Michell promoted the ancient astronaut belief that extraterrestrials had assisted humanity during prehistory, when humans had worshipped these entities as gods, but that the aliens left when humanity became too materialistic and technology-focused.