The Megalithic European
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| The Megalithic European | |
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| Author | Julian Cope |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Reference, Gazetteer |
| Publisher | Element Books |
| Publication date | 18 October 2004 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 496 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-00-713802-4 |
| Preceded by | The Modern Antiquarian (1998) |
The Megalithic European : The 21st Century Traveller in Prehistoric Europe is Julian Cope's second book on historic sites, this time looking at continental Europe and Ireland. Like its predecessor - The Modern Antiquarian - the book is split into a shorter, discursive introduction with the bulk of the text being a gazetteer of sites. Not only is The Megalithic European a better quality artefact: superior quality of print, layout, photography (even the paper that it's printed on) but the style of writing is tighter and more disciplined, more archaeological than antiquarian perhaps.
A potential criticism is how the gazetteer is organised. As with The Modern Antiquarian, sites are listed alphabetically within their sections. But the sections too are in alphabetic order. Thus some 300 pages separate Sardinia from Corsica, despite these being two areas which might logically be visited at the same time. A lot of flicking to and fro between sections would be necessary to make serious use of this book as a travel companion. But The Megalithic European is erudite, full of insight, good humoured, and the photography makes it an object of intrinsic beauty.
