A Twist in Time: How the Rope Age Made Mankind by Ashley Cowie
TITLE: A Twist in Time: How the Rope Age Made Mankind
AUTHOR: Ashley Cowie
DATE PUBLISHED: 2016
FORMAT: Kindle
ASIN: B01EILKPRE
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DESCRIPTION:
" Presenting an entirely new perspective on prehistory, A Twist in Time demands we re-engineer our views of the Stone Age. Revealing that ancient Britons used advanced rope making, measuring and surveying skills over two millennium before Greek mathematicians formalised geometry as a science, A Twist in Time introduces a new ancient landscape bound together with rope. Welcome to the Rope Age.
After examining the rope crafts in structures such as the Great Pyramids in Egypt, A Twist in Time explores Neolithic settlements, standing stone circles and burial chambers in Britain. New observations in the designs and measurements of stone super structures such as; Ring of Brogar and Skara Brae in Orkney and Newgrange in Ireland suggest an elite class of rope specialists controlled rope production, measuring, surveying, designing and building projects in Neolithic Britain.
A Twist in Time follows the trail of these ancient proto-scientists to the North of Scotland and by re-interpreting many of the 'sacred' and 'ritualistic' artefacts discovered at ancient sites, the author provides evidence that many were simple rope making, measuring and surveying devices. Using ropes and wooden posts, notions of mystery and magic are replaced with rope crafts skills as light is shed on this greatly unexplored, yet vastly important, aspect of human history. "
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REVIEW:
A short but interesting look at how ropes were (possibly) used to build megalithic structures (and by default societies) in the Stone Age, with a focus on the archaeology of Neolithic sites such as the Ring of Brogar and Skara Brae in Orkney and Newgrange. The subtitle is misleading, as only a small portion of the globe is examined in this book, with but a passing mention of Egyptian use of ropes and Incan quipus. None the less, still something to think about.
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