The Modern Antiquarian

Product Information

Dissatisfied with the guidebooks (and coffee table books) available he decided to put together his own handbook: Cope varies between narrative (of his visits) and semi-scholarly studies, and he manages to make it all quite interesting. Julian Cope is one of Britain’s best known and most-celebrated post-punk visionaries. In this historical masterpiece, he takes us on an unforgettable journey across the British Isles, uncovering the first temples ever built and their myriad descendants, the relics of which can still be seen today.

The Modern Antiquarian - Wikipedia

He may be a weird character, and maybe he doesn't shower enough, but he's put out a lot of fine music, and his memoirs are a load of fun. Climbing aboard the 1781 bandwagon created by Iolo Morganwg’s brand new Society of the Ancient Druids, towns across Britain revived or even invented their own Celtic-styled festivals, my personal favourite being the “ancient” Cornish street theatre of Padstow’s Obby Oss, first recorded in 1803. This book shines a powerful light onto the past of a nation hoodwinked into believing that its history began with the Roman conquest. Cope’s deft prose examines our prehistoric beginnings through the evidence of megalithic remains and their surroundings, allowing us for the first time to reconcile the tapestry of our past with modern life. Curators Farley and Weetch are refreshingly defiant in defining the Celt as inclusively as possible – at pains throughout to provide maps and more maps of the Celtic worldview as its truth has migrated down the centuries. We moderns may too-often suffer from a mixing up of historical sequences, but better that, surely, than risk raising a population that is entirely not-arsed about its past. The proliferation of armchair archaeologists across the UK attests to the continued fascination that the ways of our ancestors invoke in so many of us. By keeping steadfastly to their inclusive vision of all things Celt, Farley and Weetch are helping to instil in future generations the kind of open-mindedness that has enabled our democracy to thrive.One piece -- "The Book of Ur" -- includes a detailed etymosophy (your guess is as good as ours) of words such as "Ur" and "Koeur".

Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope - AbeBooks Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope - AbeBooks

The volume as a whole has over 600 photographs and illustrations (most by Cope himself), as well as "over 50 poems".Eery and unlikely arrangements, precariously balanced and perched stones, odd alignments, sadly broken and toppled remnants, huge barrows -- and all of it ancient and storied. Some of it sounds fairly nutty, but Cope has done his research and his opinions are at least well-founded.

The Modern Antiquarian - Google Books

Here at the museum is the greatest Celtic find of all: the legendary Gundestrup cauldron. It’s my all-time favourite prehistoric artefact: huge, silver, magnificent. Wonderful castings of Norse gods, men, animals and mythological beasts festoon its sides, while a recumbent bull guards its basin. The cauldron is striking for its characters and stories (most Celtic art is non-figurative) but I long ago decided it was pointless trying to itemise these snake-gripping figures, as the Celts had so many local pantheons. Cope’s innovative gazetteer opened up the landscape to a whole new generation of walkers, psychonauts and amateur historians. Unlike many archaeological accounts, there is no concrete conclusion, as it is a work that explores suggestion, albeit with a frequently esoteric angle. In fact, Cope tells the reader, Stonehenge is unrepresentative, a late add-on -- "a fashioned Bronze Age power statement" erected "centuries after the height of megalithic building."Most people are familiar with Stonehenge, but unaware that this is only the tip of the ice...er, stone-berg, as it were.