Dorset is one of the country’s richest counties in archaeological remains and over the last 30 years there have been a great number of new discoveries. This detailed, up-to-date and well-illustrated study of prehistoric monuments in and around Dorset explores the changing aspects of the county’s landscapes through the ages, captured by the monuments that were constructed within them. Moving chronologically from the funerary and ceremonial landscapes of long barrows, cursus and henge monuments of the Neolithic period down to the war-like hillfort dominated landscapes of the pre-Roman Iron Age, John Gale illustrated the unique and diverse nature of these largely misunderstood prehistoric monnuments and explains how they are closely linked to the landscapes around them.

John Gale is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Bournemouth. He has worked and taught extensively in the Dirset landscape, including excavations at Toller Porcorum and Knowlton.