<< Books/Products >> Response to review of Gough and Harris’ book: A New Dimension to Ancient Measures
Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 07 June 2024 Page Views: 3775
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In 2021 Peter Harris and Thomas Gough published a book: A New Dimension to Ancient Measures based on theirs and the late Norman Stockdate's hypothesis that a unit of length, the Harris and Stockdale Megalithic Foot, (HSMF), of 1.1785 feet was known and used in prehistoric Britain. You can read a further summary of the book on our page here. Ancient metrology is a controversial subject but not unheard of in modern archaeology.
However in February 2023 Liz Henty published a book review in the Journal of Skyscape Archaeology rubbishing their work.The link to the full review is below, but in summary Dr Henty wrote: "I am neither a mathematician nor a statistician, which is what you need to be to make sense of their results: I can only comment on the questions that underlined their analyses."
"After reading Gough and Harris’s book, I have to conclude that preconceived arguments about precision in alignments, configured from a precise unit of measurement which improbably relates to celestial time periods, have no place in archaeoastronomy or skyscape archaeology today. It is not enough for researchers to be able to manipulate statistics to back up their arguments; the original premise has to be sound."
Henty continues: "I have written extensively (Henty 2022; see also Henty and Silva 2018) about how antiquarian esotericism morphed into the current pseudoscience which has damaged both archaeo-astronomy and archaeology and how it continues to have insidious influence on both disciplines today. This is especially true when it is unleashed onto an unsuspecting public for whom science and its statistical trappings must be true. Fagan and Feder’s (2006, 720) description of alternative archaeology as “farragoes of misdirection, fallacious logic, [and] manufactured evidence” eloquently sums up this genre in general and these two books in particular. [this is also referring to a book by Dr John Hill reviewed at the same time]
You can read Liz Henty's full review here: journal.equinoxpub.com/JSA/article/view/25603
Clearly this has upset the authors - so Peter Harris has compiled a point by point rebuttal of the review which he submitted to be published in the Journal of Skyscape Archaeology. Fabio Silva has written back on behalf of the journal, declining to publish Peter's response on the grounds that "a published book review is not meant to be a peer reviewed, objective piece but rather an opinion piece. This is as true for our journal as it is for any other."
Dr Silva went on to encourage others to send in a review of Harris and Gough's book "which may paint the book in a different light.... We have, in the past, published multiple reviews of the same book, and will always be open to that - precisely because they are opinion pieces, and opinions can differ."
As the Journal has declined to publish Peter's rebuttal we are happy to do so here. I should say I do not have a horse in this race, however I am keen to see fair play and to me Peter's rebuttal raises some important points, not least regarding the final quote from Fagan and Feder, which was a response to one written by respected scholar Cornelius Holtorf the previous year:
Holtorf advocates, “a commitment to multiple approaches and values simultaneously brought to bear on archaeological landscapes, sites and objects, whether by professional archaeologists or others.” He observes, “What is required is an attempt to engage constructively with popular and alternative interpretations of the past and its remains,” and that, “alternative archaeologies ought to be appreciated for what they are rather than for what they are not.”
Holtorf concludes, “Critical understanding and dialogue, not dismissive polemics, is the appropriate way to engage with the multiple pasts and alternative archaeologies in contemporary society.”
So please read the response by Peter Harris to the book review by Liz Henty published in The Journal of Skyscape Archaeology concerning Thomas Gough and Peter Harris’ book “A New Dimension to Ancient Measures”:
http://www.academia.edu/120689736/A_reply_to_Liz_Hentys_review_of_A_New_Dimension_to_Ancient_Measures_
To reiterate, the link to Harris and Gough's A New Dimension to Ancient Measures is here. If someone qualified to write a scholarly review of the book would like to get in touch I am sure Peter would be happy to provide a review copy.
Note: A New Dimension to Ancient Measures Price Reduction to just £10 + P&P
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