Henges, Hill Forts, and Barrows

My "bucket list" includes seeing Stonehenge.  Someday I'd like to witness the mystery of this site firsthand, ponder how and why it was constructed, appreciate its antiquity.

I just finished reading Prehistoric Britain from the Air (rating: 9/10).  The many aerial photographs in this book include not only Stonehenge but dozens of other sites in the British Isles.  I had no idea that so many prehistoric sites still stood.  The ones in England are much more accessible than those in Scotland and Wales, so I was also surprised to see much less security around these sites than what I would expect if they stood in North America.

I was reminded that Francis Pryor's Seahenge: A Quest for Life and Death in Bronze Age Britain is sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read.  The photographs of hill forts brought to mind the battle scenes in Bernard Cornwell's series, The Saxon Tales ... and the most recent volume in that series, The Burning Land, also sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.  The photographs of barrows made me think of the fear the hobbits felt when they encountered the barrow-wights in Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring.  I was also reminded of the Moesgard Museum, a collection of early Scandinavian history (including Vikings) in Aarhus, Denmark, which I visited many years ago.

Tut, tut ...

Mystery writer James Patterson has written - with Martin Dugard - a retelling of Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of King Tut alongside a speculative account of King Tut's murder.  The subtitle for The Murder of King Tut is "The ultimate cold case - reopened", and an Indiana Jones-like figure is seen entering Tut's tomb with torch held aloft.

I can forgive myself for thinking this might be an exciting story.  But I was surprised to discover as I read this that there was little excitement, even though Patterson had exciting material to work with.  I've not read any of Patterson's other books, so I can't compare this with them.  But I finished the book feeling disappointed.  There just wasn't enough substance to what could have been a great story.