Shepherd, A. N., ed. (1993). Altering the Earth: The Origins of Monuments in Britain and Continental Europe. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000184.

Monuments are not found universally and are rare among European hunter-gatherers. Using the example of megalithic tombs, the first lecture considers the origins of monuments and the ways in which they contributed to a new sense of time and place. There seems no reason to suppose that monument building was linked directly to the adoption of agriculture, and in certain areas the use of monumental structures may actually have helped to create the conditions for economic change. The argument is illustrated by megalithic tombs in Portugal, France and Scandinavia, and by the archaeology of Australia and the eastern United States.

Once they had been built, how did monuments work? This lecture considers the ways in which the creation and operation of large monuments affect human perception. Monuments are the outward embodiment of some of the most basic beliefs in society, and they tend to mould the experience of those who use them. They constrain the movements of the people who visit them, and provide a kind of stage setting for the performance of ritual and ceremonial. In this sense they can play an active role in the process of social change. The argument is illustrated using the evidence of a variety of stone and earthwork alignments from the West Mediterranean to the British Isles. The manner in which the distinctions between monuments and the wider landscape were emphasised by decorative styles and by deposits of artefacts is also considered.

The previous lecture showed how monuments and the ideas associated with them could be changed from one area to another. The same process of interpretation can also take place within the local sequence. Using the evidence from Britain and France, this lecture explores the ways in which monuments were adapted and renewed in relation to changing social circumstances. In particular, it focuses on the phenomenon of 'monument complexes' and studies the distinctive manner in which they developed. It considers the recent suggestion that some of these were pilgrimage centres, contending that the use and operation of particular monuments within these complexes was one way in which political relations were played out.

The text of the 1991--92 Rhind Lectures. The first, `Monuments and the natural world', considers the origin of monuments and how they contributed to a new sense of time and place, using the example of megalithic tombs; there seems no reason to suppose that monument building was linked directly to the adoption of agriculture and in certain areas the use of monumental structures may actually have helped to create the conditions for economic change. `Places and human culture' considers how locations where monuments were constructed, which may already have acquired special significance, gained additional importance, and relates this process to the development of monuments using cave deposits, menhirs and rock art. In `Monuments as places' the ways the creation and operation of large monuments affect human perception are considered, using the evidence of stone and earthwork alignments from the west Mediterranean to the British Isles. `Adoption and modification of the stereotyped layout of Neolithic enclosures' by different communities from central Europe to Scandinavia and western France is examined in `Monuments as ideas'. `The logic of monument building' explores ways monument complexes in particular were adapted and renewed in relation to changing social circumstances. The final lecture, `The afterlife of monuments', considers how certain monuments were reinterpreted in the early medieval period, when earlier examples were reused as high status royal sites in the British Isles.