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THE MEMORY CODE

Lynne Kelly

The Traditional Aboriginal Memory technique that unlocks the Secrets of Stonehenge and...

The great stone statues of Stonehenge and Easter Island have long fascinated the world, as have hundreds of neolithic stone circles acoss Britain, Ireland and Northern Europe, the great stone houses in New Mexico, and huge animal shapes in Peru. Lynne Kelly has unlocked their long-held secrets using the Aboriginal songlines of Arnhem Land as the key.

In the past, the elders had encyclopaedic memories. They could name all the animals and plants across the landscape, and the stars in the sky too. Yet most of us struggle to memorise more than a short poem. Using traditional Aboriginal Australian songlines as the key, Lynne Kelly has identified the powerful memory technique used by indigenous people around the world. She has discovered that this ancient memory technique is the secret behind the great stone monuments like Stonehenge, which have for so long puzzled archaeologists. The stone circles across Britain and northern Europe, the elaborate stone houses of New Mexico, huge animal shapes in Peru, and the statues of Easter Island, all serve as the most effective memory system ever invented by humans. They allowed people in non-literate cultures to memorise the vast amounts of practical information they needed to survive. In her fascinating book Lynne Kelly shows us how we can use this ancient technique to train our memories today. Lynne Kelly is a science writer and an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University. She is the author of several popular science titles, including: The Skeptic’s Guide to the Paranormal; Crocodile: Evolution’s greatest survivor; and Spiders: Learning to love them.

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Book Published 2016-07-01 by Allen & Unwin

Comments

This fascinating narrative offers fresh interpretations of these physical spaces and their archaeological discoveries. Readers interested in preliterate cultures, Neolithic archaeological sites, and memory techniques will find this research thought provoking.

UK: Atlantic Books; North America: Pegasus Books; Brit Comm. (ex ANZ) and Canada: Atlantic ; Chinese (compl.): Good Publishing ; Chinese (simpl.): China Worker Publishing House ; Czech: Anag ; Audio: Audible

A thought-provoking theory on 'memory palaces' and their significance to ancient ancestral civilisations. Science writer Kelly's thorough, fascinating examination of indigenous cultures of Australia and New Zealand led her to a new anthropological philosophy on how Stonehenge and other prehistoric monuments were built and their shared purpose. she generously addresses each location with clear-eyed, occasionally dense, yet absorbing prose while drawing important attention to a radical new idea about the real purpose of these historic marvels. A plausible and provocative hypothesis on how methods of memorization may have laid the groundwork for many mysterious extant monuments.

Fascinating stuff... The Memory Code answers questions and raises even more. But what it stresses throughout is that these were and are practical, observable, repeatable methods for retaining, recalling and communicating information.

In this age when information can be easily sourced online, there is still a case for memory... Perhaps preliterate societies might offer us valuable lessons.

There are books that have the potential to change lives and this is one such... a brave exposition of a new way of looking at the misunderstood knowledge and rituals of pre-literate societies, both extant and those that have long vanished.