Arthur and Stonehenge, examines the consequences of the Ages in Alignment thesis for British history and prehistory. Stonehenge, the most iconic prehistoric monument of western Europe, is revealed to have been erected during the eighth century BC., when the ruling elite of south-west Britain acquired immense wealth and prestige as a result of the tin trade. It is shown that, just as the ancient historians always maintained, Britain was the major source of the tin used by the early civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean. Indeed, it was almost certainly in Britain, in Cornwall and Devon, that men first learned to produce tin bronze.
Stonehenge occupied a prominent position in British folklore, which claimed that the monument was erected by Merlin. Arthur and Stonehenge shows how the entire Arthurian legend belongs in the same epoch as the myths and legends of Greece, namely the ninth to seventh centuries BC. Arthur himself is revealed to be the primeval Celtic deity Artos, the Bear God, a Hercules-figure who originally wore a bearskin over his head and shoulders and held a club in his hand. Arthur’s Round Table, which tradition insisted was fashioned by Merlin (as was Stonehenge), is revealed to be Stonehenge itself. The monument, as it originally appeared – with all the uprights and lintels in place – would have looked like a great round table with twelve legs. And the Sword in the Stone is a reference to the technique by which the early bronze-smiths of western Britain produced swords. The molten bronze was poured into a stone mould, and the finished weapon was extracted, fully formed, from the stone.
Arthur and Stonehenge looks in detail at the astonishing cultural links that existed between Britain and Mycenaean Greece during the ninth, eight and seventh centuries BC. Many of the Greek gods and heroes are shown to have had precise Celtic counterparts, and the Greeks themselves stressed that some of their heroes’ adventures took place in the lands of the Celts. So close were the links that on occasion even Celtic place-names were preserved. So, for example, Hercules (like Arthur) was said to have taken part in a great boar-hunt in a place called Calydon. But Caledon was the ancient name of Scotland.