Rocks & Rows: Sailing Routes across the Atlantic and the Copper Trade

By Jay Stuart Wakefield and Reihound M. De Jonge
Readers get more than their money’s worth in this 8-by-10-inch, full color, 300+ page tome brimming with hundreds of photographs and illustrations. On a scale to match, its time parameters range from Brittany’s Cairn of Barnenez in 4800 BC to the fifteen hundred year-old “sun-ship” monument of Ales Stenar, in Sweden. The former will be of particular interest to cultural diffusionists, because this little known structure is a megalithic step-pyramid on the French coast. Authors Jay Stuart Wakefield, a Seattle zoologist, and Reinoud De Jonge, a Dutch chemist, document this singular edifice in powerful imagery and a text that places it squarely within the realm of transatlantic possibilities. The thrust of their new book shows that connections between the ancient Old World and America did not result from accidental voyages, but were deliberate undertakings for specific goods going back to Neolithic times. These expeditions were triggered, the authors demonstrate, by the Upper Great Lakes Region’s abundance of the world’s highest grade copper. It was this incomparable natural resource, they argue, that drew seafaring metal-workers from Western Europe, where the imported copper was combined with tin and zinc for the manufacture of bronze. As such, Rocks & Rows will undoubtedly stand the test of time as a font of often difficult to find information and a handbook for anyone interested in the Neolithic and Bronze Age influences at work on our continent.
Softcover, numerous illustrations, 300+ pgs.