The Memory Code

by Lynne Kelly

Overview

In ancient, pre-literate cultures across the globe, tribal elders had encyclopedic memories. They could name all the animals and plants across a landscape, identify the stars in the sky, and recite the history of their people. Yet today, most of us struggle to memorize more than a short poem. Using traditional Aboriginal Australian song lines as a starting point, Dr. Lynne Kelly has since identified the powerful memory technique used by our ancestors and indigenous people around the world. In turn, she has then discovered that this ancient memory technique is the secret purpose behind the great prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge, which have puzzled archaeologists for so long.The henges across northern Europe, the elaborate stone houses of New Mexico, huge animal shapes in Peru, the statues of Easter Island—these all serve as the most effective memory system ever invented by humans. They allowed people in non-literate cultures to memorize the vast amounts of information they needed to survive. But how?For the first time, Dr. Kelly unlocks the secret of these monuments and their uses as "memory places" in her fascinating book. Additionally, The Memory Code also explains how we can use this ancient mnemonic technique to train our minds in the tradition of our forbearers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681773827
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	784,753
File size:	72 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dr. Lynne Kelly is a science writer and an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University. She lives in Melbourne, Australia and is the author of The Memory Code and Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies (Cambridge).

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Chapter 1 Encyclopaedic memories of the elders 1

Indigenous knowledge of animals 2

Indigenous knowledge of plants 7

Performed and restricted knowledge 10

Songlines 13

Memory spaces and ancient Greeks 18

Ceremonies serve a multiplicity of purposes 23

Longevity of stories 28

Integrated knowledge systems 29

Chapter 2 Memory spaces, large and small 34

Skyscapes of memory 37

Miniature memory spaces 41

Strings: twisted, turned and knotted 51

Bundles of non-utilitarian objects 52

Representation of mythological ancestors 56

Pueblo corn stories: mythology and science 58

Genealogies and totems 60

Chapter 3 Memory spaces in a modern world 64

The landscape as a memory space 65

Skyscapes as a memory space 70

Decks of cards as memory spaces 71

Miniature memory spaces 73

A myriad memory spaces 76

Chapter 4 A journey through time 80

The first modern humans 82

Monumental memory spaces 85

Chapter 5 The ever-changing memory spaces at Stonehenge 98

A mind game of transition to settlement 100

Stonehenge and the British Neolithic 103

First stage: 3000-2920 BCE (Middle Neolithic) 106

Henge ditches 109

Stonehenge: the theories 115

Second stage: 2620-2480 BCE (Late Neolithic) 120

Third stage: 2480-2280 BCE (Copper Age) 127

Fourth stage: 2280-2020 BCE (Early Bronze Age) 129

Fifth stage: 1680-1520 BCE (Middle Bronze Age) 130

Portable objects 131

Memory spaces, mines and moving on 134

Chapter 6 The megalithic complexes of Avebury and Orkney 137

Avebury " 139

Windmill Hill 141

West Kennet Long Barrow 143

Avebury henge 145

The Sanctuary 149

Silbury Hill 150

Orkney 152

Skara Brae 156

Carved stone balls 157

Stones of Stenness 158

Chambered cairns 159

Maeshowe 162

The Ring of Brodgar 163

Chapter 7 Newgrange and the passage cairns of Ireland 166

County Meath passage cairns 168

Neolithic art 172

The purpose of the passage cairns 173

Circles of timber and stone 177

Decorated stones 179

Smaller passage cairns across County Meath 180

Individual burials 182

Chapter 8 The tall stones and endless rows of Carnac 183

The Carnac Mounds and the Tumulus de Saint-Michel 188

The Middle Neolithic passage cairns 190

The stone rows of Carnac 194

Gallery and lateral entrance graves 197

Chapter 9 The unparalleled architecture of Chaco Canyon 200

Pueblo Bonito 202

Learning from contemporary Pueblo 204

The Ancestral Puebloans at Chaco Canyon 207

Great houses 210

Enigmatic decorated objects 212

Buying knowledge at Chaco Canyon 215

Chapter 10 Giant drawings on the desert floor at Nasca 220

Astronomy 225

Making the lines 227

The animal glyphs 228

Trapezoids, squares and rectangles 230

Straight lines dominate the pampa 232

Time and change on the pampa 233

Chapter 11 Memory spaces across the Americas 237

The hunter-gatherers of Watson Brake and Poverty Point 240

Memory spaces grow more complex 249

Writing represents sound in Mesoamerica 255

The earthworks of North America gain complexity 261

The literate Aztecs and non-literate Inca 265

Chapter 12 Polynesian navigators create a unique world on Easter Island 271

The original settlers 273

The amazing skill of the Pacific navigators 276

Arriving on Easter Island 278

Settling another small Polynesian island: Rarotonga 279

Adapting to a different environment: New Zealand 281

Knowledge structured by genealogy 284

A memory space beyond the shoreline 288

The collapse of a culture 291

The Birdman cult 293

Art in many forms 294

Epilogue 296

Acknowledgements 298

About the author 302

Notes 303

Index 311

Editorial Reviews

12/12/2016
In this intriguing, if not entirely persuasive, book, Australian science writer Kelly (Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies) links many prehistoric sites of monumental architecture to the need of preliterate cultures to memorize vast numbers of important facts. She begins by examining the techniques currently or recently in use that allow memory keepers among the Australian Aboriginal people, Navajo, Dogon, and others to retain information on hundreds of animal and plant species as well as culturally significant topics such as genealogies and customs. This is accomplished through the technique that the Greeks referred to as “the method of loci,” encoding knowledge to physical or mental spaces. Kelly describes her own use of these techniques, but not in enough detail for her work to truly be useful as a primer. She devotes the bulk of the book’s second half to linking such specific monumental sites as Stonehenge to her idea that a wide range of these sites were used by their creators as memory-encoding spaces. Kelly’s arguments are plausible—and persuasive where links exist between current cultures and predecessors, such as the Pueblo and the Ancestral Puebloans of Chaco Canyon—but her certitude is troublesome, and the conclusion that “the method of loci is the universal driver” is not supported by this work. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

A plausible and provocative hypothesis on how methods of memorization may have laid the groundwork for many mysterious extant monuments.

Intriguing.

Kelly not only analyzes a variety of techniques used by indigenous people, but also implements the ideas in her own life. Readers can readily implement her ideas and train themselves to use these mnemonic devices just as the ancient ones may have done so long ago.

Kelly offers a new viewpoint, showing us people who, faced with a problem, developed an effective way of overcoming it.

Kelly presents a compelling argument that appears quite plausible. Some archaeologists might disagree, but Kelly is thinking outside of the box.

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.

From the Publisher

Kelly not only analyzes a variety of techniques used by indigenous people, but also implements the ideas in her own life. Readers can readily implement her ideas and train themselves to use these mnemonic devices just as the ancient ones may have done so long ago.

Shelf Awareness

Kelly offers a new viewpoint, showing us people who, faced with a problem, developed an effective way of overcoming it.

Cosmos

Kelly presents a compelling argument that appears quite plausible. Some archaeologists might disagree, but Kelly is thinking outside of the box.

Choice

02/15/2017
Preliterate cultures across the globe retained important general knowledge, cultural history, myths, and stories in order to survive. Science writer Kelly (Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies), inspired by her study of the beliefs of traditional Aboriginal Australian song lines and the concept of orality, theorizes that a technique known as "the method of loci" allowed tribal elders throughout the world to memorize this vast encyclopedic knowledge. The key to this approach is relying on specific physical spaces and objects as memory spaces. The author theorizes that ancient monuments such as Stonehenge, passage cairns in Ireland, elaborate stone houses of New Mexico, and statues of Easter Island functioned as "memory places." This fascinating narrative offers fresh interpretations of these physical spaces and their archaeological discoveries. It should be noted that one chapter delves into Kelly's use of modern-day memory spaces to aid her own memorization; however, this book should not be considered a primer. VERDICT Readers interested in preliterate cultures, Neolithic archaeological sites, and memory techniques will find this research thought provoking.—Angela Forret, Clive P.L., IA

Library Journal

2016-12-18
A thought-provoking theory on "memory palaces" and their significance to ancient ancestral civilizations.Science writer Kelly's (Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies, 2015) 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. Throughout her doctorate studies, the author invested increasing amounts of time studying the knowledge patterns of primitive, nonliterate societies and the ways in which orality made shared knowledge memorable and applicable. Though widely considered to be intellectually inferior, indigenous cultures like the aborigines of Australia, among many others, developed complex exchanges of encyclopedic knowledge through methods of memory and repetition, perfected over centuries of practice and adaptation. Kelly believes these place-associative memorization systems, whether patterned through songs, dance, mythological stories, stars, landscape, or handheld totems, were instrumental in generating the knowledge necessary to construct what have become some of the world's most mystifying architectural wonders. Deepening her research, the author applied these mnemonic techniques to her own life, experimenting with local landscapes and honing personal memory skills with representational imagery; she used activities as simple as a walk with her dog to illustrate and apply this ancient technique. Most interestingly, Kelly then applies this theory to the ancient monuments that have confounded and fascinated mankind for centuries. These include Stonehenge, which the author brilliantly and painstakingly analyzes in time period stages, the extraordinary monolithic moai of Easter Island, the expansive geoglyphs in the southern Peruvian desert, and the stone rows and circles of Neolithic France and Britain. Kelly believes all of these were constructed as memory aids to ancient elders, and she generously addresses each location with cleareyed, 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.

Kirkus Reviews