A balanced case, and a tonic against conspiracy theories

Writing for the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, Joe Somerville describes the book as a short investigation, under a hundred pages, into one question: was the Stone of Scone swapped before Edward I carried it off in 1296?

He notes how the book sets the reader up as juror: it opens with the allegation that the real coronation stone was hidden and a substitute handed over, then works from the Stone’s origins towards the possible culprits, drawing on historical sources, art history, materials science and knowledge of historic masonry.

Somerville finds the argument balanced and well organised and values its brevity. His reservation is that, where the evidence runs out, the book has to fall back on judgements about human behaviour; in his view the next real advances will come from scientific study of the stone itself.

“a very much needed tonic against the prevalence of conspiracy theory-driven social media posts”