stonehenge - English Heritage

015-046 section 1.qxd 6/21/05 4:14 PM Page 2
SECTION 1 – INTRODUCTION
‘Every age has the Stonehenge it deserves or desires’
(Jacquetta Hawkes 1967, 174)
BACKGROUND, NEED,
AND PURPOSE
For centuries, Stonehenge and the monuments that
surround it have been central to the understanding and
interpretation of Britain’s ancient past. Ever since Geoffrey
of Monmouth wrote his History of the kings of Britain in AD
1139, Stonehenge has been a chronological anchor-point for
histories and prehistories alike. For while the exact date of
the monument has been much discussed over the years, the
idea of an ‘Age of Stonehenge’ is deeply embedded in both
popular and academic literature. Each new generation has
interpreted what it sees in a different way as a result of
different social conditions, a tradition of change
perceptively encapsulated and mirrored back on the
archaeological world and its followers by Jacquetta Hawkes
in her oft-cited remark set out above.
Research has been at the heart of these changing
approaches. The first excavations were carried out at
Stonehenge on behalf of the Duke of Buckingham in AD 1620,
with many more investigations in the area over the following
centuries. Throughout, Stonehenge has remained an enigma,
regarded as self-evidently important and yet never fully
understood. As a result it has become the most written-about
and most photographed prehistoric monument in Europe
(Illustration 1), an icon of the idea of prehistory and the
challenge of archaeological inquiry. The results of
archaeological investigations in the region, and considerations
of the finds from them, have provided the basis for numerous
analyses, studies, classifications, and interpretative models
that run right to the heart of our understanding of prehistoric
communities of northwest Europe. The Bush Barrow dagger
series, the Wessex Culture, and the wide-ranging debates
about possible connections between Bronze Age Wessex and
Mycenaean Greece are amongst the most memorable of the
many matters debated over the years. Less widely recognized,
but significant on an international scale, is the much more
recent role of Salisbury Plain in the early development of
aviation and the training of the armed forces. Moreover, the
place of Stonehenge as a symbol of the ancient past in
contemporary culture has provided a rich field for the
investigation of modern social relations and the value of our
heritage to a range of communities.
Research also lies at the heart of managing Stonehenge
and its environs. The importance, significance, quality,
authenticity, and legal protection of the physical remains at
and around Stonehenge led, in 1986, to its inscription on
UNESCO’s World Heritage List, as half of the site formally
known as the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
Illustration 1
Aerial view of Stonehenge
and the Avenue looking
northeast. The site is under
a light snow cover which
enhances the circular
earthwork enclosure
and the ditches of the
Avenue. [Photograph:
©Skyscan Balloon
Photography. English
Heritage Photo Library.]
2