The mythologising of Stonehenge

Visit Britain refers to Stonehenge as "one of the most prehistoric monuments in the world."   

OMG -- whatever next......?

As mentioned before on this blog, not everybody loves Stonehenge or approves of the manner in which it has been hijacked for political and quasi-religious purposes.  There has been a lot of criticism of the manner in which Stonehenge is promoted as a "British icon" at the expense of other equally, if not more, impressive monuments including Callanish, Skara Brae, Avebury and Silbury Hill. 

In the vanguard of the attacks on Stonehenge as "the first great focal point in British history" are the Scottish archaeologists Gordon Barclay and Kenny Brophy.  We have discussed their work previously on this blog:

https://gordon-barclay.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Barclay_and_Brophy_2021_Final_-20_12_2021.pdf

....... and have noted the furious and even vicious response from those whose work they directly and indirectly criticised.

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2021/12/barclay-and-brophy-fight-back.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2021/12/determinism-core-and-periphery.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2021/12/determinism-core-and-periphery.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2019/03/neolithic-feasts-and-far-travelled-pigs.html

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-politicisation-of-neolithic.html
Last year they wrote this article:  

Stop Projecting Nationalism Onto Stonehenge
Two archaeologists respond to the portraits of Queen Elizabeth II beamed onto Stonehenge—the latest attempt to appropriate the monument for nationalist messages.
By GORDON BARCLAY AND KENNY BROPHY
20 JUN 2022

Sapiens.org

https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/stonehenge-nationalism/

The article was essentially a response to the rather tasteless and degrading projection of eight images of the late Queen onto the sarsens of Stonehenge.

They said:  "As archaeologists interested in the way contemporary society manipulates the past, we keep an eye open for all sorts of Stonehenge-related nonsense and consider ourselves quite unshockable. But English Heritage’s decision surprised even us in its blindness to nationalist appropriation of the past, as well as its all-round tackiness."   In reality, Stonehenge never was a real English symbol, let alone a British one.   Barclay and Brophy also said that the mythos of an ancient pan-British identity (with Stonehenge at its centre, acting as its symbol for branding or marketing purposes) fails to take into account the variability of life in late Neolithic Britain, evident in the diverse regional styles of monuments, buildings, funerary practices, and aspects of the economy.

Now, in a new article, Kenny Brophy launches another attack, following a visit to Stonehenge which left him singularly unimpressed.

https://theurbanprehistorian.wordpress.com/2023/08/29/little-britain/

It's essentially a blog post, and an opinion piece.

THE URBAN PREHISTORIAN
AUGUST 29, 2023

Little Britain

He has a go at the right-wing press and its obsession withy Brexit and Britishness:  "Stonehenge also has a disturbing history as an icon for English and British nationalists, and has increasingly become a political plaything for right-leaning newspapers in recent years, a symbol of Brexit Britain. The exploitation of archaeological research results in the media and amongst alt-right groups is troubling and should worry us all. Feeding the news cycle, and indulging some aspects of Stonehenge celebrity, have very real risks."

"These stones have been and continue to be used to peddle myths about the past while conserving power and control today – academic power, political power, power over access, an essential celebrity and politician photo opportunity, a place that one has to be associated with. I almost feel sorry for the ageless trilithons, with nothing by concrete to support them, a monument that is so important to some people that it was not allowed to fall into ruination for fear of losing its power-giving qualities."

I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY WITH THE THRUST OF THE ARTICLE.  And it's such a pity that other mainstream archaeologists have been so reluctant to accept that the Stonehenge obsession is immensely damaging to British archaeology as a whole -- not just through the appropriation of funds that could be better spent elsewhere, but through the damage done to the scientific process as groups of senior academics distort and even invent evidence in order to reinforce one ruling Stonehenge hypothesis after another.