Stukeley’s Stonehenge (1740) and Abury (1743) monographs helped cement the Druid myth as the go-to origin story for megaliths in newly unified Britain.
William Stukeley made Druids the dominant explanation for megaliths in the 1740s
EnglandTheory
Key facts
- William Stukeley published two landmark books: Stonehenge: A British Druidical Temple (1740) and Abury: A Temple of the British Druids (1743).
- His fieldwork and detailed study of Stonehenge and Avebury were pioneering.
- Scottish members of the Royal Society championed the Druid theory.
- John Aubrey had earlier circulated the theory among Oxford scholars; it remained in circulation there from the 1660s into the 1730s.
- The Druid theory offered a unified heroic past for the newly united British state after 1707.
- By the 1770s, Druids appeared in Covent Garden operas, and aristocrats installed stone or live Druids on their grounds.
Sources
STONEHENGE LINK TO DRUIDS DENIEDnytimes.com
Prof Atkinson, in Brit Govt pamphlet, says Druids did not build Stonehenge; repts no evidence of human sacrifice.
Stukeley Studies Stonehenge and Avebury | Historyebsco.com
William Stukeley was a pioneering figure in the study of two of England's most famous prehistoric sites, Stonehenge and Avebury.
Stonehenge, A Temple Restor'd to the British Druids Indexsacred-texts.com
Stukeley's Stonehenge was intended to be the first volume in a comprehensive study of universal history, which he never completed. He believed a pure form of ...
Dr Stukeley & the Druidsthegardenhistory.blog
At the same time he was creating the Stamford garden, the early 1740s, he finally began to publish his research into ancient monuments. In his ...
Theories about Stonehengeen.wikipedia.org
Stonehenge has been the subject of many theories about its origin, ranging from the academic worlds of archaeology to explanations from mythology and the ...
Avebury and the unknowablegwallter.com
' William Stukeley, one of the first to draw attention to the circle after many visits between 1719 and 1724, had his answer: it was a 'British ...
William Stukeleyen.wikipedia.org
1743, Abury: A Temple of the British Druids ... ""A Small Journey into the Country": William Stukeley and the formal landscapes of Avebury and Stonehenge".
Stukeley Studies Stonehenge and Avebury | Historyebsco.com
William Stukeley was a pioneering figure in the study of two of England's most famous prehistoric sites, Stonehenge and Avebury.
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