Stoned Henge: Events and issues at the summer solstice, 1985

Abstract

Indigenous ethnic groups are securing an increasing control over archaeological remains in many parts of the world. European archaeologists, who face no such claims, may feel archaeological interests have given way to non‐scientific pressures. Stonehenge is one European site which presents comparable and intractable problems, as claims to Europe's premier prehistoric site encompass neo‐Druids, ‘alternative’ archaeologists, and a full‐scale rock festival ‐ each disputing professional archaeological understanding of, and authority over, the site. The events of summer 1985 are described, when these competing claims led to a physical ‘Battle of Stonehenge’. Their context and background are set out, together with the issues the battle raised, many of them quite alien to archaeological concerns. A possible resolution of the conflict is explored, in which the scientific authority of archaeological research will not be asserted to the exclusion of other attitudes to the past. The intellectual cost of this attitude is justified.

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