Stonehenge and the British Empire: an overlooked debt

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Stonehenge and the British Empire: an overlooked debt

May 3, 2022 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

LUNCHTIME LECTURE

Stonehenge and the British Empire: an overlooked debt

by Mike Pitts FSA

How Stonehenge was built is not a question that occupies many academics. But it is the topic for a visiting public and a host of independent researchers seeking their own unique answer to an apparently insoluble problem. Among those who brought real insights to this quest are a handful of people who drew on their research and experiences in British colonial Asia, especially India, in the first half of the last century. In books or articles scattered across titles such as Antiquity, Folklore and the Empire Forestry Journal, colonial personnel recorded people working stone and moving and raising megaliths and other large objects, and made explicit comparisons to the great monuments at Avebury and Stonehenge.

In this talk I will reveal the stories of seven men and one woman, and of the people who inspired them to think about ancient megaliths in Britain. The observers range from Herbert Stone, who was Chief Engineer for Construction of the East Indian Railway between 1897 and 1903, to Ursula Graham Bower, a pioneering anthropologist whose brother worked in the Indian Civil Service, and whose fieldwork changed in 1942 from filming megaliths to leading a local force against the Japanese army. The people they saw taught them ideas about engineering, ritual and social practices that now offer critical material to help us think about Neolithic Britain. Empire brought together colonists and colonized to create a legacy that now informs Stonehenge.

On February 17 2022 (as of August 2021) the British Museum opens a major exhibition with an international partner, The World of Stonehenge (closes July 17). The same day sees the launch of my first book dedicated to the monument. How to Build Stonehenge (Thames & Hudson) rounds up two decades of research in every area of its title, from raw materials and transport to carving and raising stones, with many new insights. It reveals that the dominant theory about how the great stone circle was raised would have been impossible: my talk will show how the empire legacy has contributed to an alternative and workable vision. How to Build Stonehenge also reflects on a lifetime of thinking about the monument and its many stories, from my first visit on the day England last won the World Cup and my first excavation there in 1979.


This event will be both in person at Burlington House and online. Please select the appropriate ticket below.

Attendance at Burlington House:

  • Open to anyone to join, Fellows and Non-Fellows.
  • Registration is essential.
  • Places in person will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
  • The event will begin at 13.00 GMT. Please arrive in plenty of time.
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Attendance by Live Stream:

  • Open to anyone to join, Fellows and Non-Fellows.
  • The event will be live-streamed to YouTube here
  • The event will begin at 13.00 GMT.
  • You will receive an email reminder with the link to join the day before the lecture.

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Details

Date:
May 3, 2022
Time:
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Venue

Society of Antiquaries of London
Burlington House, Piccadilly
London, W1J 0BE United Kingdom