William Stukeley

Um, so let's get stuck in then, right? How did it all happen? After, before World War II, there was a special method of archaeology that was developed.

Archaeology, I could go further back, actually started, um, in like the 18th century in Britain with people like William Stukeley, who was the first guy to sort of figure out Stonehenge was a solar-aligned monument in Britain.

And then later on in Denmark, Denmark was really important 'cause a couple of guys in Denmark pushed forwards to think about bringing stratigra- stratigraphy, so they can like see the different layers and actually get accurate dating of artifacts.

And, um, it became a real, you know, over the course of the late 18th century, archaeology became a real discipline, distinct from like traditional history.

For a while, it seemed like the mystery was solved, partially at least.

But in 1740, a doctor and antiquarian named William Stukeley took detailed measurements of the site.

He came away with two important discoveries that forever changed how we think about Stonehenge.

Stukeley's first revelation was that the monument perfectly aligned with the sun during the two solstices.

If anyone had the power to tell thousands of Celtics to build a massive stone monument, it was the Druids.

And since we know the Druids made human sacrifices, it made sense that human ashes were found at Stonehenge.

William Stukeley used all of this evidence to make a convincing case.

For all intents and purposes, it seemed like he'd solved one of history's oldest mysteries.

but they've been smashed out and broken up.

And to some extent, it happened, that process of it being taken apart, it coincided with an 18th century churchman come antiquarian, a kind of an early archaeologist called William Stukeley, who at the time was roaming around the British landscape, visiting these places, places like Avebury, and recording them, making drawings of them and writing them up and wondering what they were.

When he came to Avebury, he was pretty convinced that these places had been built by the Druids.

that they had been built as temples by the Druids.