Moving megaliths: the Stonehenge-Asia link

I recently gave a talk at the Society of Antiquaries in London about how observers in British colonial Asia – mostly civil servants during the years of the Raj, when the Crown claimed the right to rule India between 1858 and 1947 – recorded their impressions of people creating megaliths. In diaries, talks, books, or …

Stonehenge stories on Twitter

How to Build Stonehenge comes out on February 17 2022. Published by Thames & Hudson, it has many illustrations (including new photos and diagrams by me) and is the first book to focus exclusively and comprehensively on this theme since Herbert Stone’s The Stones of Stonehenge, published in 1924. There was a lot to say: …

Do you recognise these archaeologists?

This remarkable photo shows an excavation team in Dorset in 1970. At the time of posting this, we’ve been able to identify 35 of the people there, but 18 remain unknown to us [updated, currently 36/17]. Can you help? The story begins in Wiltshire, near Stonehenge, in 1966. The council had decided to straighten a …

Antony Gormley at the Royal Academy 2019

I was privileged to attend a press view of the new Antony Gormley show at the Royal Academy this morning. I liked it very much. It opens on September 21 and closes on December 3. Key points: 1. It’s a real co-operation between gallery and artist, unique to the place and the time and enhancing …

Quick thoughts on A303 written representations

Well, the Stonehenge A303 proposed works examination representations are now in and available online. Many of the 264 documents (perhaps most) are from Highways England. But there are many more, including from Historic England (579 pages), National Trust (286), Stonehenge Alliance (218), Blick Mead (149, an odd submission, consisting mostly of copies of other people’s …

Stonehenge 1979

More evidence for Southampton University help at Stonehenge. Excavating the Avenue ditch is Sue Davies See https://mikepitts.wordpress.com/2019/04/26/arthur-apsimon/

Arthur ApSimon

Sad news. Archaeologist Arthur ApSimon has died. He was 91. Like Isobel Smith, Arthur was research assistant to Gordon Childe in London. He went to Queen's University Belfast, then to the new Department of Archaeology in Southampton, where he remained until retirement. He published an important paper on the Wessex Culture in 1954, he was …

Archaeology and Brexit

  In a recent news magazine programme on Radio 4, there was a discussion about fruit. “We all love oranges,” says a reporter. “But if you love oranges, you’re in for a shock. Because a new survey has found out that you don’t.” Later in the feature the presenter asks a representative of an organisation …

Brexit: The Uncivil War

I haven’t enjoyed a TV drama (Brexit: The Uncivil War, Channel 4 January 7) so much since Killing Eve. But I’m not heartened by the reaction of many people, whose views about Brexit I share, who seem to feel The Uncivil War somehow let down our side, that it glamorised Brexit and concealed its darker …

Brenda Swinbank, archaeologist

Note: I wrote this for the excellent TrowelBlazers in July, but it doesn't seem to have been posted there, so in the meantime here it is as written. Brenda Swinbank was the late Jeremy Heywood’s mother, and as noted by his obituaries, she was an archaeologist. * Brenda Swinbank, born in Ackworth, West Yorkshire, in 1929 …