Authenticity, Artifice and the Druidical Temple of Avebury

Abstract

This paper engages with the legacy of a prehistoric monument – the Avebury henge, in southern England – and the influential work of an early antiquarian – William Stukeley. We highlight how the reception of Stukeley’s 1743 work, Abury: a temple of the British druids, has structured images of Avebury and shaped the authenticity claims of later scholars, artists and religious groups. In biographical terms, Stukeley’s carefully crafted Abury has possessed a very active afterlife, its status shifting from that of primary record (of Avebury), to a form of constructionalblueprint (for Avebury), to a partial and flawed primary record (of an Avebury), only to end up for some as an unassailable and defijinitive record (of the Avebury). At the centre of this narrative is the status of Abury as a material agent around which various authenticity claims have been constructed