Prof Howard MR Williams writes: I’ve just read an invaluable reflection by archaeologist Dr Jonathan Last on the recent Telegraph story reporting that neo-Nazi groups have been holding religious ceremonies at Avebury and Wayland’s Smithy.
https://prehistorian.postach.io/post/et-in-avebury-ego
Dr Last points to the way British prehistory has been portrayed in the media as part of the problem. But he identifies a wider problem that, for all the sophisticated interpretations by academics, the public are fed a ‘conservative, nostalgic narrative of a lost rural England.’ This, Dr Last argues, chimes with the ‘blood and soil’ ideology of extremists. The 20th-century recreations of prehistoric monuments at Avebury and Wayland’s Smithy afford a sense of timelessness that takes these monuments out of history: they are instead mysterious and never-changing. He advocates a shift in the way heritage organisations should be explaining monuments and their landscapes. Also, he advocates that we should emphasise that prehistoric remains ‘belong to everyone and are found everywhere, not just in ‘idyllic’ places of rural England. He concludes: ‘Vile nationalism has infected too many areas of public life in Britain in the last few years; let’s not allow our shared prehistoric heritage to go the same way.’
I cannot but wholeheartedly agree. And yet my immediate response was to add a further point:
Archaeologists cannot spend a century treating these sites as prehistoric and be surprised that ignoring their biographies of use and reuse creates a yawning space for extremist fantasies. It’s not the press, but ‘prehistorians’ and ‘prehistory’ that create this problem
Now this is perhaps unfair for Avebury, but even here, there exists only one book ever published attempting to coherently and systematically place the henge monument in long-term context by charting the archaeology of Avebury and its environs from prehistory to more recent times: by Josh Pollard and Andrew Reynolds.
Avebury’s National Trust have worked long and hard to accommodate and retain good relations with neo-Pagan communities, however, and so it seems unfair to castigate this site’s management because of this unfortunate incident(s). However, I do wonder whether a more detailed and informed engagement with the medieval archaeology of Avebury might have served, and going forward might serve, to counter those extremists who take their inspiration from German heathenry and apply them to megalithic monuments. It is important however, to state that most neo-Pagans have no association or interest in these presumably ‘Heathen’ groups and their race-hate, and we must also counter any simply or exclusive connection between white supremacism and Heathenry. Many followers who attach spiritual associations to Avebury will be furious at this news story and worried over whether it will affect their respectful access to the monument. The same applies to Wayland’s Smithy. Yet when it comes to Wayland’s Smithy, a site I’ve been researching, I find we have sleep-walked into this problem.
More at
https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/13/waylands-smithy-and-neo-nazis/
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road