Stonehenge: A History

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Жыл бұрын

Our contemporary ideas about Stonehenge and British antiquity were shaped in times of empire and war. They dominate popular histories and inform national identity.
Focusing on how Stonehenge was built, and drawing on a wealth of evidence which includes new archaeology and science, this lecture describes an alternative narrative of ancient communities, and presents a more positive and inclusive story - a Stonehenge re-imagined for modern Britain.
A lecture by Mike Pitts recorded on 23 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/s...
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Пікірлер: 45

@charlottesimonin2551 Жыл бұрын

Extraordinary presentation! The best and most informative explanation of the largely parochial myths surrounding Stonehenge.

@crasslee Жыл бұрын

It was a pleasure to listen to Mike Pitts, and to meet him after when he signed my copy of his book 🙂

@frederickbowdler8169 Жыл бұрын

Great lecture on archaeology thanks

@Neilhuny Жыл бұрын

That was one of the most informative lectures I've ever seen here! It has changed my mind about a very great deal of things on a subject I thought I knew well, and put the reasons for those changes. in historical and cultural context

@helenamcginty4920 Жыл бұрын

I enjoyed the historiography in this talk. Very interesting.

@aal-e-ahmadhussain3123 Жыл бұрын

Fantastic critique of contemporary notions of Progress and Modernity. I would suggest reading The Racial Contract by Charles Mills, Orientalism by Edward Said, and Restating Orientalism by Wael Hallaq.

@IamValentina66 Жыл бұрын

Love to listen to you.

@jezhunt8394 Жыл бұрын

Fascinating stuff!

@seazenbones6945 Жыл бұрын

Brilliant. Thanks.

@Plasingli4 Жыл бұрын

I too watched to the end, and was interested in much of the content. But Mike's scrutiny of Stonehenge beliefs was very selective -- and he accepted without any scrutiny at all the quarrying of bluestones at so-called "bluestone megalith quarries" in West Wales, the imagined pillar shapes of the bluestones used in Stonehenge settings, and the imagined transport of 80 or so bluestones from West Wales to Stonehenge. He also rather too easily accepted that the sarsens had come from West Woods. The jury is still out on all those matters, and he should have informed his audience of that.

@helenamcginty4920 Жыл бұрын

I wasnt going to bother with this just now but the rather nasty comments changed my mind. Why can folk not disagree using valid reasoning rather than sneering?

@Crumbsyums Жыл бұрын

The people who raised the first stone at Stonehenge experienced an 80-90% genetic displacement that millennium. The Celtic culture Caesar encountered were something very different. This incorrect POV is an important reason why academics have been missing the mark for so long It would be like than saying that Angles, Saxons, and Jutes encountered the people who built Stonehenge and all of those nice Roman baths There was lots of conquest and displacement between the first building of Stonehenge, and the druid culture that Caesar ran into

@Neidzwiedz1 Жыл бұрын

Excellent presentation! The egotism of modern man has ever been thus. I do not doubt that one of the people working on stonehenge looked over at his colleague and commented how the primitives who made the woodhenge they were replacing were little better than savages.

@JJONNYREPP Жыл бұрын

Stonehenge: A History 1418pm 2.3.23 i had the misfortune t watch channel 5's expose of sink holes or fire pits as set out near about to the site... 50 minutes musing on what they could be... plague pits? mass cremation pits? chalk mines.. i was left wondering if a set of tunnels could be located beneath the site as a whole? i say unfortunately, as it does seem like these experts are somewhat afraid to ever get to the point... they could come to a conclusion - if only to suggest what it is they think as opposed to mumbling and buggering about and bumbling along to no end. we love the henge those who love it seemingly never having visited it. that's irony, that is........... p.s those modern savages are still with us - driving cars and desiring and craving the bling of the ages - but still savage.

@RonJohn63 7 ай бұрын

30:13 Someone's been reading his Bible... 50:12 Well, they _were_ primitive and sometimes savage (by modern Western standards). But that's obvious. 51:10 This just reinforces the notion that ancient peoples _were_ primitive (and sometimes savage). 51:48 There's a big difference between "sinful" and primitive (or even savage). 53:04 You British are really big on "primitive means qualitative failings", when it's obvious that primitive means an early stage of development.

@tomsunhaus6475 Жыл бұрын

One might want to discover the connection of Northern painted peoples often called barbarians by peoples closer to the equator. The problem is that nowadays peoples closest to the equator cannot stop the persistent wars & killing from ancient times.

@docastrov9013 Жыл бұрын

I have never heard anyone invoke Stonehenge in times of national crisis.

@fullmontyuk Жыл бұрын

It has always been combined with other icons of English culture but you can find it on propaganda posters from both World Wars. 'It's what we're fighting to protect!' etc etc

@fburton8 Жыл бұрын

@@fullmontyuk As in “we English [Britons] go back a long way” and all that implies? That makes sense to me.

@fullmontyuk Жыл бұрын

@@fburton8 Indeed. I was just watching a short documentary on the Piltdown Man hoax and whilst the story of how it happened is interesting it's very revealing of what English/British scholars of pre-history wanted to believe. Imperialism was not a dirty word and the idea that Britannia ruled the waves, as well as a quarter of the world's land-mass, because the British were superior was popular.

@Crumbsyums Жыл бұрын

Watching intelligent people reflexively regurgitate trendy and ridiculous ideas can be very disheartening

@fullmontyuk Жыл бұрын

@@Crumbsyums Care to expand upon that?

@cliveb9771 Жыл бұрын

I was quite disappointed by this - my fault for misinterpreting what the content would be. I was expecting an update on recent discoveries about Stonehenge based on new scientific data but instead it was a modish and fairly unconvincing attempt to decolonise the history of the site by suggesting that historical interpreters got it wrong because they based their ideas on prejudices formed by their place in the British Empire. This may be partly true but replacing it with an interpretation based instead on present day liberal academic prejudices is probably wrong too. Cancelling the word "primitive" to describe prehistoric people because it is "nonsensically judgemental" and replacing it by the suggestion they were simple "different" to us is an idea but probably best not then to have confusingly quoted with approval from the repressive dictator Hastings Banda who suggested that indeed the builders of Stonehenge were "primitive".

@miapitts6137 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for listening to the end!

@Neilhuny Жыл бұрын

I take the opposite view and saw it as a fascinating and convincing rejection of many of the universally held beliefs about how Stonehenge was built, illustrating where those ideas came from and how they became accepted, at the expense of genuine observation and science. There were no A-Frames and probably no many dozens of coerced people pulling 30 tonne stones over rollers etc. It isn't based on liberal academic prejudices but on practical observations.

@helenamcginty4920 Жыл бұрын

The builders of Stonehenge had more primitive technology than we do today but they were the same as us. They had the same intelligence. They were exactly the same species as you. Can you build say a table even using modern power tools? From scratch? Choose the right trees? Cut them down. Season the wood etc. No? But you feel able to comment on peoples skilled enough in using and building with stone to be able to build Stonehenge.

@waltonsmith7210 Жыл бұрын

I can dislike the word primitive without cancelling it

@edgarbranscum7725 Жыл бұрын

@Play Google How are you defining "Woke"? If by woke you mean a seriously interesting discussion on how the idea of Stonehenge and the people who built it have evolved over time and where those ideas came from, then you're missing out. If you're using "woke" as a pejorative, then academic lectures probably aren't your speed anyway. The UFO and bigfoot channel is to your left as you go out the door and two hallways down.

@diogenes9524 24 күн бұрын

Why is describing ancient cultures as 'alien' any less judgemental than describing them as'primitive'? If only this lecturer had provided as many 'right' answers as he sneered at 'wrong' ones, and acknowedged that guesswork still dominates, informed by contemporary prejudice of course. Disappointing.

@mliittsc63 Жыл бұрын

Not really about Stonehenge.

@jojosviolethaven322 Жыл бұрын

Ssnoore.. say Stonehenge 3 x.. 10 x . @ podium you get a degree or a grant or look like a fool repeatedly babbling about stones you don't have or know about about .. tired of this pfft lol

@jezhunt8394 Жыл бұрын

Deep.

@nikbear Жыл бұрын

Thanks for that,...now here's Jim with the weather! 🤣

@amarshmuseconcepta6197 11 ай бұрын

@@nikbear 🤨"Weather machine"" Complex-HARRP"" 🙄