Creating Prehistory: Druids, Ley Hunters and Archaeologists in Pre-war Britain

Creating Prehistory deals even-handedly and sympathetically with the creation of several different sorts of prehistory during the volatile period between the two World Wars. This book investigates the origins of professional archeology in Britain during the inter-war period. It brings to life many fascinating and controversial personalities and their creeds, including the archaeologists O. G. S. Crawford, Mortimer Wheeler and Gordon Childe; Grafton Elliot Smith and W. H. R. Rivers (of ‘Regeneration’ fame); Alfred Watkins and The Old Straight Track ; and the thunderous George Watson Macgregor Reid, who brought the Druids back to Stonehenge. It examines the production of archaeological knowledge as a social process, and the relationship between personalities, institutions, ideology, and power. It addresses the ongoing debates of the significance of sites such as Stonehenge, Avebury, and Maiden Castle.