Sacred Sites -- Contested Rites/Rights: Pagan Engagements with Archaeological Monuments

Pagan identities and constructions of sacredness contest assumptions of a 'closed' past and untouchable heritage, within a socio-politics of political and economic threats to prehistoric archaeology. Pagans see prehistoric monuments in a living, enchanted landscape of deities, ancestors and other non-human agencies engaged with for personal and community empowerment. From all areas of Britain and worldwide, people arrive at 'sacred sites' to make pilgrimage, give offerings, act as unofficial 'site guardians', and campaign for 'site welfare'. Summer solstice access at Stonehenge attracts tens of thousands of celebrants; threats of quarrying near Yorkshire's Thornborough Henges lead to protests and campaigns for the preservation of sacred landscapes and conservation of plant and animal species. Yet while Pagans may ally themselves with the interests of heritage management, the large-scale celebrations at Stonehenge and Avebury are subject to continual negotiation and recent claims for the reburial of ancient human remains disrupt the preservation ethos of those who manage and study these sites.

Here an anthropologist (Blain) and archaeologist (Wallis) examine interfaces between paganisms and archaeology, considering the emergence of 'sacred sites' in pagan and heritage discourse, and implications of pagan involvement for heritage management, archaeology, anthropology - and for pagans themselves, as well as considering practical guidelines for reciprocal benefit.

Pagan identities and constructions of sacredness contest assumptions of a 'closed' past and untouchable heritage, within a socio-politics of political and economic threats to prehistoric archaeology. Pagans see prehistoric monuments in a living, enchanted landscape of deities, ancestors and other non-human agencies engaged with for personal and community empowerment. From all areas of Britain and worldwide, people arrive at 'sacred sites' to make pilgrimage, give offerings, act as unofficial 'site guardians', and campaign for 'site welfare'. Summer solstice access at Stonehenge attracts tens of thousands of celebrants; threats of quarrying near Yorkshire's Thornborough Henges lead to protests and campaigns for the preservation of sacred landscapes and conservation of plant and animal species. Yet while Pagans may ally themselves with the interests of heritage management, the large-scale celebrations at Stonehenge and Avebury are subject to continual negotiation and recent claims for the reburial of ancient human remains disrupt the preservation ethos of those who manage and study these sites.

Here an anthropologist (Blain) and archaeologist (Wallis) examine interfaces between paganisms and archaeology, considering the emergence of 'sacred sites' in pagan and heritage discourse, and implications of pagan involvement for heritage management, archaeology, anthropology - and for pagans themselves, as well as considering practical guidelines for reciprocal benefit.