ABSTRACT
The nature of neolithic society is one of the most controversial matters of all. Of the wide-ranging views that have found their way into print, the prevailing one until the present century was that neolithic Britons were ‘savage and barbarous, knowing no use of garments’. There was always a small, unorthodox minority who saw evidence of something higher. William Stukeley, for instance, in 1740 saw the elaborate monuments on Salisbury Plain as evidence of a stratified society with druids, arch-druids, kings, princes and nobles. The great numbers of arrows, axes and earthworks from the period were nevertheless generally interpreted as signs of warlike tendencies, and human sacrifice was taken for granted.
