ABSTRACT

At the end of 1865, Sir John Lubbock was engaged in a lively public debate with another archaeologist, James Fergusson, on the date of some of Britain's most prominent ancient monuments. Fergusson had opened the discussion with a claim, inferred from historical evidence that Silbury Hill and Avebury were memorials to battles fought by King Arthur, and that Stonehenge was a cenotaph erected by Aurelius Ambrosius in ad 467 in memory of 300 British chiefs slain by Hengist. 1 Fergusson's logic presupposed a post-Roman date for the monuments. Lubbock responded, insisting on a prehistoric date, 2 and pointing to Richard Colt-Hoare's study of the burial mounds surrounding Stonehenge, the grave goods from which he attributed to the Bronze Age. At Silbury Hill the evidence was even more clear – Lubbock and Tyndall had made careful observations on the site, showing that a Roman road actually swerves around it, proving a pre-Roman date.