3. The first excavation at Stonehenge took place in 1620
The first excavation at Stonehenge was undertaken by the Duke of Buckingham on behalf of King James I in 1620. James was intrigued by what Buckingham found, and sent the architect Inigo Jones to find out more. Jones, however, unhelpfully concluded that it was built by the Romans. The first man to find anything useful out about Stonehenge was John Aubrey (1626-97). Aubrey was an archaeological pioneer who was the first to record a number of important prehistoric monuments around Britain. At Stonehenge, he was the first to sketch the site’s plan and find the ancient postholes.
Aubrey became an archaeologist by accident. Aged 22, he was foxhunting near Avebury (see above), but soon gave up ruining the poor fox’s day to gaze at the surrounding landscape, ‘wonderfully surprised at the sight of those vast stones of which I had never heard before’. He realised that Avebury must represent a prehistoric temple, and got to work. Though he is most famous today for Stonehenge, Aubrey always retained a soft-spot for Avebury above all prehistoric monuments he came across: ‘Avebury does as much exceed in greatness the so reknowned [sic] Stonehenge, as a cathedral doeth a parish Church’.