Stonehenge. Image credit Heritage Action

by our correspondent

The first ever seminar reporting and discussing academic research of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site took place in a packed Devizes Town Hall on Saturday 22nd May 2010.

Almost exclusively focused upon prehistory, a whopping fourteen presentations covered a range of aspects that the wider public would rarely if ever encounter. That was precisely the point of this seminar, which was jointly put on by the Prehistoric Society and the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society on behalf of the Avebury Archaeological and Historical Research Group. The research into (what is seen as) the two halves of the WHS has never been pulled together in this way and it favourably ticked a box by facilitating information direct to the public.

The gap between what academics know and the impression that circulates in the public domain can only get narrower through such initiatives. Another seminar is envisaged for next year.

An excellent report by Alex Down on the seminar can be found on Eternal Idol