THEORIZING LANDSCAPES, AND THE PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPES OF STONEHENGE

Given the contemporary British obsession with the preservation of the past, it is important to understand what is involved in the construction and appropriation of landscape. The first part of this article critically analyses the work of two landscape pioneers: W.G. Hoskins and Raymond Williams. Both these writers focus on historically constituted landscapes. The second part builds on the work of Raymond Williams, but in the context of the prehistoric landscapes of Stonehenge. Rather than offering a smooth sequence-oriented narrative, the evidence is reworked along a number of different axes in an attempt to elucidate the many different ways in which people engaged with and experienced their material (and often immaterial) worlds.