William Stukeley: Difference between revisions

[[File:SerpentWilliamStukeley.jpg|thumb|upright=1.57|right|Stukeley's serpent identificationinterpretation of the megaliths at [[Avebury]] in [[Wiltshire]]. [[Silbury Hill]] is in the foreground.]]

Hutton noted that Stukeley "always had a strong streak of mysticism and interpreted ancient remains in accordance with set notions concerning the nature of primeval religion."{{sfn|Hutton|2005|p=382}} He had a strong belief in [[Wikisource:immanent|immanent]] divinity.{{sfn|Hutton|2005|p=384}} His belief in an immanent and interconnected divinity led him to adopt ideas from [[Pythagoreanism]] and [[Neoplatonism]]: from the former he adopted the belief that music and numbers expressed the divine order, while from the latter he adopted the notion of hidden correspondences between various parts of the natural world.{{sfn|Hutton|2005|p=384}}

Few of Stukeley's ideas were wholly original, being based on earlier sources.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=100}} His general framework for understanding Britain's prehistoric past derived from his belief in the literal truth of [[Christian mythology|Biblical mythology]], including the creationCreation of the world in 4004 BC and events like the [[Genesis flood narrative]].{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=100}} There is no evidence that when he started investigating Avebury and Stonehenge in 1719, he regarded them as having been erected by the druids.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=87}} At the time, many antiquarians believed that they had been created in more recent periods; [[Inigo Jones]] believed Stonehenge had been built by Romans, [[Walter Charleton]] by [[Norse activity in the British Isles|Danish invaders in the Anglo-Saxon period]], while [[Edmund Bolton]] attributed it to the ancient British but not specifically the druids.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=86}} In adopting the idea that the druids had erected these monuments, he was following the ideas of Aubrey, which he had read in unpublished manuscript form.{{sfn|Hutton|2005|p=385}}