inWnite relics of theirs here, as that we have no history of them that speaks with any
particularity of the last three hundred years that the Romans dwelt in Britain, and
rendered it perfectly provincial... Yet I hold myself obliged to preserve, as well as I
can, the memory of such things as I saw; which, added to what future times will
discover, will revive the Roman glory among us, and may serve to invite noble minds
to endeavour to that merit and public-spiritedness which shine through all their
actions. This tribute at least we owe them, and they deserve it at our hands, to
preserve their remains.
(Stukeley in Piggott 1985: 74–5).The experts increasingly perceived their undertakings as patriotic. An early
example is that found in the preface to the weekly magazineCimbrisch-
Holsteinische Antiquita ̈ten Remarqueswritten by Andreas Albert Rhode in
1719 (1682–1724): ‘For some time all kinds of good patriots have had it in
mind that the deeds, tales, behaviour and customs of our ancestors, the
ancient Germans, should not be suppressed or abandoned to negligence’
(Schnapp 1993: 212).
As regards domestic antiquities most antiquarian studies still centred their
attention on the Roman period—at least in the countries that had experi-
enced the presence of the Romans in antiquity. Beyond the frontiers of the old
Roman Empire, as well as to a certain extent in the countries within them,
there was also an increasing attention on the study of more ancient prehistoric
and medieval remains. The search for cultural diversity instigated some
scholars to turn their eyes to the prehistoric—especially Celtic/Druidic or
Nordic, depending on the country—and to the medieval past. Some even
started to see the Roman world not as the model of wisdom and knowledge,
but as a source of domination. In two poems published in 1735 and 1745,
Libertyby Thomson andOde to Libertyby Collins, the Druids were regarded
as leaders of resistance against the Roman oppressor (Piggott 1985: 104).
Prehistoric and medieval archaeology attracted a few. Regarding the latter
period, in most countries, archaeology focused on architecture, on standing
buildings as shown by John Frew (1980) for the case of England. Those
interested in prehistoric archaeology could count on some monuments,
but increasingly it was felt that for their right understanding excavation
was needed. This led antiquarians such as the British William Borlase
(1696–1772) and the Reverend James Douglas (Cook 2004: 189), or, later,
William Cunnington (1754–1810) and Richard Colt Hoare (1758–1838)
(Marsden 1983) to excavate. The number of antiquarians engaged in excav-
ations seems to have been much higher in some countries than in others: they
were seemingly more numerous in Scandinavia, where there was a remarkable
growth in interest towards the past during the eighteenth century (Jensen
2004; Nordbladh 2002). During the early 1700s stone tools were recognized as
52 Early Archaeology of Great Civilizations