Like Lockyer’s Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered, William Stukeley’s 1740 study of Stonehenge stands out among the huge number of books on the subject. Stukeley was a pioneer preservationist. He lamented the callous treatment of the majestic ruins both by tourists and landholders. He coined the term ‘trilithon’ for the doorway-like arrangement of three stones, now common in the literature about megalithic architecture. Stukeley was one of the first to make accurate drawings of the site. The three dozen illustrations to this book, which show Stonehenge from every angle and document its context in the 18th century landscape, are still used today by scholars. He also did some rudimentary archaeology, and describes opening the grave of a warrior princess.
Stukeley’s Stonehenge was intended to be the first volume in a comprehensive study of universal history, which he never completed. He believed a pure form of Christianity was the original religion of mankind, which had been subverted by idolatry, and finally restored by Jesus. Stonehenge was a temple of this primordial patriarchial religion, built by immigrants from the Near East, possibly Phoenicians. They became the progenitors of the Celts, founded the Druid religion and built the mysterious standing stones. (Today scholars believe that Stonehenge was constructed by an indigenous, pre-Celtic, pre-Druid culture).