Our Sacred Sites, Contested Rites/Rights project (www.sacredsites.org.uk) examines
physical, spiritual and interpretative engagements of today’s pagans with
sacred sites, theorizes ‘sacredness’, and explores the
implications of pagan engagements with sites for heritage management and archaeology
more generally, in terms of ‘preservation ethic’ vis-a-vis
active engagement. In this article, we explore ways in which ‘sacred
sites’ - both the term and the sites - are negotiated by different
interest groups, foregrounding our locations, as an archaeologist/art historian
(Wallis) and anthropologist (Blain), and active pagan engagers with sites. Examples
of pagan actions at such sites, including at Avebury and Stonehenge, demonstrate not
only that their engagements with sacred sites are diverse and that identities - such
as that of ‘new indigenes’ - arising therefrom are complex, but
also that heritage management has not entirely neglected the issues. In addition to
managed open access solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, a climate of inclusivity
and multivocality has resulted in fruitful negotiations at the Rollright Stones.
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