British Museum, London
This fiercely emotional exhibition venerates the people of ancient Britain, uncovering a mystical landscape of gods and kings
Stonehenge is a place you just have to go and see. An exhibition inspired by it is surely doomed to fail – the mystery killed by cases of broken beakers. But The World of Stonehenge is as magical as a great barrow full of glinting treasure. It hooks you with a wooden trident (two of these are on display) and plunges you into primal waters of the imagination. It is a knockout epic.
It can’t include Stonehenge, of course, but it does have Seahenge. This monument is made of wood and had to be removed from its seashore home to preserve it – so here it returns from the past. Gnarled wooden columns stand in the twilight. You go up to the semicircle and stare closer into their ridged brown surfaces. Maybe you glimpse a face, an eye, a shadowy form. You know these are not just old posts but the embodiment of ancient powers whose names we have forgotten, for now.
