John AubreyDied 7 Jun 1697 at age 71 (born 12 Mar 1626). English natural philosopher, author and biographer who is noted for rediscovering a prehistoric monument at Avebury (1649). He also drew attention to a handful of previously overlooked shallow depressions outside the perimeter of the Stonehenge stones (1663). For this the Aubrey Holes were named after him, but the later uncovering of a full circle of holes was not his work. However, he did make an accurate survey mapping the stones, and had the intuition to recognize they were of a much more ancient origin than was the common belief at the time, making him one of the founders of English archaeology. He was a founding member of the Royal Society, where he presented a “Natural History of Wiltshire” in 1675. There, he was a contemporary of Isaac Newton., Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren.. He researched a book of short biographies of eminent men.« |
