ABSTRACT

Physical and mental well-being are universal concerns amongst human societies. Many ancient sites, from prehistoric stone circles to great medieval churches, hosted ceremonies to maintain or restore the health of peoples’ bodies and souls. The World Heritage Site of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, UK, is believed to have been a place of healing based on the presence of powerful stones brought to the site from the Preseli Hills of west Wales (Darvill 2016; Darvill & Wainwright 2014). Healing ceremonies have been held at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, northwest Spain, also a World Heritage Site, for more than a thousand years because of the presence of powerful human remains believed to be those of St James the Apostle (Roux 2004). And in eastern Turkey, ancient Anatolian rock monuments closely connected with healing traditions are still used therapeutically by local communities who see them not as relics of the archaeological past but as part of the lived present (Harmanşahe 2015: 150). So can heritage play a role in promoting health, well-being, and quality of life in modern Western societies?