While learning about the myths of Stonehenge and subsequently the facts, i thought about why certain archaeological feats are explained scientifically, accepted by the public, and categorized usually, while others have stories and myths spun around them to the point that the majority of the public doesn’t know the truth. I believe it is related to how accessible the information is, as well as how intrinsically interesting the truth is. We see incredible monuments such as the palaces of Crete or goddess temples and for the most part accept the true origins, that an ancient human civilization created them. This is because we know their stories fairly accurately, and said stories have something about them that interests general people enough to learn and accept them. The stories are mysterious, exciting, or even controversial enough to interest people and spur their curiosity in the true origins. On the other hand, knowledge about some sites is more vague, and despite having concrete facts, they are lesser known and people see more room for them to input their creative theories. This also happens I believe when a site simply isn’t alluring enough to peak the public’s interest in researching the real origin of a site, structure, or monument.
The solution to dissipate these myths, although I do not believe we need one, is making information about these sites incredibly accessible to the public. While facts are less interesting in many cases than stories we can fabricate to fit our ambitions, stories filled with facts rather than fiction would educate people about these sites. But in the end, people love excitement and interest, and only the few that value truth more than that, will continue to learn and explore.
I see your point on making information more visible to the public, yet at the same time I don’t think that would solve all your problems. As with many things relating to the past, just because common knowledge on a subject is available freely to the public does not mean that misinformation and/or outright lies on a subject won’t stop. This is for a variety of reasons of course; as you say people love exciting stories, but the heart of the matter is that a lot of the ‘super secret’ sites people may take in interest have a much more mundane purpose then what they hope. Stonehenge isn’t some signal for aliens or whatever, and the Pyramids of Giza don’t align perfectly on a map at a certain angle to point where King Ramses treasure is for example. So even when many, many facts and good inferences can be discerned from a site, that alone isn’t going to stop the tidal wave of certain humans tendencies to view what they think is right is above all else.
Like you said, only people who can keep their head below the clouds and focus only on what can be actually discerned as true and not outrageous speculation or outright falsehood can really appreciate some of the less ‘touristy’ sites. Even in our modern age of internet and information freedom, it seems that ignorance on certain subjects has not lessened at all, or even increased in some cases as like-minded fools can easily band together to spread their BS freely.