The “sleeping giants” of neolithic Britain have given up some of their secrets, and they threaten to put the builders of Stonehenge in the shade.
Research on “palisade enclosures” near Avebury henge and stone circles in Wiltshire has concluded that stones used in their construction originated 280 miles away in Northumberland’s Cheviot Hills.
If the granite stones at West Kennet were carried south by people, rather than glacial movement, the distance is almost double that covered by the Preseli mountain bluestones that formed Stonehenge 5,000 years ago.
The researchers wrote in British Archaeology that while more research was needed it was already “beyond doubt one of the most extraordinary and puzzling occurrences of non-local material in neolithic Britain”.
One striking implication is that despite its