Making Megaliths: Shifting and Unstable Stones in the Neolithic of the Avebury Landscape

Megaliths were not static or inert; their movement and repositioning during the Neolithic period represented a dynamic reconfiguration of the landscape, embodying and disrupting known places. This study challenges the focus on long-distance stone transportation by examining the local acquisition and movement of sarsen stones in the Avebury landscape, Wiltshire, where over 700 megaliths were used to construct ceremonial and funerary monuments. The research reveals that these practices were significant, as evidenced by the subsequent monumentalization of extraction sites, suggesting a profound cultural and symbolic importance tied to stone movement. By analyzing the processes and transformations involved in megalith acquisition, the study offers new insights into the emergent monument types of prehistoric Britain.

Gillings, M., & Pollard, J. (2016). Making Megaliths: Shifting and Unstable Stones in the Neolithic of the Avebury Landscape. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 26(4), 537–559. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774316000330