We are delighted to share this comic by Katy Whitaker, Doctoral Researcher at the University of Reading about where Wiltshire’s Sarsen stones come from (some of the theories are pretty outlandish!):

I am researching the past and present use of sarsen stone, those great grey boulders we are familiar with at Stonehenge and Avebury.  Sarsens are a special part of the Marlborough Downs landscape.  They are best known in prehistoric monuments.   During the Neolithic in the period c3,900 – 2,500 BC sarsens were used in other ways, too.  This includes as quern stones for grinding grains into flour; in burials; as tools such as hammers; as boundary markers and laying out the first fields.  Archaeologists haven’t researched the stone in its own right before, so my project does just that. I am based at the University of Reading, with support from the University of Southampton, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).   The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre is a partner in the AHRC scheme, and my project will be using archaeological data and archive material from the Centre.

Katy Whitaker

Doctoral Researcher, University of Reading