Abstract

t is now widely recognized that monument building in the fourth and third millennia BC often involved transporting selected blocks of preferred stone many kilometres over difficult terrain. Some structures incorporated blocks from several different sources brought together as an ensemblage in much the same way perhaps that assemblages of flint and stone axes reflect both local and distant sources. This paper explores alternative models accounting for the selection of stones, contrasting those that foreground symbolic attachments and imposed meanings with those that focus on the intrinsic qualities of particular types of stone and its source. The assemblage of different stone types that accumulated at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, over a period of more than a thousand years is used as a case study.