Correcting the Record on the West Kennet Limestone

Our welsh Make Archaeology Glacial Again correspondent is worried about the dry stone walling in the West Kennet Long Barrow -"Oolitic Limestone slabs, assumed to have come either from near Calne or near Frome. Apparently the slabs were very rotten when they were exposed during the digs by Piggott and others, and were replaced with a tonne of nice shiny new slabs in the 1950's"

A quick glance at Piggott's Excavation book would have put his mind at rest and reassured him that the sourcing of non-local rocks was what neolithic builders did; why is another and very interesting question.

Look at these lovely sharp edged stones they found, and the sensible discussion by Piggott.  

That the reconstruction was maybe over enthusiastic, but it was of its time, and that material was brought in to stabilise the monument is no secret. As with anything Atkinson had a hand in the documentation is lamentable but there is no conspiracy.