I just think it was unecessarily destructive. Does it really matter how hard it is to break a stone? We know it was done, regardless. And to disrupt the natural landscape in the region of a place like Avebury seems positively wanton. The stone could be construed as part of the ur temple, and as such just as valid an artifact as any of the others. And as Pete says, they learned f**k all about the process anyway.

I guess I'm setting myself up for a good slagging off here but what the hell!

Squiddo

are you sure they didn't? Not that I don't believe you ...

I mean, I've got no idea about stone-burning. If you don't actually try these things out properly, then you're riding on an assumption. You've got to use a stone from thereabouts, otherwise you'll get misleading results.

I wish I'd seen this prog years ago, when I used to work in these woods - one of the jobs was rebuilding barbed wire fences, and to firm up the stakeposts, we used to use bits of stone at the base, below the soil. Right bastard of a job is breaking stone ...

at what distance from Avebury/Delling would people say it's OK to molest the stones then?

RG