Thanks to Tim Daw and Tony Hinchliffe for flagging this up. The famous "Boles Barrow Bluestone" found at Boles Barrow near Heytesbury, as illustrated and described in the current BM exhibition. I suppose we are stuck with all the foreign rocks at Stonehenge being described as "bluestones" -- although it leads most people to the belief that there is only one rock type with this name, rather than the 30 or so "foreign" lithologies that are found there.
Is it dressed? That is a matter of debate -- in most of the literature it is referred to as "undressed" or in its natural state, albeit damaged, and a part of what must have been a much larger boulder.
Precise provenance unknown? Well, it is disputed, but the consensus nowadays seems to be that it did indeed come from Boles Barrow, and that it was put there well before the stone monument at Stonehenge was conceived and built. "It is very likely that it was part of the first monument at Stonehenge" ?? I beg to differ.
I have done many posts on the Boles Barrow stone. Use the search box to find them........
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Years ago I did email Salisbury Museum's curator and he was clearly heavily influenced by the long-standing human transport mythos and said it was dressed, full stop. There we are then, no debate...
It certainly is a piece of what was a much larger stone. It looks to me as if the weathering crust has broken off a part of the surface. Of course, a lot of damage might have been done since the stone was taken from boles Barrow, where it (probably) was originally.........
In the recent study of the stone, was any attempt made to differentiate ancient damage from modern damage?
From memory, I think Parker Pearson and his team did some close examination of the Boles Barrow Bluestone in Salisbury Museum.
I recommend you email the Director:-
adriangreen@salisburymuseum.org.UK
Tel: 01722- 332151
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