Non-portable stone artefacts and contexts of meaning: The tale of Grey Wether (www.museums.ncl.ac.uk/Avebury/stone4.htm)

It is easy to appreciate that portable artifacts can carry lengthy biograph ies. Those biographies can encapsulate many meanings which will have varied from production, to use, to deposition, with significance changing accordi ng to time, place and ownership. However, the cultural biography of static objects, particularly if they are essentially natural rather than culturall y modified, may seem more prescribed. It is our contention that this is oft en far from the case, as the social lives of the stones making up the megal ithic settings at Avebury, Wiltshire, vividly demonstrate.