This stone boulder is an extremely rare and important artefact dating back over 5,000 years. It has a dished glossy surface where it was used to polish stone axe heads in the Neolithic period. Stone axes (which would have had wooden handles) were essential tools for these early farming people who used them to clear woodland, work timber and build houses and monuments. The polishing boulder – known as a polissoir – is a rare discovery, being only the second undisturbed, polissoir found in its original position in England. It is formed of sarsen stone, a particularly hard form of sandstone known as silcrete (a cemented mass of sand and gravel). The polissoir was identified in 2022 by the community archaeology company Past Participate CIC, following a volunteer programme of vegetation clearance in the Valley of Stones National Nature Reserve in the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The Valley is also recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and protected as a scheduled monument.
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