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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Steven Morris

‘Hugely exciting and rare’: Neolithic polishing stone found in Dorset

Dorset
The polishing stone found in the Valley of Stones in Dorset.
The polishing stone found in the Valley of Stones in Dorset. Photograph: JamesD/HistoricEngArchive/SWNS

At first glance it looked like nothing more than a rugged boulder jumbled among many others on the floor of a valley in the West Country.

But a smooth, glossy dip in the stone indicated that it was something very special – a vanishingly rare “polissoir”, or polishing stone, used 5,000 years ago by Neolithic people to hone tools such as axes.

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