THE SITING OF NEOLITHIC STONE QUARRIES—EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY AT GREAT LANGDALE, CUMBRIA

Summary. Although the general distributions of stone axes and their sources have been studied for many years, it is not clear whether the production of these artefacts was carried out by specialists. One way of resolving the problem may be to consider the efficiency with which raw material was extracted. This paper describes an attempt to assess the factors influencing the siting of the Group VI stone quarries at Great Langdale. It is concluded that there is only a limited relationship between the most suitable locations, as suggested by detailed sampling of the outcrop, and those sites where stone working actually took place. This suggests that some of those using such sites may have lacked a detailed knowledge of the area.