1 EXOTIC GRANODIORITE LITHICS FROM STRUCTURE 5 AT WEST KENNET, AVEBURY Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 118 (2025), pp. 1–18 Seventy-seven pieces of very weathered pyroxene-bearing granodiorite corestone excavated from trenches 2, 3 and 9 within Structure 5 of West Kennet in 2019 and 2021 and varying from small pebbles to >500grms cobbles, have a total weight of 22kg. Detailed petrographical and geochemical analyses of typical samples show them to share an unusual (for Britain) and distinctive mineralogy and petrography and also suggest they are all from a single outcrop/subcrop. The essentially unaltered pyroxene-bearing granodiorite carries ‘large’ skeletal zircon crystals, which are a determinative characteristic. Petrological comparisons with similar British granodiorites show that its origin is to be found within the large, 60km 2 and lithologically highly diverse Cheviot Igneous Complex of Northumberland, more than 450km from West Kennet. Three Cheviot samples were selected for comparative analysis, one chosen for its petrographic similarity to the corestones, as suggested by previous workers, a second, close to the first and also to significant Neolithic activity at Threestoneburn Stone Circle, and finally a third based on petrography and notable topography, namely Cunyan Crags. Only the last sample shares a sufficient number of similarities that there warrants further investigation in that area. The corestones are highly exotic with regard to their find spot and although it is difficult to conceive of any practical use for them, West Kennet provides yet another possible example of Late Neolithic long distance prehistoric transport, a distance of between 450km if taken from outcrop and 150km if collected from secondary glacial drift sources, although North Sea coastal glacial tills as a source for the stones appears unlikely and from East Anglia very unlikely. The original Cheviot Hill location remains unidentified but is being actively sought. Exotic granodiorite lithics from Structure 5 at West Kennet, Avebury World Heritage Site, Wiltshire, UK by Rob Ixer, 1 Richard Bevins, 2 Nick Pearce, 2 Duncan Pirrie, 3 Josh Pollard, 4 Alex Finlay, 5 Matthew Power 6 and Ian Patience 7 1 UCL Institute of Archaeology, London WC1H 0PY; 2 Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB; 3 Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science, University of South Wales, Pontypridd CF37 4BD; 4 Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BF; 5 X-ray Mineral Services Ltd, 1 Claughton Road, Colwyn Bay LL29 7EF; 6 Vidence Inc., 4288 Lozells Avenue, Suite 213 – L, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 0C7, Canada; 7 21, Benlaw Grove, Felton, Morpeth NE65 9NG. Introduction Seventy-seven pieces, totalling 22kg of weathered and altered igneous rock, initially identified as sandstone, then as feldspathic sandstone (arkose) but now recognised as ‘granodiorite’ (technically a quartz monzonite/monzodiorite) were excavated between 2019 and 2021 (Gillings et al. 2022) from trenches 2, 3 and 9 within Structure 5 of West Kennet palisade enclosures (Figure 1) and are associated with a Beaker-period grave. There are none in primary contexts in the post settings, which date to about 2500–2400 BC but are later, likely in the range 2400–2200 BC. Therefore they have terminal Neolithic/early Bronze Age contexts but they may