Before exploring the archaeology stores of the Museum, I travelled to different sites of excavation across the Stonehenge landscape. I was struck by the polarity of soft and hard materials –white chalk against black flint – and how these had determined ways in which the sites had evolved. Stone hammered against stone, stone cut into the surfaces of chalk and clay, antler pickaxes used to dig into the soft earth.

Entering the stores at the top of a steep flight of stairs and hidden from public view, was a special and intimate experience. Boxes upon boxes lined the shelves, all containing objects from numerous excavations of the sites surrounding Stonehenge. As I unwrapped flint tools (each individual in terms of their shape, colour and size), roughly cut spherical hammer stones and softly indented antler pickaxes, it felt as though they were being rediscovered once again – echoing something of how the archaeologists must have felt when they first uncovered them.