Barber surgeon of Avebury

It was dated by coins to the early 14th century, and identified as a barber surgeon by a pair of scissors and a medical-looking probe.

The story of the barber surgeon is one that most visitors to the prehistoric Avebury stone circle will have heard.

The traditional interpretation goes as follows; a pious traveller was assisting the folk of Avebury village in burying the pagan standing stones during the fourteenth century.

Keiller lifted the stone (which was 3 metres tall and weighed 13 tons) to reinstate it in 1938 and found the man's remains underneath.

A large healed cut wound was noticed on the skull but no evidence of traumatic death was identified and it was suggested that the man had been buried beneath a stone rather than crushed by it.