[7] A widely held theory amongst archaeologists is that these megalithic tombs were intentionally made to resemble the long timber houses which had been constructed by Neolithic farming peoples in the Danube basin from circa 4800 BCE.

[8] As the historian Ronald Hutton related:[8] There is no doubt that these great tombs, far more impressive than would be required of mere repositories for bones, were the centres of ritual activity in the early Neolithic: they were shrines as well as mausoleums.

Instead they settled and farmed the most agriculturally productive areas of the island: Orkney, eastern Scotland, Anglesey, the upper Thames, Wessex, Essex, Yorkshire and the river valleys of The Wash.[10] Late Neolithic Britons also appeared to have changed their religious beliefs, ceasing to construct the large chambered tombs that archeologists widely think were connected with ancestor veneration.

[4] Fragments of stone used in the construction of the monument underwent a petrological examination at the British Museum in London, where it was established that they were a form of oolithic limestone that was local to the area around the Rollrights.

[12] He said that the most likely place that such surface boulders would have been found in the late prehistoric was "on the sides of the ridge at or near the level of the strong spring line between the Inferior Oolithic and the Lias clay.

[13] Basing his ideas upon experimental archaeological investigations performed at Stonehenge,[14] Lambrick suggested that the prehistoric workers who hauled the stones uphill would have made use of wooden sledges.

[16] Believed to be the earliest of the Rollright Stones, the Whispering Knights are the remains of the burial chamber of an Early or Middle Neolithic portal dolmen, lying 400 metres east of the King's Men.

[13][18] Although archaeologists and antiquarians had been speculating and debating the nature of the Whispering Knights for centuries, more about the monument was revealed only following the excavations carried out around the stones by George Lambrick and his team during the 1980s.

[20] Writing in 1743, the antiquarian William Stukeley described the Whispering Knights as sitting upon a round barrow, something which Lambrick accepted as being "reasonable in the context of a portal dolmen".

[21][22] Resistivity and magnetometry surveys undertaken during the 1980s revealed four magnetic anomalies within the centre of the circle, possibly representing "pits related in some way to local ground surface undulations and the presence of localised burning.

[25] Making an estimate of the time and manpower required for this project, Lambrick concluded that each of the King's Men could have been constructed by a team of ten or twenty (depending on the size of the stone) in about two-and-a-half hours.

"[24] Early antiquarian John Aubrey and archaeologist Arthur Evans had suggested that the monolith was a surviving remnant of a stone avenue that had once led to the King's Men.

[24] Lambrick came to agree with him, "tentatively" interpreting the monolith as a cemetery marker, primarily because of the "unsatisfactory nature of other explanations and the existence nearby of Bronze Age barrows and cremations, one of which had been marked by a broad wooden post.

It was at this time that an unknown author wrote a tract entitled De Mirabilibus Britanniae (The Wonders of Britain) in which the prehistoric monuments at Stonehenge and the White Horse of Uffington were mentioned alongside the Rollrights.

[35] A more detailed account was made by his fellow antiquarian, William Camden (1551–1623), who wrote about it in his 1586 work Britannia, a topographical and historical survey of all of Great Britain and Ireland.

Describing the stones and some of the folklore that the locals attributed to them, Camden went on to hypothesise that they were constructed as a "memorial of some victory, perhaps by Rollo the Dane, who later possessed property in Normandy.

"[35] The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley were responsible for initiating modern study of Neolithic monuments such as Stonehenge, Avebury and the Rollrights.

After conservation and cleaning of the tapestry in 2012 it was noted for the first time that a number of monoliths, perhaps forming a stone circle, appear to be shown in the vicinity of Long Compton.

[38] At the start of the 1980s, the state-appointed Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments commissioned an investigation into the Rollright Stones and their immediate surroundings "in order that a fully integrated policy for the future preservation and management of the complex might be formulated.

As a part of the initial survey, historians undertook documentary research, examining the reports and accounts of the site that had been produced since the 17th century, with particular emphasis on antiquarian and early archaeological drawings.

"[41] In 1959, the Bricket Wood coven of Gardnerian Wiccans met for a ritual at the King's Men, at which they hoped to reunite with the a group led by Doreen Valiente who had splintered from them several years before.

Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White suggested that this site was chosen because it was neutral ground not owned by either coven and because it had folkloric associations with the supernatural.

[45] Pagans have also left votive offerings at the site, which includes flowers and fruit, incense sticks, and tea lights, some of which has been characterised as "ritual litter" by heritage managers.

[46] In 2003, an archaeological excavation in the centre of the King's Men circle revealed two recently buried crystals,[46] while in 2011, Doyle White observed flowers inserted into cracks and fissures in the megaliths.

[52] During the late 1970s, the Dragon Project — led by the Earth Mysteries proponent Paul Devereux — carried out investigations at the site in an attempt to determine if any anomalous phenomena could be detected there.

In 1997 a campaign was launched by individuals — including a number of Pagans who used the site for ritual purposes — who feared that it would be purchased by those who would either turn it into a commercialised tourist attraction or prevent anyone from visiting it.

[54] A ceremony was held in which the deeds were handed over the Trust in 2001, in which a performance was given by Morris dancers and local primary school pupils enacted a play of the story about the king and the witch.

[56] It emphasises a preservation ethos, attempting to prevent any damage to the megaliths, and has reinforced the paths around the site, enabling wheelchair access to the Whispering Knights.

In January 2006, the hut was damaged beyond repair in an arson attack, with a group calling itself the Rollright Project holding benefit gigs to raise money for a replacement.

[60] In 2003, to mark the centenary of the Art Fund, "Turning the World Inside Out", a 1996 sculpture by Anish Kapoor, was relocated to the centre of the King's Men for several months.