Stonehenge has long held an air of mystery around it, but new research has helped clear up some of the facts, revealing both the origin and transport method of one of the key stones.
Led by Australia's Curtin University, these new findings suggest that the Altar Stone (one of the larger pieces of Stonehenge) actually came from Scotland, not the originally believed location of Wales.
To reach these conclusions, the team studied the age and chemistry of mineral grains retrieved from fragments of the stone. Analysis of the stone matched it with rocks from northeast Scotland, while at the same time clearly showing differences to Welsh bedrock.
“Our analysis found specific mineral grains in the Altar Stone are mostly between 1000 to 2000 million years old, while other minerals are around 450 million years old,” said Anthony Clarke, a PhD student at Curtin University and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Nature.
“This provides a distinct chemical fingerprint suggesting the stone came from rocks in the Orcadian Basin, Scotland, at least 750 kilometres away from Stonehenge.”
Previous analysis of the site identified two main types of stone used in the construction – sarsens, sourced from near Marlborough (roughly 25km away), and the bluestones of Welsh origin.
The Altar Stone is a 50cm thick sandstone block in the middle of Stonehenge’s circle. It is believed that, along with the rest of the structure, the stone appeared in its current location in Salisbury about 5000 years ago.
Moving the stone from Scotland would have been significantly harder than from Wales, suggesting the use of unexpectedly advanced transport methods and societal organisation at the time of the stone’s arrival in England.
At the time of its delivery, geographical features and the forested nature of Britain made moving around Britain significantly harder than today.
“Transporting such massive cargo overland from Scotland to southern England would have been extremely challenging, indicating a likely marine shipping route along the coast of Britain,” said Chris Kirkland, a professor at Curtin University and study co-author.
“This implies long-distance trade networks and a higher level of societal organisation than is widely understood to have existed during the Neolithic period in Britain.”
While the team was able to pinpoint Scotland as a location and determine superior trade networks used, there are still questions left.
“While we can now say that this iconic rock is Scottish and not Welsh, the hunt will still very much be on to pin down where exactly in the north-east of Scotland the Altar Stone came from," Richard Bevins, co-author and professor at Aberystwyth University said.
However, despite the mysteries that remain, Bevins still sees the new study as a giant leap forward: “We have succeeded in working out the age and chemical fingerprints of perhaps one of the most famous of stones in the world-renowned ancient monument."
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