The largest stone in Stonehenge's inner circle, known as the Altar Stone, may have come from farther afield than its neighboring monoliths — possibly even from northern England or Scotland, according to a new study that questions a 100-year-old idea about the stone's origins.
A century has passed since British geologist Herbert Henry Thomas published his seminal 1923 study on Stonehenge, in which he traced the origin of the "bluestones" that make up the monument's inner circle to the Preseli Hills in western Wales. Among these bluestones — so called because they acquire a bluish tinge when wet or freshly broken and to distinguish them from the "sarsen" stones that make up the outer circle — Thomas included a 16-foot-long (4.9 meters) flat-lying, gray-green slab of stone known as the Altar Stone.
"It seems as though he wanted all the non-sarsen stones to come from a limited geographic area and this basic assertion has not been challenged for 100 years," Richard Bevins, an honorary professor of geology and Earth sciences at Aberystwyth University in Wales who led the new research, told Live Science in an email.
It now appears that Thomas' assessment was flawed, Bevins and his colleagues have found in a new study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. While Thomas "quite rightly" pinpointed the source of some stones to outcrops in western Wales, the Altar Stone likely came from a completely different location, possibly an unknown quarry in northern Britain, Bevins said.
Stonehenge was erected during Britain's Late Neolithic period, roughly 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, in southern England. The monument was built, rebuilt and added to over thousands of years, with the bluestones brought to the site during an early construction phase.
Early excavators of Stonehenge called the bluestones "foreign stones," because they are exotic to the Wiltshire landscape. Their long-haul transport over 140 miles (225 kilometers) from western Wales to Stonehenge is one of the farthest known distances from a source to a prehistoric monument construction site anywhere in the world, according to the study.
The Altar Stone has always stood out from the other bluestones because it's much larger and made of a different type of rock, Bevins said. There is also "no archaeological evidence as to when the Altar Stone arrived at Stonehenge," he added, raising the possibility that it could have been brought to the site during a later construction phase.
To shed light on the stone's origin, the researchers compared its geochemistry and mineralogy with 58 sandstone outcrops stretching from southern Wales to western England. But the search "failed to make a match," Bevins said, and the researchers concluded that they might be looking in the wrong place.
The Altar Stone displays an unusually high amount of the chemical element barium, which has helped the researchers narrow down further potential sources.
"Initially, we feel it appropriate to investigate areas where there are known ancient monuments of Neolithic ages," Bevins said. These areas stretch across northern England and Scotland, broadening the horizons of a search that has so far focused exclusively on Wales and allowing for "creative thinking about the source of the Altar Stone," he said.
The characterization of the Altar Stone as a bluestone is now up for debate, Bevins added, rewriting its archaeological significance in the history of Stonehenge.
This isn't the first time Bevins and colleagues have challenged Thomas' century-old work. In 2018, they reported in the journal Antiquity that the bluestones came from a completely different outcrop of rocks at Preseli Hills than Thomas suspected.
Sascha Pare is a U.K.-based trainee staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master's degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.
Reader Comments
No one has any idea what it is.
There's some stones and some maths.
People project whatever they want onto the stones.
People project whatever they want onto the maths.
Between <n> points in a coordinate system, you can create an infinite number of functions whose function graph crosses all <n> points. Which is based on the assumption that the <n> points are actually related to one of said functions. Only the number of <n>.th-order-function fulfilling this criterium is known. Each new order <n> adds another degree of freedom to the (infinite) amount of functions.
Now imagine <n> is the number of known facts about Stonehenge (and I mean FACTS), and said 'functions' are theories trying to explain its origin and use ...
To cut a long story short - we are fed a load of BS and academic self-gratification.
I think academia is a branch of the same tree as news and entertainment... all things for even advanced hoi polloi to do after useful idiocy is accomplished.
Which is a mathematical concept and expression for the the idea of "don't know" or "can't answer" ...
Great sound. I've got one of those.
You can't put anything with bass through it, or the whole thing goes WMMMMMM!!!
That's why they mainly used it on rimshots.
It was famously called by Bunny Lee "The cow shit splash".
'Cause it sounds like a cow taking a dump on concrete.
I only saw such thing about 30 years ago, where a then-workmate of mine repaired it.
Yes WN3 has returned? But not as before.
I ain't really back - mainly lurking.....but I do enjoy some of the discourse as is the case on this article about Stonehenge and I wanted to "chat" with you direct.
Of course, there is another Stonehenge article on sott (found easy by searching the term: " geometry "), but lately that link only seems sad (at least near the end....) and I reckon it has run its course. I'll solve the puzzle elsewhere.
Regardless - good to see you around and I'm still kicking and seeking.
Ken
I'm more than willing to discuss Stonehenge but in a open forum where others can gain from our conversation.
Yes Autumn is here and I will enjoy the process of Mother Nature are work.
Had been in Scotland for almost 6 months, during my university study (Edinburgh). Besides of drinking stout, we did a lot of sightseeing, up to Orkney. And yes, lots of stone circles. None of them under the suspicion of being build with cranes in the last century.
I liked Scotland - if only the natives could speak a more comprehensible dialect, and the Whisky wasn't so expensive there ...
We don’t speak English….. because we’re Scot’s. Doric otherwise known as the furry boots people from the east coast or Gaelic or Scot’s.
Ready?
From a friend of mine who reminded me about this: You ever had any of that Highlander?
What you got to offer up Highlander and by the way - don't you think Scotland ought be independent? I do, but let those Irish go first being they basically are first cousins and whatnot and maybe the Welsh will get a clue? Unlikely, but still Ireland united and Scotland Independent makes for a UK toast in my book. Let me offer up some Kentucky Bourbon in that regard!
Cheers!
BK
Being there in the mid-'90, I didn't fail to notice a relatively strong disdain for the English, and independance movement (SNP). Which seemed quite subverted and subdued over the last years.
Though I don't get why the Scots want to join the EU instead. Out of the frying pan and into the fire ...
I had a cup at work all tea stains, poured in 186 proof rum, had to throw the first out, but the cup was like brand new.
The second found a welcome home! And everyone after that. Again it shows Jamaicans made rum as we made whisky see there are no differences other than skin deep. Regardless of race colour or creed we all love a good dram.
king Brude, 696 or king Duncan both of these kings were /are buried in Inverness. Another 48 and a direct line of kings of Scotland were buried in Iona along with kings of Iceland, Norway, Ireland, Isle of Man, but your bigotry and ignorance supersedes your intellect and English education.
Iona where your English duke of Sutherland a reprobate that is also the duke of Oxford. Detested even today by those who could look at there lands stolen by this degenerate, destroyed the grave yard of kings in Iona.
Most of the English come to the battle of culloden monument go through the talk of who was at the battle, leaving still not realising the English fought the English supported by the Scot’s to remove the usurpers and vermin that now sits on your throne. Best not reply, they say ignorance is bliss and that on this subject be better for you.
I mean if something is 198 proof it might as well basically just be ethanol.........ha, ha. Still how the ethanol is made does impart some "flavor" unique, but by the time you get to 198 proof.....well, I agree with your concluding sentence!
I remember hearing stories at the chemical plant I worked at many, many years ago when they used to use "ethanol" there (not denatured) as a raw material and sure enough some of that ethanol rumor was made its way into the various "water" coolers around the site.....it used to be "fun" to work at a chemical plant (before the safety fanatics took over the business), but I can't advocate consumption of ethanol while on duty!
~
Best to you and may Scotland be free.....after Ireland gets united I think....but the Irish and the Scots....they might as well be the same because I think they basically are!
~
BK
If you haven’t the facts to your fingertips, I will assist you.
Show me the receipts on the cranes.
But when threat and intimidation creates fear many are frightened which is a normal reaction. Christ you can see with this covid injection. A loving couple encourage each other to get the bio weapon. You cannot convince them, they have a white coat syndrome. I know some that have had 9 injections and boosters. I know others, seriously I’ll, others dead within six hours of having a covid injection.
I’ve not taken one injection. Nor would I! Not even a flu injection, not a chance, I want to be the original grumpy old man.
Two pharmaceutical companies American of course, one called Baxter’s who foretold 500%’increases on profits. Just happened they put live vaccine into injections for the bird flu! They made billions o dollars of profit and thought it quite acceptable to pay out a few million for those that were able to claim against them for dead relatives. And the minuscule fines for here companies criminal actions.
Some people you can educate being a decent human being others frightened and scared will do as they are told by those in authority. I never have! Didn’t I have fun when I joined the forces.
No?
Maybe Highlander's looking for them under the bed.
I can't believe I've actually come across someone who thinks the English sought to falsify their own history by erecting Stonehenge with a crane.
My God, that's almost as dumb as Chelsea Handler thinking the sun and the moon were the same thing.
And what's this, genius? Predictive programming?...[Link]
I’ve no idea who Chelsea handler is I have no interest in pathetic people of the bbc celebrity cult. I’m afraid I would not watch the banal ! That’s for the sheeple.
Young Ned Of The Hill - The Pogues - YouTube
[Link]
You want to know the beauty of it?
Young Neds are abounding and the UK is toast.
And the grave yard, you could spend a day reading the headstones.
Cant remember the name of the poLIEtician that was buried there 20 odd years ago.
And with that said, I'd like to go back to my "homeland" there in Scotland area with my Irish kin and together we would celebrate structure made out of respect.
Tiocfaidh ár lá (Irish pronunciation: [ˈtʲʊkiː aːɾˠ ˈl̪ˠaː]) is an Irish language sentence which translates as "our day will come". It is a slogan of Irish Republicanism. "Our day" is the date hoped for by Irish nationalists on which a united Ireland is achieved.[1][2]
Now - you and I know that came from a site that may not be presenting info accurately, but let it be a starting place and the Irish and the Scots are cousins no doubts and they were taken as slaves by the Nordish ones when they settled Iceland I think....but still, sometimes a good slave leads to better times.....most times not - it just depends.
A moment please WN3 - please holster your gun if you don't mind?
~
what are the number of shapes independent of orientation that can be made with hexagons perfect in imagination when they link up 2-dimensionally when there are eight hexagon in the puzzle?
Simple as that.
~
from here:
Stonehenge builders had geometry skills to rival Pythagoras -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net
Stonehenge builders had geometry skills to rival Pythagoras
Stone Age Britons had a sophisticated knowledge of geometry to rival Pythagoras - 2,000 years before the Greek "father of numbers" was born, according to a new study of Stonehenge. Five years of...BK
Now. When was Stonehenge built? ( we need to start from a base )
DUH
Please - tell.
Cause seriously, my father in law is in a bad situation with a broken ankle and others have demands and whatnot - so really WN3 - do you have the fucking solution - what do you want from me?
Ken
At which point I should remind you, I'm under no obligation to hang out with crazy people and liars for five hours at a stretch on the internet.
I hopped out of one operating theatre yesterday and into another on Thursday, not minor, just " fucking" major as one might say, but the SHOW Ken must go on, get my drift.
I'm ready and prepared for the winter whatever it brings and I'm sure you are likewise and every day is a mystery and another day to learn.
Ken
It’s pronounced chalky
I mean did you read what you typed?
"do you don't know the reply"
That makes no sense Highlander and seriously we are in a WAR and may the best ideas prevail and I'll go down with Kentucky Bourbon thank-you and the Scots seems most confused.