© Professor Nick Pearce, Aberystwyth UniversityThe Altar Stone, seen here underneath two bigger Sarsen stones.
For the past 100 years, the 6-tonne Altar Stone was believed to have come from Old Red Sandstone in south Wales.
This was assumed to be close to the Preseli hills in west Wales where the majority of Stonehenge's world-renowned 'bluestones' came from.
Formed when molten rock crystallised, the Pembrokeshire bluestones are believed to have been among the first erected at the Wiltshire site around 5000 years ago.
The Altar Stone, a sandstone, has traditionally been grouped with the other, smaller, igneous bluestones, although when it arrived at Stonehenge is unclear.
Now, in an attempt to locate its source, scientists at Aberystwyth have compared analyses of the Altar Stone with 58 samples taken from the Old Red Sandstone across Wales and the Welsh borders.
The composition of the Altar Stone cannot be matched with any of these locations. The Altar Stone has a high barium content, which is unusual and may help in identifying its source.
Professor Nick Pearce from Aberystwyth University said:
"The view in terms of the conclusions we've drawn from this is that the Altar Stone doesn't come from Wales. Perhaps we should also now remove the Altar Stone from the broad grouping of bluestones and consider it independently.
"For the last 100 years the Stonehenge Altar Stone has been considered to have been derived from the Old Red Sandstone sequences of south Wales, in the Anglo-Welsh Basin, although no specific location was identified.
"The Altar Stone appears not, in fact, to come from the Old Red Sandstone of the Anglo-Welsh Basin - it is not from south Wales. Attention will now turn to the other areas, like northern England and Scotland, areas where the geology is right, the chemistry is right, and Neolithic activity is present, to ascertain whether any of these sandstones have characteristics which match the Stonehenge Altar Stone."
Professor Pearce added:
"Hopefully these findings will help people to start looking at the Altar Stone in a slightly different context in terms of how and when it got to Stonehenge, and where it came from. Hopefully this will lead to some new thoughts about the development of Stonehenge."
The research was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Reader Comments
Government gives anyone a grant if a result is produced that fits a current or long standing agenda (or so it would seem), same happens in the care industry, the idea is that all funding has to be spent once allocated and a result produced in some way shape or form, otherwise it is stopped or withdrawn, Im not sure how many such like things need to happen to have a quantifiable effect on economics, however archeology is a perfect potential laundering shop, ie a "fund pot" from "?" is happily given by a group of people who are showing you an "exception to their rule"(ie usually they take everything so when offering anything there is some purpose that is beneficial to them unknown to us) so the funding goes through a "cash cow" (something that draws funding) then HAS TO SPEND IT which puts the funds into the economy clean as a virgins honeypot. If the criminals are using money from drug sales and running them through their shop/resturant/fast food enterprise, then the same could be said for archeology simply by the same identical template slots in place, archeologists claim and rely on owning the narrative through expertise unchallenged, while never questioning the origins of the funds (biting the hand that feeds them) and on it goes....."what have we got this weak Joe?"......"erm...we have come up with the idea that cannot be physically demonstrable but sounds plausible"......"perfect"!!
Just set up a few companies to furnish the archeological framework up and er......keep the people guessing while the government sets about detailing our history and destroying it or removing it from our collective memory.....while funneling millions in grants that effectively have no pressure on archeologists to prove ANYTHING, just keep speculating amongst your expertise.
Ive spent time in Egypt.
Barium is also used in devices to collect acoustic waves to probe wind and temperature fluctuations associated with breaking gravity waves in the middle atmosphere.
These rocks served a purpose.
Here in Europe, many regions show clear indications of glacial series : [Link]
With the boulder the glaciers transported having "special names as well : [Link] The very first image on this page shows a boulder in the Netherlands, originating from Norway.
Sounds plausible to me.
As a side note, I find it even more plausible that an group/tribe/civilisation uses proper materials just laying around, instead of digging it out or shipping it in from far-far-away.
Although I'm not an accredited scientist ...
Further "compelling evidence" has since been found that appears to show that the rocks have been worked on.
Mr Heath explained: "There are some stones that have shown evidence of being cut to size.
"And there are other stone tools we've found that appear to have been used dressing the stone before its journey."
The stone age tools found in and around the mountain range indicate that the rocks were being worked by people around the time the bluestones appeared at Stonehenge.
What you never get to see is the birds eye view of the topography and tree life that surrounded this area, it was formerly completely covered with trees and the soil profile and climate was different.
Druids my arse....
This is the same skeletal structure that would of been completed with wood and topsoil, which losing its tree cover around it would eventually create this stripped back look, over time by wind alone.
If you look at its form from the air it is identical to the hemp trichome, that is not by accident.
Hemp is still the most nutritious seed bearing annual there is...it grew EVERYWHERE in the British Isles and grew exceptionally dense by the side of rivers.
I wouldnt be suprised if the fixing agent is Comfrey (symphytum) but Im not able to experiment in my old garden anymore.
Now all that is missing is the "quick lime"...I wonder what source material could possibly be situated as close as possible to the "henge"?....hmmm, calcium deposits directly below?....All from the layers of shells accumilated and powdered from years of tidal movements washing them back and forth until the micron is that of talcum powder, where the lower/older layers settle and compress into....."chalk"...perfect!!
Only.....the "experts" funding relies on plausible theory for pretty much the only evidence you would expect to find close to the building project but telling you it is for something completely different.... LOL impressive theory!!