Aug 16, 2024 06:00:00

The 'altar stone' at the center of Stonehenge may have been transported by sea from Scotland, 750km away

Stonehenge in southern England is an archaeological site believed to have been built about 5,000 years ago, and features a striking circle of giant stones. New research has shown that the Altar Stone , which sits in the center of Stonehenge, was transported from Scotland , about 750 km away.

A Scottish provenance for the Altar Stone of Stonehenge | Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07652-1

Great Scott! Stonehenge's Altar Stone origins | EurekAlert!
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1053983

Stonehenge's Altar Stone May Have Journeyed Nearly 500 Miles : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/stonehenges-altar-stone-may-have-journeyed-nearly-500-miles

Construction of Stonehenge began about 5,000 years ago, and it is believed to have been worked on for another 2,000 years. The purplish-green sandstone lying near the center of Stonehenge is called the Altar Stone, and it is 4.9m long, 1m wide, 0.5m thick, and weighs 6 tons.

The altar stone is lying in the ground as if it were embedded in the ground, and it is in line with the direction of the sun rising on the summer solstice, which suggests that it was an important stone in Stonehenge. A research team led by Anthony Clark, a doctoral student in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin University in Australia, analyzed the dating and chemical composition of the minerals contained in the altar stone to find out where the stone was brought from.

In the photo below, the altar stone is buried between two huge stones.

by Nick Pearce/Aberystwyth University

It was long thought that the altar stone came from

Wales , but a 2023 study found no evidence matching the altar stone's chemical composition, which includes unusually high amounts of barium , refuting the Welsh origin theory.

The team conducted isotopic dating of the minerals zircon , apatite , and rutile from two samples taken from the altar stone , and found that some of the zircons were formed 4 to 2.5 billion years ago, while the rest were formed 1.6 to 1 billion years ago, and that apatite and rutile were formed 470 to 458 million years ago.

Furthermore, the research team compared the chemical composition of sandstone deposits in various lands, not only in England and Wales but also throughout the UK and Ireland, with the altar stone. As a result, it was found that the chemical composition of the altar stone matches rocks in

the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland, at least 750 km from Stonehenge. The research team claims that the altar stone was transported from the Orcadian Basin to England, a distance of more than 750 km.

'The discovery of the Scottish origin of the altar stone raises intriguing questions: how could such large stones have been transported long distances around 2600 BC, given the technological constraints of the Neolithic period?' Clark said.

It is unclear how the altar stones were transported from the Orcadian Basin in Scotland to Stonehenge in England, about 750 km away, but since it would have been extremely difficult to transport such a large stone overland, it is thought that they likely followed a sea route along the coast of Great Britain.

Professor Chris Kirkland, from Curtin University and co-author of the paper, said: 'Our findings suggest a longer-distance trade network and a higher level of social organisation than is widely thought to have existed in Neolithic Britain. 'The discovery of the provenance of the altar stones reveals a significant level of social co-operation in the Neolithic and helps paint a fascinating picture of prehistoric Britain.'