Geology, Geology Talk, International News, News

Stonehenge bluestone origin a step closer

stonehenge

 

The original location of Stonehenge has been pinpointed to a Welsh hillside, a study published by Cambridge University Press journal Antiquity has suggested.

According to the study, researchers investigating bluestone quarries at Waun Mawn in Wales discovered a circle of stones, with an empty stone socket in the circle matching a bluestone at Stonehenge.

University of St Andrews School of Earth and Environmental Sciences doctor Tim Kinnaird used a dating technique that calculated the age of the dismantled stone.

Doctor Kinnaird said the Waun Mawn stone circle was dismantled and that the stone sockets were removed immediately before the construction of Stonehenge in 3000BCE.

“Combined with the fact that the Waun Mawn bluestones came from the same quarries as Stonehenge, this led us to conclude that Waun Mawn was likely dismantled and became the source of many of the bluestones used at Stonehenge,” he said.

Waun Mawn is more than 200km away from the Stonehenge Circle.

Researchers also found Waun Mawn’s diameter is identical to the ditch surrounding Stonehenge at 110m, and also aligns on the midsummer solstice sunrise.

The research team for the study — The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales — was led by University College London Professor Mike Parker Pearson, who has helped co-direct excavations at Stonehenge since 2004.

“In conclusion, it seems that Stonehenge stage one was built — partly or wholly — by Neolithic migrants from Wales,” the study stated.

 

More reading

New discoveries shed light on Stonehenge mysteries

Ancient route discovered at Stonehenge

Research chips away at Stonehenge mystery

Stonehenge’s quarry discovered

 

Send this to a friend