2023-09-26 15:00:00
A study has, once once more, confirmed the mysterious origin of Stonehenge, by identifying a difference between the “blue” stones, the oldest from Wales, and the altar stone, placed at the heart of the monument, which would come from a much more distant land.
Many mysteries surround the mythical monument of Stonehenge, in the United Kingdom. Its purpose already remains unknown to experts to this day, even if theories exist. The provenance of its megaliths, which stand in the middle of a completely virgin valley, also raises questions. So far, archaeologists have located the origin of these immense stones at Walesa few hundred kilometers from Salisbury, in the southwest of England, where Neolithic sculpture reigns. But one of the rocks might come from even further away, and might have been transported over a thousand kilometers almost 5,000 years agowhich would be considered a small revolution.
Very (very) large distances
it’s regarding the altar stonethe central piece, which was placed at the heart of the arc of a circle drawn by the arches, approximately 2,600 BCE. A new analysis, which required the latest technological tools, differentiates it at the mineral level from the rest of the megaliths. Indeed, Stonehenge was built in many stages, over thousands of years. And its first pieces, called “blue stones” would actually come from the Welsh region Move Hills, where the other thousand-year-old menhirs of Waun Mawn are located. The most recent additions, which date from around 1,600 BCE, come from stone quarries of local origin. The altar stone has always been considered one of the original blue stones. In reality, it might have been put there much later.
According to this new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science : Reportsthe mineralogy of the altar stone does not correspond to the fat that we find in the Anglo-Welsh basin, but rather to that which makes up the landscape of northern England (in Cumbria) or Scottish islands located in the far north of the United Kingdom, such as Shetland or Orcades. There too, stones were used for ritual purposes by the locals. Except that we are talking regarding much further distances: of 300 kmwe are talking here regarding 500or even pmore than 1,100 km between Stonehenge and the sites of potential origin of this stone.
Triple the record
There were many long-distance connections, around 2,500 BCE, during the estimated construction phase of the altar stone. “It is the long-distance transport of the stones that makes Stonehenge particularly interesting; the bluestones actually represent one of the longest known transport distances from the source to the construction site of a monument anywhere in the world. world” write the authors of the study. A record that might be tripled if the origin of the central piece of Stonehenge was confirmed. New analyzes of the deposits themselves might provide answers to this new mystery.
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