Stonehenge mystery takes new twist after ‘exciting’ discovery | UK News

The search for the origins of Stonehenge’s iconic altar stone continues, just weeks after experts thought they had finally discovered it.

Scientists revealed last month that the huge slab came from Orkney in Scotland, rather than Wales, where the monument’s bluestones came from.

The archipelago is home to several other famous Neolithic sites, including the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness.

But while the geology was suitable for a possible match to the Altar Stone, chemical and mineralogical analyses have revealed striking differences, meaning the hunt continues.

Previous geological research has shown that the six-ton ​​slab probably came from the Brecon Beacons in south-east Wales.

But last month scientists concluded that the monumental Altar Stone is actually located more than 460 miles from Salisbury Plain to the northeast Scotland.

The Australian team used state-of-the-art equipment, including special mass spectrometers, to examine the composition of the altar stone.

Their findings, published in the journal Nature, also point to the existence of ‘unexpectedly sophisticated’ transport methods and organisation at the time of the stone’s arrival in Wiltshire, around 5,000 years ago.

Researchers from Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, studied the age and chemistry of mineral grains in fragments of the Altar Stone, a sandstone block nearly 50 centimetres (20 inches) thick, 4.8 by 90 centimetres (1.9 by 36 inches) in size, located at the centre of the iconic Stonehenge stone circle.

Lead researcher Anthony Clarke explained that analysis of the age and chemical composition of minerals in fragments of the Altar Stone showed that the stone matched rocks from Scotland and could be clearly distinguished from the bedrock of Wales.

Mr Clarke said: ‘Our analysis has shown that certain mineral grains in the Altar Stone are largely between 1,000 and 2,000 million years old, while other minerals are around 450 million years old.

‘This provides clear chemical evidence suggesting that the stone came from rocks in the Orcadian Basin, Scotland, at least 750 kilometres from Stonehenge.

‘Given its Scottish origins, the finds raise fascinating questions, given the technological limitations of the Neolithic, about how such a huge stone could have been transported over large distances around 2600 BC.’

Mr Clarke, a PhD candidate in Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the discovery had “significance” for him as he grew up in Mynydd Preseli in Wales, where some of the Stonehenge stones came from.

He added: ‘I first visited Stonehenge when I was one year old and now, at 25, I have returned from Australia to help with this scientific discovery. You could say I have come full circle on the stone circle.’

Study co-author Professor Chris Kirkland, also from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group at Curtin, said the findings had “significant” implications for understanding ancient communities, their connections and their methods of transport.

Prof Kirkland said: ‘Our discovery of the origins of the Altar Stone highlights a significant degree of social coordination during the Neolithic and helps to paint a fascinating picture of prehistoric Britain.

‘Transporting such a huge load overland from Scotland to southern England would have been a huge challenge, so it seems likely that the maritime route took place along the British coast.

‘This implies that there were long-distance trade networks and that society was organised at a higher level than is usually assumed during the Neolithic in Britain.’

But now that Orkney has been ruled out, researchers must look elsewhere.

Professor Richard Bevins of the University of Aberystwyth, lead author of the study, wrote in the Journal of Archaeological Science: ‘This research radically changes our view of the origins of the Altar Stone.

“It’s exciting to know that our chemical analysis and dating work is slowly unraveling this great mystery.”

Prof. Bevins and his colleagues will now continue to try to determine the exact origin of the stone.

He told MailOnline: ‘I am optimistic that the source of the Altar Stone will be found. However, the Orcadian Basin covers a large area of ​​north-east Scotland, so it may take some time to find the source.

“But we do have some clues about the mineralogy and geochemistry of the Altar Stone, so we’re not going in blindly.”

It is unclear when the Altar Stone came to Stonehenge, but construction began about 5,000 years ago and changes were made over 2,000 years.

This article was first published on August 14.

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