Geologists have found the exact place where the primitive people of Britain took some of the stones for Stonehenge. The discovery gave rise to a mystery: the place does not fit into the theory of routes and methods of transporting huge megaliths to Salisbury Plain
The origin of the blue Stonehenge stones, which make up the inner circle of cromlech, has long attracted the attention of researchers and caused a lot of controversy. In the early 1920s, traces of a type of blue stone, the so-called speckled dolerite, were found in the Mynydd Preseli Hills, north of Pembrokeshire. However, the origin of other stones, mainly rhyolites (or liparites) and rare sandstones, was still unknown.
Dr. Richard Bevins of the National Museum of Wales (Wall Amgueddfa Cymru), along with colleagues Dr. Rob Ixer of the University of Leicester and Dr. Nick Pearce of the University of Aberystwyth, studied the chemistry of rhyolites from Stonehenge … In the end, the researchers concluded that one of the stones they studied came from the territory of Wales.
The term "blue stones" is
used in Britain to describe Stonehenge stones that could not have been mined in the vicinity of the cromlech construction. This is rather a generalizing characteristic, and it has nothing to do with the terminology of geologists, since it unites about 20 different types of rocks. It is believed that all of these stones were placed in the Salisbury Plain around 2300 BC. Apparently, there used to be 80 such boulders here, but only 43 have survived to this day. The 30 largest megaliths that make up Stonehenge do not belong to blue stones, they are sarsen stones (sandstone).
In their work, the researchers used conventional methods of petrographic research, as well as carried out complex chemical analyzes. After analyzing samples from Stonehenge and northern Pembrokeshire, scientists found a correspondence between one of the rhyolites and rock formations north of the Preseli Hills, in the Pont Sison site. “Working was more like looking for a needle in a haystack. I have studied most, if not all types of rock formations in these hills. And now we are sure that we have found the exact place where one of the Stonehenge rhyolites comes from, especially since today we can compare different rocks according to a number of signs, and not according to one single characteristic feature, as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. Now we're trying to figure out where the other volcanic and sandstone rocks might have gotten to Stonehenge,”Beavins said.
Scientists again don't know how the megaliths were transported
In recent years, most archaeologists have relied on the assumption that Neolithic people had good reasons for transporting boulders, weighing up to four tons, from North Wales to the cromlech site, and that they had the technical ability to carry out such laborious operations. “The latest discovery is significant and perhaps provides us with new information on how exactly and even why the Welsh blue stones were transported to the Salisbury Plain. Previously, it was claimed that people lowered speckled dolerite from the Preseli Hills to the Milford Haven Waterway, and then melted them down the Bristol Bay and the Avon River. However, our discovery raises doubts about this route. Since the stones were mined north of the hills, it is unlikely that people would first lift them up, and then lower them from the other side,to get to Milford Haven. If these people had a bit of common sense, then they needed to find some other, easier way. However, there is another theory, according to which debris from Pont Sison entered the Stonehenge area due to the movement of ice sheets during the last ice age. And then Pont Sison is not directly related to the construction of cromlech,”explained the complexity of the problem, Dr. Bivins.
Stonehenge researcher and professor of archeology at the University of Sheffield Mike Parker Pearson called the discovery of geologists very important. “The results of the study force us to revise our previous conclusions about the route of transportation of blue stones, and also give us the opportunity to find out in the future the origin of all other megaliths of Stonehenge. In my opinion, scientists have taken another important step in understanding why these mysterious stones were so important for the people of the Neolithic,”the professor expressed his point of view.
The study is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
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