There are many mysteries associated with the British stone complex Stonehenge. It is not clear exactly who it was built and why. There are also discrepancies with the installation time. According to one of the latest versions, Stonehenge already existed in the third millennium BC.
And here is a new mystery, a leading British expert on Stonehenge assures that two stones from the complex stood at this place even before the arrival of the first people here. Millions of years before them.
One of these stones is the so-called "Heel Stone" - the Heel Stone, a stand-alone tall stone located at a distance from the main stone circle of Stonehenge stones. On the day of the Summer Solstice, a ray of the Sun passes in a straight line neatly past the Heel Stone.
Another stone is a stone called "Stone 16" (Stone 16), It is much closer to the center, but also stands apart from other stones.
In an interview with The Times, British archaeologist, journalist and photographer Mike Pitts talked about how he arrived at such a radical hypothesis. First, standing at a distance of 75 meters from the center of Stonehenge, the Heel Stone looks like the only stone that was not carved by people from the rock. Its shape is quite natural.
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“It used to be thought that all the stones from the Stonehenge complex were hewn from the rock at the Marlborough Downs quarry, more than 20 miles away. However, then doubts arose and most likely the Heel Stone could have been here in the “big pit” from the very beginning. Judging by its unprepossessing form, it was unlikely to be dragged, otherwise they would have given this stone a 'slender look' like other stones."
Pitts calls the "Big Pit" a buried hole in the ground, 6 meters in diameter, which he himself discovered during research in the 1970s near the Heel Stone. Pitts is sure that the Heel Stone originally stood here in this hole and was half filled, and then people dug it up and moved it a little so that it would follow the sunbeam on the day of the Summer Solstice.
It was the same with the "16th stone". It, like the Heel Stone, is a very large sarsen (a type of very hard sandstone), while the sarsens brought from the Marlborough Downs are much lighter in weight. It is only slightly hewn at the top. According to Pitts, both the Heel Stone and the 16th Stone have stood in this place since ancient times, brought here by a glacier.
“By the end of this ice age, on the Salisbury Plain, millions of years before the arrival of people here, there were already two large stones standing nearby. They were practically on the axis of the sunbeam on the day of the Summer Solstice, later they were only slightly moved."
It is likely that the sight of these stones inspired the first people who came here about 5 thousand years ago to build the Stonehenge ring, says Pitts.