Archaeologists have found out where the stones of the inner ring of Stonehenge were mined.
Archaeologists have found that the stones of the inner ring of Stonehenge were quarried in the Pembrokeshire county in Wales. According to scientists, the monument was built there, but for political reasons it was moved to Wiltshire.
“Stonehenge has been a Welsh monument from the very beginning. If we can find the original structure from which it was later assembled, we can finally get closer to the answer to the question of why Stonehenge was built and why some of its stones were transported so far from the mining site, - quotes RIA Novosti »Commentary by Mike Pearson of University College London.
To establish the origin of blue diabase, archaeologists compared the chemical and mineralogical composition of the mysterious stones of Stonehenge and the ancient quarries of Wales. It turned out that the ancient Welsh used diabase from the developments of Karn Gedog and Craig Ros-i-Felin. The mined monolith was transported by land.
The development of quarries began 500 years before the construction of Stonehenge, so scientists assumed that the monument was originally located in Wales. The relocation of such an important ritual structure could be of extremely great political importance for the inhabitants of both regions.
Stonehenge is a megalithic structure (cromlech and henge) in Wiltshire, England, which is a complex of ring and horseshoe-shaped earthen (chalk) and stone structures. It is located about 130 km southwest of London, about 3.2 km west of Amesbury and 13 km north of Salisbury. It is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world.