Chemical analysis of the bones of people buried near Stonehenge indicated that they were not born in southern Britain, but migrated there from Wales, where some of the stones of the monument were mined. Scientists write about this in Scientific Reports.
“The proportions of strontium isotopes in the bones and teeth of some 'builders' of Stonehenge indicate that they lived or were at least born in the west of Wales. The famous blue stones were quarried there, from which the construction of the first parts of this monument began,”said Rick Schulting of the University of Oxford (UK).
Stonehenge is a mysterious stone structure in Wiltshire, one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. For its construction, which began around 2600 BC, sandstone boulders and monoliths brought from afar were used - 11 so-called blue stones from diabase, a fairly hard volcanic rock.
Three years ago, geologists analyzed the chemical and mineral composition of the "blue stones" located in the central part of Stonehenge, and concluded that they were brought to the south of England from the western corners of Wales, located about 500 kilometers from Wiltshire.
This discovery, as noted by Schulting, made many historians think that Stonehenge could have been originally built not on the territory of the future England, but in the west of Wales. Later, its builders simply "transported" the monument along with them, taking its most valuable parts and completing the outer rings of Stonehenge from local sandstone.
Schulting and his colleagues found the first "physical" evidence for this theory by studying the bones and teeth of people who are often referred to by the press as "the builders of Stonehenge." Their remains were cremated and buried about five thousand years ago in 56 pits located a short distance from the monument, and were found at the beginning of the last century.
These burials have been comprehensively studied over the past century, but recently archaeologists, chemists and physicists have developed a number of new methods for analyzing the remains, which allow us to find out not only the age and gender of their owners, but also many other things.
In particular, the proportions of strontium and heavy oxygen-18 isotopes in the enamel of teeth and in human bone tissue make it possible to understand where he was born and in which regions of the country he later lived, and the ratio of calcium, barium and strontium atoms - what kind of food he ate.
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After calculating the exact age of the "builders" using a mass spectrometer, archaeologists measured the proportion of strontium isotopes in their jaws and found that about half of the deceased were born not in the south of England, but in Wales or other western regions of modern Britain around 2650 BC … At this time, as scientists assume, the first rings of the monument were built, which speaks in favor of its Welsh origin.
“Our discovery underscores the importance of re-examining old archaeological collections. These remains were found at Stonehenge by Colonel William Hawley's expedition in the 1920s. They did not make it to the museum, but the Colonel prudently reburied them next to the monument and marked the new grave of the 'builders' of the monument, which allowed us to dig up and study them using modern scientific methods,”concludes Schulting.
