We Finally Know Where The Megaliths of Stonehenge Really Came From

Stonehenge, a Neolithic wonder in southern England, has vexed historians and archaeologists for centuries with its many mysteries: How was it built? What purpose did it serve? Where did its towering sandstone boulders come from?

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Tau.Neutrino said:

We Finally Know Where The Megaliths of Stonehenge Really Came From

Stonehenge, a Neolithic wonder in southern England, has vexed historians and archaeologists for centuries with its many mysteries: How was it built? What purpose did it serve? Where did its towering sandstone boulders come from?

more…

> Previous work has found that Stonehenge’s smaller “bluestones” came from Wales, about 200 kilometers to the west, and the new study says that they and the sarsens were placed at the same time.

Flanders and Swann did a commentary on Stonehenge. Yes, the bluestones came from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales.

I’m rather shocked that the Sarsen Stones and bluestones were placed at the same time. Check the paper. No, the paper does NOT say that. The paper says that the Sarsen Stones were all placed at about the same time, circa 2500 BC, and that includes the Heel stone. The bluestones were placed at a different time.

> They first used portable x-rays to analyze the chemical composition of the rocks, which are 99 percent silica but contain traces of several other elements. That showed us that most of the stones have a common chemistry, which led us to identify that we’re looking for one main source here. They examined two core samples. They performed a more sophisticated analysis on these samples using a mass spectrometry device, which detects a bigger range of elements at a higher precision. The resulting signature was then compared to 20 possible source sites for these sedimentary rocks, with West Woods, Wiltshire found to be the closest match.

mollwollfumble said:

> Previous work has found that Stonehenge’s smaller “bluestones” came from Wales, about 200 kilometers to the west, and the new study says that they and the sarsens were placed at the same time.

Flanders and Swann did a commentary on Stonehenge. Yes, the bluestones came from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales.

I’m rather shocked that the Sarsen Stones and bluestones were placed at the same time. Check the paper. No, the paper does NOT say that. The paper says that the Sarsen Stones were all placed at about the same time, circa 2500 BC, and that includes the Heel stone. The bluestones were placed at a different time.

I’m not sure why a finding that the Sarsens and bluestones were placed at the same time would be shocking, but yes, the paper is quite explicit that it is only the Sarsens that it found were placed at the same time, so the article is wrong. I didn’t find any comment in the paper about when the bluestones were placed.

Nonetheless, since many more people will read the article than read the paper, and most of those who do “read” the paper will only read the intro and the conclusions, quite likely it will become accepted scientific fact that the bluestones were placed at the same time as the sarsens.