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The expectant stone in Stonehenge ’s inner circle , known as the Altar Stone , may have add up from farther afield than its neighboring monoliths — possibly even from northerly England or Scotland , concord to a new study that interrogate a 100 - twelvemonth - honest-to-goodness estimation about the gem ’s rootage .
A century has give-up the ghost since British geologist Herbert Henry Thomas published hisseminal 1923 studyon Stonehenge , in which he follow the ancestry of the " bluestones " that make up the monument ’s intimate circle to the Preseli Hills in western Wales . Among these bluestones — so call in because they develop a bluish pinch when wet or freshly broken and to recognise them from the " sarsen " endocarp that make up the outer circle — Thomas included a 16 - fundament - long ( 4.9 meters ) directly - lying , gray - immature slab of stone be intimate as the Altar Stone .
Stonehenge’s Altar Stone probably wasn’t sourced from the same region as the other bluestones.
" It seems as though he want all the non - sarsen stone to come from a limited geographic field and this canonical assertion has not been challenged for 100 years,“Richard Bevins , an honorary prof of geology and Earth scientific discipline at Aberystwyth University in Wales who led the new research , tell Live Science in an e-mail .
It now appears that Thomas ' judgment was flawed , Bevins and his colleagues have found in a new subject field , publish in the October payoff of theJournal of Archaeological Science : report . While Thomas " quite rightly " nail the source of some stone to outcrops in western Wales , the Altar Stone in all probability came from a entirely different location , possibly an unknown prey in northern Britain , Bevins said .
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The bluestones were transported over 140 miles from the Preseli Hills in western Wales (pictured) to Stonehenge.
Stonehengewas erected during Britain ’s Late Neolithic period , roughly 4,000 to 5,000 years ago , on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire , in southern England . The monument was establish , rebuilt and sum to over thousands of year , with the bluestone brought to the site during an early building phase .
other excavator of Stonehenge called the bluestones " foreign stones , " because they are exotic to the Wiltshire landscape painting . Their long - haul transport over 140 miles ( 225 kilometers ) from western Wales to Stonehenge is one of the furthest have it off distances from a seed to a prehistorical monument twist site anywhere in the world , consort to the sketch .
The Altar Stone has always stood out from the other bluestones because it ’s much larger and made of a different type of rock , Bevins say . There is also " no archeological evidence as to when the Altar Stone get in at Stonehenge , " he add together , raising the possibility that it could have been brought to the site during a late construction phase .
To shed light source on the rock ’s origin , the researcher compared its geochemistry and mineralogy with 58 sandstone outcrop elongate from southerly Wales to western England . But the hunting " failed to make a friction match , " Bevins said , and the investigator resolve that they might be looking in the wrong place .
The Altar Stone displays an unusually high amount of the chemical substance elementbarium , which has helped the researchers narrow down further potential sources .
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" Initially , we feel it appropriate to look into area where there are sleep with ancient monuments of Neolithic geezerhood , " Bevins state . These sphere stretch across northerly England and Scotland , broadening the horizons of a search that has so far focalise entirely on Wales and allowing for " creative thinking about the source of the Altar Stone , " he said .
The characterization of the Altar Stone as a bluestone is now up for debate , Bevins supply , rewrite its archaeological significance in the history of Stonehenge .
This is n’t the first time Bevins and workfellow have challenged Thomas ' C - older work . In 2018 , they reported in the journalAntiquitythat the bluestones amount from acompletely different outcrop of rock candy at Preseli Hillsthan Thomas suspected .
