It has long been suspected that some of the jumbo stones used to build Stonehenge , which sits on the Salisbury plains of Wiltshire , England , were originally mine in the passel of neighbor Wales . Now , research worker thinkthat they have find the exact site from which the monolithic monoliths were taken , and notice something intriguing in the process . It seems that Stonehenge might have been erected first in Wales .
Stonehenge is in reality formed of two circles . The large outer stones are made from the local sandstone , but the inner “ bluestones , ” evidence suggests , grow from the Preseli J. J. Hill in Pembrokeshire , Wales , which is 140 klick ( 87 international nautical mile ) from where they now stand up . A novel paper published in the journalAntiquitypinpoints two separate sites from which the racy stones were taken , based on their geologic make - up .
The mining site at Crag Rhos - y - felin . Adam Stanford / UCL
The first is an outcrop called Carn Goedog , while the 2d is known as Crag Rhos - y - Felin . Beneath this second outcropping , the researchers even find the cadaver of a Neolithic camp site , thought to have been used by the hoi polloi who quarried the pit . By carbon copy date the remains of cut hazelnut tree and charcoal gray establish in the oddment of the campfires , the squad have manage to calculate when the Stone were first mine . The result indicate that Stonehenge might have in reality stood for 500 years before it made its means to Salisbury .
“ We have dates of around 3400 B.C.E. for Craig Rhos - y - felin and 3200 B.C.E. for Carn Goedog , which is challenging because the bluestones did n’t get put up at Stonehenge until around 2900 B.C.E.,”explainedProfessor Mike Parker Pearson , conductor of the project which made the discovery . “ It could have taken those Neolithic stone - draggers nearly 500 age to get them to Stonehenge , but that ’s pretty tall in my view . It ’s more likely that the pit were first used in a local monument , somewhere near the quarries , that was then level and dragged off to Wiltshire . ”
Not only has this research discovered that the iconic repository might have been recycled , but it also challenge one of the long - hold beliefs of how the ancient peoples get it to Wiltshire all those one thousand of years ago . late archaeologists have suggested that the giant endocarp were have south to the ocean , and then transport by boat to nearer their resting place , but this now seems unlikely . The location of the two outcrop means that it would have been difficult to take the rock to the south by the ocean , meaning that the only logical route would have been to move them east over the farming for the 140 kilometer ( 87 nautical mile ) journey ; an telling , but not impossible , feat 4,000 years ago .
The researchers suspectthat the original site for where the Harlan Stone might have stood is probably somewhere in between the two outcrops in the Preseli hills , and plan on returning next class to see if they can identify it . “ Stonehenge was a Welsh memorial from its very beginning , ” says Professor Parker Pearson . “ If we can witness the original memorial in Wales from which it was built , we will finally be capable to solve the mystery of why Stonehenge was build and why some of its stones were institute so far . ”
