No one is certain why Stonehenge was built. This world-famous monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire is thought to commemorate the dead, and is aligned with movements of the sun and moon.
How researchers determined that Stonehenge's giant Altar Stone came all the way from northeast Scotlandon Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire is thought to commemorate the dead, and is aligned with movements of the sun and moon.
Let's review what we know, and how we pinned down the region where the Altar Stone originated. The big stones at Stonehenge come from a few tens of miles away, but moving these 30-tonne monsters was no mean feat in Neolithic times. But without directly sampling the Altar Stone, how could we be sure that the museum fragments were genuine? Today, we are not allowed to knock lumps off Stonehenge, as happened in the past., a non-destructive chemical analytical method, on the Stonehenge bluestones—particularly on the many claimed Altar Stone fragments collected by older archaeological excavations. We then compared these with X-ray fluorescence analyses from the surface of the Altar Stone itself.
It's thrilling to know that the culmination of our work over almost two decades has unlocked this mystery. We can say with confidence that this iconic rock is Scottish and not Welsh, and more specifically, that it came from the old red sandstones of north-east Scotland., the Altar Stone has traveled a remarkably long way—a straight-line distance of at least 430 miles. This is the longest known journey for any stone used in a Neolithic monument.
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