Researchers revealed that the long-mysterious stone at the heart of the world’s most famous prehistoric monument came from faraway Scotland.
By William Booth, The Washington PostFILE - The world heritage site of Stonehenge is seen in Wiltshire, England on Dec. 17, 2013.
At this point, the scientists say your guess is about as good as theirs, which is why Stonehenge remains “a wonder of the world.”The new research, led by scientists at Curtin University in Australia, is jaw-dropping - upending a century of geological inquiry to conclude that the Altar Stone, long believed to originate from Wales, actually hails from Scotland, and would have had to make a trip of 450 to 600 miles.
People watch the sun rise, as they take part in the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, Friday, June 21, 2024. in the journal Nature, said the team in Australia had just two samples of the Altar Stone to work with.He called the new provenance of the Altar Stone “astonishing.” Ixer spent much of his career assuming the Altar Stone was from Wales, still a far distance, but not nearly as far away as Scotland.
The geologists from Curtin say with 95 percent certainty that the Altar Stone is Old Red Sandstone from the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland, an area that stretches from the Orkney Islands to Inverness.
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