In a groundbreaking revelation, scientists traced the outcrop source of Stonehenge’s massive Altar Stone to the northeastern part of Scotland, displacing age-old assumptions about the monument’s structure and placing further enlightening details on the advanced prehistoric society of Britain.
The six-tonne Altar Stone was one of the central features of the stone circle at Stonehenge, Wiltshire. Previously thought to have come from Wales, the monolith reveals its true origin in Scotland, more than 450 miles from where it stands, thanks to results of the same study at Curtin University.
“Our analysis found specific mineral grains in the Altar Stone are mostly 1,000 to 2,000 million years old, whilst other minerals are around 450 million years old,” said the lead author, Anthony Clarke, a Ph.D. student in Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences. This unique chemical fingerprint identifies the stone to be from rocks in the Orcadian Basin, Scotland.
This find poses really interesting questions about the capacity of Neolithic communities, in technological terms and socially, to organize the logistics of that activity. To move a stone of that size over such a distance at around 2,600 BC would be a major operation. In this case, it simply means that marine shipping was in operation along the coast of Britain, raising implications of long-distance trade networks and a higher level of societal organization than previously understood.
Co-author of the study from Curtin University Professor Chris Kirkland added that the find was significant to appreciating communities around Stonehenge and far beyond. “Our finding of the Altar Stone origin reveals a significant level of societal coordination in play during the Neolithic Age and helps paint a fascinating picture of prehistoric Britain,” he said.
The research was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project and done in partnership with Aberystwyth University, in Wales, and The University of Adelaide, Australia. Professor Richard Bevins from Aberystwyth University pointed out, “It is somewhat ironic that we get so much information from such a famous old stone, especially when it is not precisely located where we think it was originally erected.”.
The findings from this study have implications that stretch far beyond the Altar Stone. It, firstly, indicates that this kind of pottery, and houses, too, would not have been unique to only the site of Stonehenge but throughout Scotland and southern England, making the level of association between the two there regions even more entrenched. More importantly, though, is the fact that it is an indication of highly sophisticated transport methods and hence societal organization in Neolithic Britain, illuminating ancient communities in a fresh context.
As researchers continue to keep probing the exact origin in northeastern Scotland of the Altar Stone, this study becomes a testimony to the enigmas of Stonehenge that have outlasted time and the miraculous feat done by its builders. Exactly how and by which means this Altar Stone made its way, be it over land or sea, continues to be a debated subject. What is confirmed is that the people in Neolithic Britain were far more advanced than had been previously conceived.
According to Dr. Robert Ixer of University College London, “The work prompts two important questions: why and exactly how was the Altar Stone transported from the very north of Scotland, a distance of more than 700 kilometers, to Stonehenge?” As the search for these and further answers unfolds, the discovery of the Altar Stone promises to provide a more solid insight into one of the most enigmatic monuments in the world.