Updating Stonehenge's Origins

Many of us, me included, have visited Stonehenge in England. The theory, believed to be fact for many years, is that the giant stones were brought from Wales and erected on the Salisbury Plaine approximately 90 miles west of London.

But now its mystical origins have been challenged. Scholars previously believed they already knew most of what was to be known about the Altar Stone, the largest of the non-sarsen stones located in the center of the Wiltshire circle partially buried beneath two fallen stones. It was believed the huge 16ft by 3ft Altar Stone weighing in at 6 tons, one of approximately 80+ stones still on site, came from Wales. Researchers now believe the Altar Stone came from Scotland.

Studying age and chemistry of mineral grain, scientists created a chemical fingerprint of the stone. The composition matched rocks from northeast Scotland which were clearly different from Welsh bedrock. It was concluded that those mineral grains were between 1 billion to 2 billion years old while other minerals were about 450 million years old. A distinct chemical fingerprint suggested the Altar Stone came from rocks in the Orcadian Basin in Scotland, at least 750 kilometers (466 miles) away from Stonehenge.

What is now believed to be the Scottish origins of the Altar Stone raise an interesting question regarding how such a massive stone was transported so far during the Neolithic era of approximately 2600 BC. Transporting such a massive weight overland from Northern Scotland to Southern England would have been extremely challenging indicating the use of a likely marine shipping route along the coast of England. This suggests long-distance trade networks and a higher level of social organization than what was widely understood to have existed during the Neolithic period in England.