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Scientists made a major discovery this year linked to Stonehenge – one of humanity's greatest mysteries – and the revelations keep coming.
A team of researchers shared evidence in August suggesting that the Altar Stone, an iconic monolith at the heart of Stonehenge, was transported hundreds of miles to the site in southern England from what is now northeastern Scotland nearly 5,000 years ago. Just a month later, a report led by the same experts ruled out the possibility that the stone came from Orkney, an archipelago off the northeastern coast of Scotland that is home to Neolithic sites from that era. The search for the origin of the monolith continues.
Research building on the two previous studies now shows that Stonehenge was built around 2620 to 2480 BC. in England has been reconstructed to help unite the ancient Britons when newcomers from Europe arrived. The new study, published Thursday in the journal Archeology International, also reveals how Neolithic people moved the 13,227-pound (6-ton) block over 700 kilometers (435 miles) from where it came from.
Similarities between stone circles in Scotland and Stonehenge, located in Wiltshire at the southern edge of England's Salisbury Plain, add to a growing body of evidence showing that there were likely more connections between ancient societies in these two remote areas than once thought. according to the study. .
Together, the new study's findings and those published earlier this year shed light on the purpose of Stonehenge and the arrangement of its monoliths, an enduring mystery since excavations at the site began in the 17th century.
“These new insights have significantly expanded our understanding of what Stonehenge's original purpose might have been,” lead author Mike Parker Pearson, professor of British later prehistory at the Institute of Archeology at University College London, said in an email. “It shows that this site on Sailsbury Plain was important to the people who lived not only nearby, but to the whole of Britain, so much so that they brought huge monoliths, sometimes hundreds of miles, to this one site.”
A mysterious monument
Construction of Stonehenge began as early as 3000 BC and took place in several phases in an area that was first inhabited 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, according to researchers.
Previous analyzes have shown that bluestone, a type of fine-grained sandstone, and larger silicified sandstone blocks called sarsens were used in the monument's construction. The bluestones were brought from 140 miles away to the Preseli Hills area of West Wales and are believed to have been the first stones placed at this site. The sarsens, used later, came from the West Woods near Marlborough, about 15 miles away.
Researchers believe that the Altar Stone was placed in the central horseshoe during a reconstruction phase. Although the exact date is unknown, the study authors believe the stone arrived between 2500 and 2020 BC.
According to the research, during that reconstruction phase, Stonehenge's builders raised the large sarsen stones to form an outer circle and made an inner horseshoe of trilithons, or paired upright stones connected by horizontal stone beams, which are still part of the monument to this monument. day.
The Altar Stone is the largest blue stone used to build Stonehenge. Today the Altar Stone lies lying at the foot of the largest trilithon and is barely visible through the grass.
Many questions remain about the exact purpose of Stonehenge and the Altar Stone. But the monument is aligned with the sun during the winter and summer solstices.
“There is good evidence that these large stone monoliths have ancestral significance, representing and even embodying the ancestors of the people who placed them,” Parker Pearson said. “The location of (the Altar Stone) within Stonehenge is important, as if you were standing in the center of the stone circle, the sun sets in the center during the midwinter solstice.”
People take part in the winter solstice celebrations at Stonehenge on December 22, 2023. – Ben Birchall/PA Images/Getty Images/File
During the winter, Neolithic people gathered near Stonehenge, in the village of Durrington Walls, and brought pigs and cattle for a feast, Parker Pearson said. Stonehenge was also the largest cemetery of its time, lending support to the idea that the site may have been used as a religious temple, solar calendar and ancient observatory all in one.
And almost half of the Neolithic people buried near Stonehenge came from somewhere other than Salisbury Plain.
The new research adds a political twist to the backstory of a rebuilt Stonehenge.
“The fact that all its stones came from distant regions, making it unique among the more than 900 stone circles in Britain, suggests that the stone circle may have had both a political and a religious purpose – as a monument of unification for peoples of Great Britain. Britain celebrates their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos,” said Parker Pearson.
Bridging distant communities
This show of unity – transporting giant stones over long distances – would not have been easy for Neolithic people. The study authors don't think boats at the time would have been strong enough to transport something like the Altar Stone across coastal waters.
“Although the wheel had been invented elsewhere, it had not yet quite reached Britain, so the massive stone blocks probably had to be dragged by a wooden sled that slid on wooden rails and could be lifted and re-laid continuously,” says Parker Pearson . said.
The wooden sled could have made shock absorbers from vegetation to cushion the stone, which would have been prone to cracking during the long journey, the study authors said.
Hundreds and possibly thousands of people would have been needed to move the stone overland, and the journey may have taken about eight months, the researchers said in the article.
“Overland travel would have provided far better opportunities for spectacle, pageantry, feasting and celebration, attracting thousands of people to witness and participate in this extraordinary undertaking,” the study said.
Moving the massive stone from Scotland to southern England suggests that a network existed between two remote groups, fostered by cooperation – something the researchers believe existed because of striking cultural similarities in both locations.
The Altar Stone can be seen beneath two larger sarsen stones. – Nick Pearce/Aberystwyth University
“It would take significant coordination across Britain – people literally coming together – in a time before telephones and email to organize such an effort,” said Parker Pearson.
The Altar Stone is similar in size and placement to other large horizontal blocks in stone circles found in northeastern Scotland, the study authors said. These recumbent stone circles have only been found in that part of Scotland, and not in the rest of England, suggesting that the Altar Stone may have been a gift from the community in northern Scotland to signify some sort of alliance.
“Furthermore, if you look at the layouts of some of the houses at Durrington Walls near Stonehenge, there is a striking similarity in their architecture to those in the far north of the Orkney Islands, but rarely anywhere in between,” said Parker Pearson. “We have also known for some time that people shared a style of pottery – which we call Grooved Ware – across the island of Britain. It appears to have been one of several innovations developed in Scotland and spreading south from 3000 BC.
Uniting a declining population
As an island, the British population has changed several times. The region's early farmers are descended from Middle Eastern people who arrived on the island about 6,000 years ago and brought agricultural practices with them. The newcomers replaced the hunter-gatherer communities that had previously inhabited Britain and formed the majority of the population from 4000 to 2500 BC, Parker Pearson said.
But around 2500 BC, people began coming to Britain from Europe, largely from what is now known as Germany and the Netherlands, and according to the research, Stonehenge was rebuilt around this time.
The researchers believe that the reconstruction process was “a response to a legitimation crisis caused by this influx of new people” and an attempt to unite the Neolithic farming population.
The European arrivals, called the Beaker people because of the distinctive pottery they buried with their dead, brought with them technologies such as the wheel and metalworking.
“Within 16 generations over a 400-year period, it appears that most people had ancestors who were a mix of the two, yet this was a mix of 90% income earners to 10% indigenous farmers,” said Parker Pearson. “The genetic makeup of the British population has changed almost completely over half a millennium.”
Eventually, the descendants of the Beaker people replaced the Neolithic farmers and became the dominant population of Britain. So in the end, Stonehenge, which “brought together these extraordinary and otherworldly rocks that (symbolized) and embodied far and distant communities within a complex material and monumental expression of unity between people, land, ancestors and the sky,” failed to bring the same communities together. unite. who built it, the study authors noted.
“The findings of this study shed a very unexpected and very impressive new light on the history of Stonehenge – a remarkable achievement considering how well studied this famous site has been,” said Duncan Garrow, professor of archeology at the University of Stonehenge. Reading specialized in European prehistory. Garrow was not involved in the new study.
Study co-author Nick Pearce, professor of geography and earth sciences at Aberystwyth University, analyzes Neolithic stones in Orkney, an archipelago off the northeastern coast of Scotland. – Richard Bevins/Aberystwyth University
Now researchers are redoubling their efforts to determine where exactly the Altar Stone came from in northeastern Scotland, said Richard Bevins, co-author of the new study, as well as the previous studies this year involving the Altar Stone. Bevins is an honorary professor in the department of geography and earth sciences at Aberystwyth University, UK.
“It's really gratifying that our geological research can contribute to the archaeological investigation and the unfolding story, as our knowledge has improved so dramatically in recent years,” Bevins said. “Our research resembles forensic science. We are a small team of (earth) scientists, each with their own field of expertise; It is this combination of skills that has allowed us to identify the sources of the bluestone, and now the Altar Stone.”
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