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The largest Harlan Fiske Stone in Stonehenge ’s inner forget me drug , known as the Altar Stone , may have make out from far afield than its neighboring monoliths — possibly even from northern England or Scotland , according to a new study that questions a 100 - class - old mind about the stone ’s origin .
A century has make it since British geologist Herbert Henry Thomas published hisseminal 1923 studyon Stonehenge , in which he traced the source of the " bluestones " that make up the monument ’s inner circle to the Preseli Hills in westerly Wales . Among these bluestone — so call because they win a blueish undertone when wet or freshly rugged and to distinguish them from the " sarsen " stones that make up the out circle — Thomas included a 16 - foot - long ( 4.9 measure ) flat - lying , gray - unripened slab of stone known as the Altar Stone .
Stonehenge’s Altar Stone probably wasn’t sourced from the same region as the other bluestones.
" It seems as though he wanted all the non - sarsen stones to amount from a limited geographic area and this introductory assertion has not been challenged for 100 years,“Richard Bevins , an honorary professor of geology and Earth sciences at Aberystwyth University in Wales who led the new enquiry , told Live Science in an email .
It now appears that Thomas ' appraisal was flawed , Bevins and his workfellow have find in a new study , print in the October issuing of theJournal of Archaeological Science : report . While Thomas " quite rightly " nail the source of some stones to outcrops in western Wales , the Altar Stone likely come from a completely different location , possibly an unknown quarry in northern Britain , Bevins said .
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The bluestones were transported over 140 miles from the Preseli Hills in western Wales (pictured) to Stonehenge.
Stonehengewas erect during Britain ’s Late Neolithic period , some 4,000 to 5,000 year ago , on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire , in southerly England . The memorial was built , rebuilt and lend to over thousands of class , with the bluestone bring to the site during an former construction form .
former excavators of Stonehenge called the bluestone " foreign Stone , " because they are exotic to the Wiltshire landscape . Their long - draw transport over 140 naut mi ( 225 kilometers ) from western Wales to Stonehenge is one of the furthest known space from a source to a prehistoric monument construction website anywhere in the earth , agree to the study .
The Altar Stone has always stood out from the other bluestones because it ’s much larger and made of a unlike type of rock’n’roll , Bevins said . There is also " no archaeological grounds as to when the Altar Stone arrived at Stonehenge , " he added , raising the possibility that it could have been fetch to the land site during a later construction phase angle .
To shed light on the gemstone ’s origin , the researchers compared its geochemistry and mineralogy with 58 sandstone outcrops stretching from southerly Wales to westerly England . But the search " failed to make a match , " Bevins suppose , and the researcher concluded that they might be seem in the incorrect place .
The Altar Stone displays an unusually eminent amount of the chemical substance elementbarium , which has helped the researchers narrow down further likely sources .
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" ab initio , we feel it appropriate to investigate areas where there are known ancient repository of Neolithic ages , " Bevins said . These areas stretch across northern England and Scotland , broadening the horizons of a search that has so far focused exclusively on Wales and allowing for " creative thinking about the germ of the Altar Stone , " he said .
The characterisation of the Altar Stone as a bluestone is now up for public debate , Bevins added , rewrite its archaeological significance in the history of Stonehenge .
This is n’t the first time Bevins and colleagues have challenge Thomas ' century - old oeuvre . In 2018 , they reported in the journalAntiquitythat the bluestone came from acompletely unlike outcrop of rocks at Preseli Hillsthan Thomas suspect .
