Stonehenge’s massive rocks were transported from quarries 290km away, study suggests
- Scientists have discovered the exact location of the quarries where dozens of Stonehenge’s massive stones came from
A team of archaeologists in the United Kingdom says it has traced dozens of Stonehenge’s massive rocks to two quarries in west Wales.
The rocks were transported 290km – dragged on wooden sledges, the scientists suggest, by teams of strong men.
These stones, called bluestones after their bluish-grey hue, form the inner circle of the monument that towers over the Salisbury Plain.
Two bluestone quarries, named Carn Goedog and Craig Rhos-y-felin, were excavated around 3000BC, according to the authors of a study published this week in the journal Antiquity.
Expeditions at the quarries from 2014 to 2016 recovered ancient charcoal and stone tools. In some places, the charcoal was mixed with dirt and stones to form flat platforms, which may have been used like loading bays to distribute the massive pillars, said Michael Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at University College London and an author of the new study.
Among the Welsh hills, bluestones erupted from the ground. Here, millions of years ago, sheets of magma slowly cooled into columns. Aeons passed and softer rock around the magma eroded. Only the jagged bluestones remained.