[Rockhounds] Ancient Builders May Have Schlepped Stonehenge’s Altar Stone All the Way From Scotland

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Stonehenge is among the most iconic locations in England, but it may have a
wee bit of Scottish ancestry.

Previous analysis of the rocks that comprise Stonehenge indicate they had
been sourced from several places. The larger stones, known as sarsens,
weigh up to 30 tons, and originated from a quarry around 16 miles (25
kilometers) from the site. The smaller rocks, called bluestones, weigh
between two and five tons, and originated in Wales, around 140 miles (225
kilometers) away, though whether they were transported by humans
<https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2019/03/stonehenge-bluestones.page> or
glaciers
<https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-prehistoric-society/article/abs/geological-sources-and-transport-of-the-bluestones-of-stonehenge-wiltshire-uk/EE5BA93D038D5BB9E648ED608FBE4C7F>
remains
contested.

Now, a new study
<https://nlcontent.springernature.com/d-redirect/TIDP3121673XA0FB122113584A9CB0BBA219B935772EYI4/?url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.nature.com%2farticles%2fs41586-024-07652-1&linksource=https%3a%2f%2fnemo-mail-monkey-live.springernature.app%2f15589138%2fpressReleases%2f%5bdossier-id%5d%3feditorialDomain%3dhttps%253A%252F%252Fpress.springernature.com%26publicationDomain%3dhttps%253A%252F%252Fdx.doi.org>,
published in the journal *Nature* may have solved one of the remaining
Stonehenge mysteries: the origin of the megalithic structure’s Altar Stone.

The Altar Stone, or Stone 80, as it’s known in academic circles, is the
largest of Stonehenge’s non-sarsen rocks. It lies partially submerged in
the ground, stuck beneath two of the bluestones. A previous geological
study of the Altar Stone confirmed
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X23003905> that,
unlike the surrounding stones, it did not originate from Wales.

To figure out where it had come from, a team of geologists led by Anthony
Clark, a PhD student at Australia’s Curtin University, looked at the age
and chemistry of zircon, apatite, and rutile grains taken from two
fragments.

https://gizmodo.com/ancient-builders-may-have-schlepped-stonehenges-altar-stone-all-the-way-from-scotland-2000486882