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New research suggests that one of Stonehenge’s famous megaliths may have come from the very north of the UK.
The Altar Stone is a six-tonne sandstone slab that currently lies in the middle of the famous stone circle. It was previously suggested that this stone may have come from Wales like the other bluestones at Stonehenge, but this possibility has since been ruled out. Now a new study offers a surprising alternative. Samples of the Altar Stone were subjected to laser ablation mass spectrometry to find out more about its mineralogical composition, which was then compared to rock formations around Britain and further afield. This revealed that by far the most likely source for the stone was the Old Red Sandstone of the Orcadian Basin in north-eastern Scotland.
This means that the stone must have travelled at least 750km to reach Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The northward movement of glaciers in the Last Glacial Maximum, as well as the absence of any known glacial erratics in the area around Stonehenge, makes it very unlikely that the Altar Stone was carried south by moving ice. It must, therefore, have been transported by people. At present, we do not know whether the stone travelled over land or by sea. However, the researchers do highlight the existence of known maritime networks at this time, as shown by the presence of objects in Neolithic Britain that originated in continental Europe: clearly, the transport of goods and materials via seafaring boats was taking place.
Regardless of how the Altar Stone reached Salisbury Plain, its presence here is a testament to the far-reaching connections that existed between communities across Neolithic Britain, indicating that they stretched even further than previously recognised. The discovery also reflects the significance of Stonehenge as a community effort, bringing together materials and people from disparate locations across the UK.
Further research is required to work out exactly where the Altar Stone came from and how it got to Stonehenge, and the question of why it was transported such a great distance remains, but this research represents an invaluable addition to our understanding of Stonehenge and the geopolitics of the wider Neolithic world.
The study was published in Nature (https:// doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07652-1). Look out for a more in-depth article about the research in our sister-magazine Current Archaeology.
Text: Amy Brunskill / Image: Adam Stanford
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