Stonehenge now resides in Wiltshire was quarried in Craig Rhos-y-felin and Carn Goedog in Wales around 3400 BC and 3200 BC. But the stones didn’t appear near Salisbury for another 500 years, says news study.
A team of archaeologists and geologists, led by University College London (UCL), confirmed the stones came from outcrops. The team included scientists from University of Manchester, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton, National Museum Wales and Dyfed Archaeological Trust.
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Prof Mike Parker Pearson, director of the project and professor of British later prehistory at University College London (UCL), told the Guardian: “We have dates of around 3400 BC for Craig Rhos-y-felin and 3200 BC for Carn Goedog, which is intriguing because the bluestones didn’t get put up at Stonehenge until around 2900 BC.
“It could have taken those Neolithic stone-draggers nearly 500 years to get them to Stonehenge, but that’s pretty improbable in my view.
“It’s more likely that the stones were first used in a local monument, somewhere near the quarries, that was then dismantled and dragged off to Wiltshire.”
Prof Parker Pearson explained: “But we think it’s more likely that they were building their own monument [in Wales], that somewhere near the quarries there is the first Stonehenge and that what we’re seeing at Stonehenge is a second-hand monument.”
