Study shows Stonehenge Altar Stone traveled 400 miles from Scotland

The Manila Times

Study shows Stonehenge Altar Stone traveled 400 miles from Scotland  A new discovery concerning Britain’s famous Stonehenge monument has stunned researchers.  Its Altar Stone - weighing an estimated six tons - traveled roughly 435 to 465 miles in ancient times from Scotland all the way to England's Salisbury plain.  New research published in the journal Nature was carried out by scientists at Aberystwyth University, UCL, Curtin University, and the University of Adelaide.  REUTERS / NATURE MULTIMEDIA / ENGLISH HERITAGE / PROFESSOR NICK PEARCE, ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY / ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes  #worldnews  #stonehengemystery  #worldheritage

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00:00A new discovery concerning Britain's famous Stonehenge monument has stunned researchers.

00:07Its altar stone, weighing an estimated six tonnes, travelled roughly 435 to 465 miles

00:15in ancient times, from Scotland all the way to England's Salisbury Plain.

00:21New research, published in the journal Nature, was carried out by scientists at Aberystwyth

00:25University, UCL, Curtin University and the University of Adelaide.

00:31However you brought it, whether you brought it down by boat or whether you brought it

00:35over land, yeah, it must have taken a huge effort to do that.

00:39Nick Pearce is a geologist and co-author of the study.

00:43And it sits right at the centre of the Stonehenge monument. It's the bit that you stand on to

00:47watch the sunrise between the other stones over there. So it's right at the middle. So

00:51it must have been placed there as an important stone.

00:54The origin and purpose of the altar stone have been among the mysteries of the megalithic

00:58monument. For the past century, the common belief had been that it had been sourced from

01:03Wales, like other large components at the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

01:08To find out the age of the stone, researchers studied its geochemical fingerprint.

01:14It's a micro-analysis technique. You fire a very focused laser beam on the minerals

01:20in the rock and it vaporises them. You analyse the vapour and you analyse the uranium concentrations

01:27and the lead concentrations.

01:29They found that the minerals of the altar stone are a perfect match for bedrock found

01:34in north-eastern Scotland.

01:35And you analyse 50 or 60 minerals and you get this fingerprint of the different ages

01:41of those minerals in the rock. And that's the characteristic that tells us this is Orcadian

01:46based. It's that age, that suite of ages from those individual minerals in the grains

01:51of the altar stone.

01:53No stone from any other monument dating back to that time period is known to have been

01:58transported so far.

02:00Researchers say this feat, perhaps by both land and sea, suggests a degree of societal

02:05organisation among Britain's Neolithic communities unexpected for the time when it was moved,

02:11thought to have been about 4,600 to 2,500 years ago.

02:16The precise location where the altar stone was sourced remains unknown.

02:20But researchers say the challenge of taking such a massive cargo such a long distance

02:25underscores its importance to Stonehenge's builders.

02:29The monument was built in multiple stages over 500 years or so, starting about 3000

02:35BC.

02:36It remains a site of fascination and mystery over its exact purpose, drawing tourists from

02:42around the world.

02:46For more information visit www.nasa.gov

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