The enormous stone travelling 750 kilometres or more is a globally exciting finding that transforms our understanding of transport, trade and society 5000 years ago.
New research led by Western Australia’s Curtin University has revealed Stonehenge’s monumental six-tonne Altar Stone, long believed to originate from Wales, actually hails from Scotland.
Lead author, PhD student Anthony Clarke from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said analysis matched these with rocks from northeast Scotland, and clearly differentiated them from Welsh bedrock. “Fhe findings raise fascinating questions, considering the technological constraints of the Neolithic era, as to how such a massive stone was transported over vast distances around 2600 BC.
“Transporting such massive cargo overland from Scotland to southern England would have been extremely challenging, indicating a likely marine shipping route along the coast of Britain.“This implies long-distance trade networks and a higher level of societal organisation than is widely understood to have existed during the Neolithic period in Britain.”
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