The centre of solstice activities at Stonehenge is the Altar Stone – a large sandstone slab of uncertain origins. Our new work has found a match for it all the way in Scotland.
During the solstices, thousands gather at Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in England to celebrate the monument’s astronomical alignment. The focal point of these festivities is the Altar Stone – the six-tonne sandstone slab that lies flat at the centre of Stonehenge .
So, where is the Altar Stone from? How was it transported to southern England? To answer this, we analysed the Altar Stone’s constituent mineral grains. Our results are now published in the journal Nature – and it looks like the Altar Stone came from Scotland. Much like DNA, the Altar Stone contains a vast array of mineral grains that carry information on their birth and subsequent history .
The Grampian Mountains and the Northern Highlands have shed tiny pieces of rock, or detrital grains, towards the Orcadian Basin since about 400 million years ago. These eroding rocks imparted their unique and traceable “DNA” into the sandstone, which was ultimately selected as the Altar Stone. How did the Altar Stone get to Stonehenge? Although some believe the Welsh bluestones may have been carried by glaciers towards Stonehenge, this transport seems improbable for the Altar Stone.
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