Stonehenge’s Altar Stone May Have Traveled from Scotland, New Study Says
A stone at the center of Stonehenge may have a far more complicated biography than archaeologists once believed. Researchers say the monument’s altar stone can be traced through geological fingerprinting to the Orcadian Basin in Northeast Scotland, challenging the long-standing assumption that it originated in Wales.
The findings, published June 4 in the Journal of Quaternary Science, come from a team led by Curtin University with collaborators from several UK institutions. Their work builds on earlier research into Stonehenge’s materials and transport routes, but this study focuses on the altar stone, one of the monument’s most enigmatic elements.
Stonehenge itself was built in stages by Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples between around 3,000 BC and 1,500 BCE. The altar stone is thought to have been placed during the second construction phase, between 2,620 and 2,480 BCE. Geological evidence has already established that the monument’s larger sandstone blocks came from the Marlborough Downs, about 20 miles away, while its smaller bluestones were quarried in the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales, roughly 180 miles to the northwest.
The new study suggests the altar stone may have followed a different route. The researchers propose that a glacier carried it from Scotland to Dogger Bank, a prehistoric landmass that once connected Britain to mainland Europe and is now submerged beneath the North Sea. Even if that is correct, the stone would still have needed to be moved hundreds of kilometers by people.
“Our modeling shows glaciers may have transported rocks part of the way during the last Ice Age — potentially as far as Dogger Bank in the North Sea — but not into southern England,” said co-lead author Dr. Anthony Clarke of Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences. “Meaning the stone would still have needed to be moved hundreds of kilometers by people.” He added that moving a stone of this size would have required “planning, coordination and a deep understanding of the landscape — not to mention tremendous determination.”
The study also opens a cultural question. Sheffield Hallam University’s Dr Remy Veness, a co-lead author, said the findings could suggest that people in Doggerland attached significance to the altar stone long before it became part of Stonehenge. He added that the stone may have been moved at least twice: first to save it from rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age, and later to its final position on Salisbury Plain.
If confirmed, the research would add another layer to Stonehenge’s already intricate history, showing that even its most familiar stones may have crossed landscapes, climates, and cultures before reaching the monument we know today.
