Shattering previous understandings about one of the world’s most iconic prehistoric sites, Curtin University researchers have uncovered that Stonehenge’s renowned Altar Stone, previously thought to be from Wales, may actually originate from Scotland.
This ground-breaking discovery has sparked widespread intrigue and made headlines around the globe.
Lead author Anthony Clarke, a PhD student at Curtin University’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, explained that the minerals in the Altar Stone were found to be consistent with those from northeast Scotland, over 700 kilometres away.
“Our analysis found specific mineral grains in the Altar Stone are mostly between 1000 to 2000 million years old, while other minerals are around 450 million. This provides a distinct chemical fingerprint suggesting the stone came from rocks in the Orcadian Basin, Scotland,” Clarke said.
“Given its Scottish origins, the 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.”
Study co-author Professor Chris Kirkland from Curtin’s Timescales of Mineral Systems Group believes their findings suggest that ancient societies were more advanced than previously thought.
“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,” Kirkland said.
“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.”
The full peer-reviewed study, published in the British scientific journal Nature, can be accessed online through the journal’s website.
