Stonehenge may be a rebuilt stone circle from Wales [View all]
Five thousand years after Stonehenge was built, archaeologists have finally pinpointed exactly where the bluestones that form part of the imposing UK monument came from and how they were unearthed. The researchers revealed in 2019 the stones came from an ancient quarry on the north side of the Preseli Hills in western Wales, which meant the 43 huge bluestones had been moved a staggering distance of 150 miles.
Now, archaeologists have said they think some of the bluestones first formed another stone circle close to the same area as the quarries and were dismantled and rebuilt as part of Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain. The identical 110-meter diameters of the stone circle, known as Waun Mawn, and the enclosing ditch of Stonehenge, suggest that at least part of the circle was brought from its location in Wales to Salisbury Plain, according to new research published in the journal Antiquity.
What's more, both stone circles are aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise, and one of the bluestones at Stonehenge has an unusual cross-section that matches one of the holes left at Waun Mawn, the paper said. Chippings in that hole are of the same rock type as the Stonehenge stone, it added.
Some 43 bluestones survive today at Stonehenge, though many of these remain buried beneath the grass. They were thought to have been the first to be erected at Stonehenge 5,000 years ago, centuries before the larger sarsen stones were brought over just 15 miles from the monument.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/11/europe/stonehenge-wales-stone-circle-scn/index.html
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