Scientists were amazed. They must solve the new mystery of Stonehenge

Stonehenge is one of the most famous Neolithic structures in the world. The structure is located on Salisbury Plain, and still exists today It delights in its majesty, especially as it is a monument of human engineering dating back to prehistoric times. Existing Many secrets about the stone circles at Stonehenge.

One of them relates to a rock called… Altar stone, the central megalith of the building. This is an element of Stonehenge that has always attracted the attention of tourists and researchers. Not without reason, because it turns out that there is something important that actually distinguishes it from the rest of the Neolithic building megaliths, which is the place of origin.

Archaeologists have long established that some of the stones used to build Stonehenge did not come from the Salisbury Plain area, but were brought from another area of ​​the British Isles during construction. These megaliths are often called Neolithic structures “Blue stones”. Among them is the central altar stone.

In the first half of the 20th century, it was discovered that most of the “bluestones” at Stonehenge came from… Presley Hills in Wales, about 225 km away from the temple. Hence, it was concluded that the altar stone must also have been quarried from those areas, specifically from ancient red sandstone deposits, which could be found along the road when transporting stones. However, this has turned out to be a false assumption.

According to recent research by Aberystwyth University scientists, Stonehenge altar stone minerals do not match red sandstone in the Anglo-Welsh region. This rules out the possibility that it came from the Presley Hills themselves Like other “blue stones”. So how did you get there?

What excludes the Welsh Altar Stone is the presence of a very high percentage of barite. The study’s authors therefore point out that the source of Stonehenge’s defining element should be sought elsewhere in the British Isles, where deposits of ancient red sandstone containing significant amounts of the mineral exist. They already have a few candidates.

These materials are suitable for deposits in the north primarily In Cumbria and even in the Orkney Archipelago in ScotlandOne of the northernmost regions of the British Isles. Local red sandstone was used to create Neolithic structures, for example the Stennis Megalith. This suggests that materials from approximately 900 kilometers away could have been used to build Stonehenge.