The truth is not out there.
Scientists say they have finally identified the origin of the megaliths at the 5,000-year-old Stonehenge monument.
Fifty of the 52 massive sandstone sands, as they are called, used at the monument were mined about 15 miles away from West Woods in Wiltshire, researchers announced Wednesday after using geochemical tests to trace their origins.
The sarsens were erected at Stonehenge in 2500 BC. C., with the tallest reaching 30 feet in height and the heaviest weighing 30 tons.
The smaller blue stones at Stonehenge have a different origin story. Those stones already date back to Pembrokeshire in Wales, some 150 miles away. But the source of the sarsens has so far eluded scientists.
“Sarsen stones make up the iconic outer circle and trilithon central horseshoe at Stonehenge. They are huge, ”said David Nash, a geomorphologist at the University of Brighton who led the study.
The researchers will now try to understand how the sarsens were moved from Wiltshire to Stonehenge. They are believed to have been dragged in a sled-like system.
“How they were transferred to the site is still really a matter of speculation,” Nash continued. “Given the size of the stones, they must have been dragged or rolled to Stonehenge. We don’t know the exact route, but at least we now have a starting point and an ending point. “
Nash and his team’s discovery is based on analysis of a sarsen stone fragment that was removed from Stonehenge in the late 1950s during a conservation effort. The piece was removed when conservators installed metal rods to stabilize a cracked megalith.
That fragment was originally gifted as a keepsake to Robert Phillips, a man who worked for the company that carried out the stabilization effort. Phillips had brought the rock with him when he emigrated to the United States. He then returned the stone to Britain for investigation in 2018, before passing away earlier this year.
Since authorities banned destructive testing at the Stonehenge site, the ancient memory was a crucial display for researchers, as it gave them an opportunity to shape the sarsen’s geochemical fingerprint.
“I hope what we have discovered,” Nash said, “will allow people to understand more about the enormous effort involved in building Stonehenge.”
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