Stonehenge was part of monument in Wales before being dragged to Wiltshire, say scientists

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Stonehenge was originally part of a monument between two Welsh quarries, say scientists searching for structure in Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

Neolithic quarry-workers used the Welsh weather and “loading bays” of earth and stone to drag the stones they would build Stonehenge with from Pembrokeshire to Wiltshire, according to scientists augmenting long-held evidence that the site’s “bluestones” came from the Preseli hills.

The latest research, led by University College London, has focused on Craig Rhos-y-felin, which provided the rhyolite examples of the smaller stones.

Dr Josh Pollard, of the University of Southampton, says prehistoric workmen needed only “a minimum of effort” to detach each megalith from the natural pillars of the outcrops.

“They only had to insert wooden wedges into the cracks between the pillars and then let the Welsh rain do the rest by swelling the wood to ease each pillar off the rock face,” he explains.

“The quarry-workers then lowered the thin pillars onto platforms of earth and stone –  a sort of loading bay from where the huge stones could be dragged away along trackways leading out of each quarry.”

Although geologists have known that the bluestones were brought to Stonehenge from somewhere in the Hills, their current collaboration with archaeologists has led excavators to Carn Goedog and another site, Craig Rhos-y-felin, which provided rhyolite stones to the henge.

“The two outcrops are really impressive,” says Professor Colin Richards, an expert in Neolithic quarries at the University of Manchester.

“They may well have had special significance for prehistoric people. When we saw them for the first time, we knew immediately that we had found the source.”

Radiocarbon dating of burnt hazelnuts and charcoal from the quarry-workers’ camp fires has shown several phases of megalith quarrying at the sites. Both quarries in Preseli were exploited during the Neolithic period, with Craig Rhos-y-felin also quarried during the Bronze Age, around 4,000 years ago.

“We have dates of around 3400 BC for Craig Rhos-y-felin and 3200 BC for Carn Goedog, which is intriguing because the bluestones didn’t get put up at Stonehenge until around 2900 BC,” says Professor Mike Pearson, from UCL’s Institute of Archaeology, who led the project.

“It could have taken those Neolithic stone-draggers nearly 500 years to get them to Stonehenge, but that’s pretty improbable in my view.

“It’s more likely that the stones were first used in a local monument somewhere near the quarries that was then dismantled and dragged off to Wiltshire.”

The position of the quarries, on the north side of the Preseli hills, could undermine previous theories that bluestones were taken southwards from the hills to Milford Haven and then floated on boats or rafts.

“The only logical direction for the bluestones to go was to the north then either by sea around St David’s Head or eastwards, overland through the valleys along the route that is now the A40” believes Professor Parker Pearson.

“Personally I think that the overland route is more likely. Each of the 80 monoliths weighed less than two tons, so teams of people or oxen could have managed this.

“We know from examples in India and elsewhere in Asia that single stones this size can even be carried on wooden lattices by groups of 60. They didn’t even have to drag them if they didn’t want to.

“Stonehenge was a Welsh monument from its very beginning. If we can find the original monument in Wales from which it was built, we will finally be able to solve the mystery of why Stonehenge was built and why some of its stones were brought so far.”

Professor Kate Welham, from Bournemouth University, thinks that any dismantled monument ruins are likely to lie somewhere between the two megalith quarries – and a breakthrough could be imminent.

“We’ve been conducting geophysical surveys, trial excavations and aerial photographic analysis throughout the area,” she says.

“We think we have the most likely spot. The results are very promising – we may find something big in 2016.”

The very large standing stones at Stonehenge are made of a local sandstone known as sarsen.

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More on the Stonehenge bluestones

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Stonehenge rocks pinpointed to Pembrokeshire in National Museum Wales investigation

New discovery throws further light on the origins of famous bluestones of Stonehenge

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art542711-stonehenge-originally-monument-quarries-pembrokeshire-wales