Stonehenge was moved from Wales

[Brian G Turner]

Really interesting article on the BBC website, suggesting that a stone circle in Wales was dismantled and moved to England to set up the original Stonehenge:

Stonehenge: Did the stone circle originally stand in Wales?

Archaeologists now believe the stone circle stood 150 miles from its current location in Wiltshire.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Hugh]

It makes so much sense.

 

[Boneman]

They will ask for it back!!!! Along with the Elgin Marbles...

 

[mosaix]

Another article.

Dramatic discovery links Stonehenge to its original site – in Wales

Find backs theory that bluestones first stood at Waun Mawn before being dragged 140 miles to Wiltshire

www.theguardian.com

I still find it amazing that those things were moved 140 miles over rugged terrain. And that's as the crow flies. There are theories that they were floated up the Bristol channel but even so, it's still absolutely incredible.

 

[Mouse]

I don't know why this story is doing the rounds all of a sudden, because I thought it had been said years ago? I saw it on the news this morning and I was like, eh? I thought this was known already.

 

[mosaix]

I don't know why this story is doing the rounds all of a sudden, because I thought it had been said years ago? I saw it on the news this morning and I was like, eh? I thought this was known already.

You may be right, @Mouse but I think what’s new is that they’ve actually found the sight of the Welsh stone circle the stones came from. I thought that previously it had been conjecture.

 

[Vladd67]

I thought it had long been thought that the stones were quarried in Wales but the idea they were already used in a stone circle seems new.

 

[Dave]

I don't know where I heard this, but I heard that the Bluestones ring when hit with another stone "gong" and it is this "musical" property that made them worth moving so far.

I thought I might have imagined it, so I searched and found this from 2014: Was Stonehenge built for rock music?

And before @Ursa major can get here, yes it must have been "Rock" Music they played on them!

 

[Ursa major]

Surely it was the blues... complete with, appropriately enough, a chorus of wails....

 

[Venusian Broon]

I thought it had long been thought that the stones were quarried in Wales but the idea they were already used in a stone circle seems new.

Yeah, it had been well known for a long time that the bluestones had come from a particular place in Wales. Fascinating to think that they might have been stolen/relocated/acquired/"moved by Merlin using magic" from an earlier site and set up in Wiltshire.

 

[hitmouse]

Vicarious claim to fame: the bluestone quarry is on a farm owned by a member of my wife’s family.
I have spent a lot of time in the Preseli hills over the years. Beautiful but very wet. Absolutely infested with neolithic and iron age detritus.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I don't know why this story is doing the rounds all of a sudden, because I thought it had been said years ago? I saw it on the news this morning and I was like, eh? I thought this was known already.

It's long been known that the bluestones came from Preseli in Wales - it was presumed they were quarried then directly transported to Stonehenge. What's new is the idea that they were actually part of a stone circle in Wales, then the stone circle completely transplanted to Stonehenge.

 

[Hugh]

I enjoyed the programme very much. I was really impressed with both the technology and the perseverance of the archaeologists. I'd always wondered why the original Stonehenge builders had thought it so important they get stones from the Preselis. It makes so much more sense that a whole stone circle was moved. (I wonder if this was more routine than we know. If moving house you could just call in the stone removals.)

 

[paranoid marvin]

Maybe it was a case of putting it all together, making sure all the parts fit and aligned correctly; basically that it 'worked', before transporting it more than 100 miles.

It doesn't surprise me that it was able to be transported over such a distance; with enough manpower and time such a task is entirely feasible. But the ability to pull together so many resources, to communicate effectively over (what was for the time) quite some considerable distance is impressive. The organisation involved shows that the people were obviously very intelligent and highly motivated. Quite possibly it took several generations to get from the start of quarrying up to the final installation of these structures.

 

[Ursa major]

But the ability to pull together so many resources, to communicate effectively over (what was for the time) quite some considerable distance is impressive.

It's a shame that some of their descendents have now sunk so low that they have become involved in the trade in stolen garden ornaments....

 

[Overread]

I don't know why this story is doing the rounds all of a sudden, because I thought it had been said years ago? I saw it on the news this morning and I was like, eh? I thought this was known already.

The other thing is that the media and public understanding of any subject is often years to decades behind the actual science. It takes time for new ideas to permeate from a journal all the way through to common understanding; often because it has little to no real impact on the "average person" its just general background understanding. Plus sometimes those more up to date understandings are only theories and often one of many competing ones. So sometimes its "known" earlier but isn't more concrete till later.


As for the idea the stones were made and assembled where they were harvested (or at least closer) before then being transported to their final resting place, this makes a lot of sense. If you're going to transport them a long way and its practical to assemble in-situ then it lets you confirm it all works before you move it along.

 

[Dave]

I was assuming (maybe in error) that they were in place for some considerable time before being moved, otherwise they would be unlikely to leave a trace. However, it does make sense that they would put them together nearer to the quarry before transporting them.

If you're going to transport them a long way and its practical to assemble in-situ then it lets you confirm it all works before you move it along.

Yes, just think it you took them all that way and then found out you were missing a part. So, it's the equivalent of a henge IKEA?

 

[paranoid marvin]

It's also possible that the henge didn't work as intended, so they moved it to another spot to try it there.

This will remain forever one of the great unanswered mysteries. It's always fun to speculate though!

 

[Ursa major]

It could be a situation such as:

"If you're not going to let me be High Priest**, I'll take my blue stones to where they will let me!"​

​

​

** - Or High Priestess.

 

[Tirellan]

Maybe it was a case of putting it all together, making sure all the parts fit and aligned correctly; basically that it 'worked', before transporting it more than 100 miles.

It doesn't surprise me that it was able to be transported over such a distance; with enough manpower and time such a task is entirely feasible. But the ability to pull together so many resources, to communicate effectively over (what was for the time) quite some considerable distance is impressive. The organisation involved shows that the people were obviously very intelligent and highly motivated. Quite possibly it took several generations to get from the start of quarrying up to the final installation of these structures.

It does not surprise me that the means of moving the stones existed. What does surprise me is that they were able to do so because I had supposed that they would have had to pass through the territories of potentially hostile neighbouring tribes.