/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/dd/b2/ddb2af6a-dac9-4760-9c3a-29d098d9e2d4/lossy-page1-1280px-tjdw_stonehenge_20111107tif.jpg)
How Did Stonehenge Get Its Altar Stone? New Research Adds to the Debate Between Human Effort and Glacier Transport
Key takeaways
- Wilson via Wikimedia Commons under CC0 1.0 In 2024, researchers determined that Stonehenge’s altar stone originated in northeast Scotland, some 450 miles away from the site of the iconic monument in southern England.
- Ice flow modeling and geological analyses suggest it’s possible that glaciers carried the stone part of the way during the last Ice Age.
- Stonehenge was erected in stages between 3000 B.C.E. and 1520 B.C.E.
Tristan J. Wilson via Wikimedia Commons under CC0 1.0 In 2024, researchers determined that Stonehenge’s altar stone originated in northeast Scotland, some 450 miles away from the site of the iconic monument in southern England. Now, they say they are one step closer to understanding how the massive rock got there.
Ice flow modeling and geological analyses suggest it’s possible that glaciers carried the stone part of the way during the last Ice Age. However, that scenario is unlikely, researchers report in a new paper published in the Journal of Quaternary Science. Rather than being moved naturally by ice, they suspect the stone was hauled by Neolithic communities over land and water.
Stonehenge was erected in stages between 3000 B.C.E. and 1520 B.C.E. Researchers thinkbelieve the more than 13,0200-pound, 16-foot-long altar stone was added between 2620 and 2480 B.C.E. Today, the rock is partially buried and tucked beneath two other stones.