Stonehenge Boo-Boo

Cailleachdubh

In today's Independent:

"Dig Mistake
Experts trying to uncover the source of Stonehenge's giant stones have been digging in the wrong spot for 90 years.

It has been a puzzle for generations how the huge Welsh blocks, weighing up to four tons, reached the ancient monument. Archaeologists were certain the 11 bluestones came from Carn Meini, 150 miles away, but new evidence suggests they originate just one mile from Stonehenge".

Nothing's set in stone eh...

Poor Uncle Tom

Even moving them one mile was some feat of engineering.

rccaulfield

source? Newgrange is still taken from the wicklow mountains as far as we know correct? Perhaps water makes the transport easier though!

tac foley

Actually, just as I did when I read the article in at least two other newspapers, the comment is ambiguous to say the least. However, reading it again, it states that the stones did not come from the mounded hillock called Carn Meini, but from another similar feature, called Carn Goedig, situated a mile away [from Carn Meini].

Please read it again - '
Experts trying to uncover the source of Stonehenge’s giant stones have been digging in the wrong spot for 90 years.

It has been a puzzle for generations how the huge Welsh blocks, weighing up to four tons, had reached the ancient monument.

Archeologists were certain the 11 bluestones came from Carn Meini one of the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, 150 miles from Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

But geologists using X-rays have discovered the stones actually come from another hill – just over a mile away.

Now archaeologists, who have spent decades digging for evidence of human activity in the wrong location, are moving to the new site.

They hope to discover if prehistoric man cut the monoliths from the hill called Carn Goedog and transported them, or if the blocks were carried to 4,600-year-old Stonehenge by glaciers in the last Ice Age.

Dr Richard Bevins, of the National Museum of Wales, who helped to identify Carn Goedog as the true source of the stones, said: “I don’t expect to get Christmas cards from the archaeologists who have been excavating at the wrong place all these years.”

He added: “This is an incredibly exciting project and we got confirmation last week that our findings have been verified .

“Getting such positive feedback was a great relief.”

Dr Bevins, a leading authority on volcanic rocks, has been studying the Preseli Hills since the 70s.'

So the stones STILL came from a location at least 150 or so miles away from Stonehenge.

tac

Cianmcliam

rccaulfield wrote: »

source? Newgrange is still taken from the wicklow mountains as far as we know correct? Perhaps water makes the transport easier though!

Wicklow has always been identified as the source of the quartz used at Newgrange, but some more recent research for the Knowth report suggests it may equally have come from Rockabill Island as it has an outcrop of the same kind of quartz as found at Newgrange. Since the water-rolled stones seem to have come from Dundalk Bay, it might be more likely that the stones for the facade were collected along the eastern coastal routes.