By Tim Binnall
The suspected history of Stonehenge has been upended once again as a new study has determined that the legendary megalithic site's 'alter stone' came from over 400 miles away in Scotland. The remarkable findings were reportedly the result of research conducted by a team of scientists from England and Australia. Hoping to unlock the origins of the ancient piece, they produced an "age fingerprint" derived from the specific minerals and chemical compounds found in the stone. When comparing their determination to a database of the United Kingdom's geographic geology, they were stunned by what they found.
"The match for the age fingerprint was a dead ringer for the Orcadian Basin in north-east Scotland. It was completely unexpected to us," marveled Nick Pearce, who served as a co-author of the paper that presents the researchers' work. Team member Rob Ixer echoed that astonishment, calling the findings "jaw-dropping." To that end, he explained that a Scottish origin for the stone "completely rewrites the relationships between the Neolithic populations of the whole of the British Isles" and fundamentally changes our understanding of Stonehenge itself.
To that end, the researchers observed that their near-certain determination of where the alter stone came from means that the builders of the ancient monument transported the piece over a distance of at least 460 miles, which is around 330 more miles than the site in Wales where most of the other pieces are believed to have originated. How the creators of Stonehenge could have possibly made the arduous journey from Scotland with the alter stone boggles the mind, though an independent archaeologist looking at the scenario suggested that it could have taken years for the piece to be dragged into place.