Stonehenge offers up a new Mystery - The Altar Stone

New research into Stonehenge's central "Altar Stone" says it didn't come from Wales with the Bluestones as previously thought nor did it come from the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire where the Sarsen stones came from but instead the 6 tonne , 4.9 meter long rock actually came from Scotland some 466 miles away.

The Altar Stone is beneath the other two rocks which would have originally been standing along with the Alter Stone.

Isotopic dating of these grains allowed the researchers to construct an age profile for the stone. For example, some of the zircons had formed between 4 and 2.5 billion years ago, with younger grains dating to 1.6 to 1 billion years ago. The apatite and rutile, by contrast, formed between 470 and 458 million years ago.

This range of ages described a profile that bore a remarkable similarity to the old red sandstone sedimentary deposits in just one location out of all the sandstone deposits the team checked around the UK and Ireland.

"This provides a distinct chemical fingerprint suggesting the stone came from rocks in the Orcadian Basin, Scotland, at least 750 kilometers away from Stonehenge," Clarke explains.

"Given its Scottish origins, the findings raise fascinating questions, considering the technological constraints of the Neolithic era, as to how such a massive stone was transported over vast distances around 2600 BCE."
www.sciencealert.com...

If the analysis is correct that is a staggering feat , how do you transport a 6 tonne chunk of rock over ground with the hills , valleys and mountains in the way ? , or if they took it on a raft along the coast (more likely) then that is still a very considerable journey longer than the overland route I guess and fraught with many dangers.

Staggering.

a reply to: gortex

Great thread mate.

I would hope im alive when and if they ever do discover how on Earth did they move that over rough terrain?

Its mind boggling, its incomprehensible.

Best i can come up with is magic. Literally magic.

Great stuff great thread.

I'm quite near to it.

This is fascinating. Did it come by sea?

This reveals some epic levels of cooperation between what is now Wales, Scotland and England.

Sophisticated at that.

Obviously, the unanswered question, remains - why?

a reply to: SecretKnowledge2

It begs the question , Why ? , what is so special about that stone or location to make the operation of getting it to Stonehenge worth the effort , same with the Bluestones.

If the research is correct I guess they have stones from England , Wales and Scotland , a triangle of sorts all housed in a monument in England , great magic would have been there.

It will always be an enigma.

a reply to: Oldcarpy2

Obviously, the unanswered question, remains - why?

Exactly , so many easier options yet they chose the stones from those locations , lost knowledge perhaps.

a reply to: gortex

The level of coordination and cooperation required is staggering.
The makers of Stonehenge disappeared about 1000 years after its construction if I remember correctly and remarkably little is known of them considering the amount of research that has gone into them and the time period.

Lets hope the Scots don't ask for it back!

a reply to: Freeborn

I can just imagine a few Jocks in kilts trying to lift it - "Up your end, Hamish".

"Ah, Dougal. You'll have had your tea". Etc.

Stonehenge has been very manipulated - hard to say whats what .... and what came from where when there has been so much intervention

Photos Showing Victorians Painstakingly Rebuilding Stonehenge in 1901 Are Rewriting the Guidebooks

Photos are shedding light on the painstaking rebuilding of Stonehenge by Victorians in 1901—depicting engineers trying to move the tallest stones back into their intricate prehistoric positions.

Britain’s most famous ancient monument on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire was built around 2500 BC, but after thousands of years some of the stones had fallen out of place.

Most guidebooks since the 1970s had made no mention of the facelift provided during the Victorian era—or other restorations completed around 1920, 1959, and 1964.

a reply to: gortex
The way i would do this is,make it into a huge community event-like a parade from scotland to stonhenge-at each town or village you get all the local young guys to compete in teams,carnival atmosphere-who can keep moving the rock longest for a free night of ale kind of thing.
You would have to send people across the land advertising and hyping the event up beforehand,but if you marketed it as "cool" or offered prizes you could get that rock shifted over a few years I rekon.

Or I guess the other way would just to be evil and use slaves.


The why is the bigger mystery-this rock in particular had to come from Scotland.
Seems kind of lavish or even cruel when there are rocks availible much near to stonehenge.
It must be a super special rock.

a reply to: MetalThunder

This is true. Some farmer bought it at an auction in Salisbury for a few quid back in the day.

originally posted by: SecretKnowledge2
a reply to: gortex

Great thread mate.

I would hope im alive when and if they ever do discover how on Earth did they move that over rough terrain?

Its mind boggling, its incomprehensible.

Best i can come up with is magic. Literally magic.

Great stuff great thread.

On that note.

In terms of magic, and how it would be humanly possible.

Some have theorized that harmonics in unison of certain tones or chords amongst humans singing can accomplish some pretty awesome and unexplainable feats.

Food for thought.

a reply to: MetalThunder

For context here's an image before and after the 1901 restoration.


While some work was done I wouldn't call it extensive.

a reply to: gortex

There's been recent theories surfacing that suggest the stones were collected from random areas around the site due to glaciers dragging them there over time.
Perhaps the people back then noticed the stones were different than what is found nearby, and noticed they are out of place.

That place is always up in debate.

originally posted by: strongfp
Perhaps the people back then noticed the stones were different than what is found nearby, and noticed they are out of place.

By then we had been selecting and working stones for tens of thousand of years, we definately would have noticed the difference.

One of the stone circles on Orkney, it might be the Ring of Brodgar, is comprised of stones from a variety of quarries. It has been theorised that the stones themselves represent the identities of the various tribes or societies that came together at Brodgar. What was regionalised in Brodgar could be interpreted as representing the same thing but on a more isles-wide level at Stonehenge.

I do think though that they need to determine whether or not it was deposited glacially before we get carried away by the implications of all that though. I mean we also call it an altar stone, which is more assumption than anything else.

a reply to: BrucellaOrchitis

Tens of thousands is s bit of a stretch in terms of megalithic masonry. But I get your point.

The conflicting evidence to the glacier theory is that where the "blue stones" are hypothesized to come from in Wales have shown large feasts and festivals, suggesting there were large gatherings, with plenty of calories to fuel people to cut out and drag large stones.

The tribal angle is important tho, as it indicates there must have been a sort of royal figures for all the tirbes to congregate, I can't imagine they were just naturally egalitarian to meet up and move large rocks just for the sake of it.

originally posted by: onestonemonkey
a reply to: gortex
The way i would do this is,make it into a huge community event-like a parade from scotland to stonhenge-at each town or village you get all the local young guys to compete in teams,carnival atmosphere-who can keep moving the rock longest for a free night of ale kind of thing.
You would have to send people across the land advertising and hyping the event up beforehand,but if you marketed it as "cool" or offered prizes you could get that rock shifted over a few years I rekon.

Or I guess the other way would just to be evil and use slaves.


The why is the bigger mystery-this rock in particular had to come from Scotland.
Seems kind of lavish or even cruel when there are rocks availible much near to stonehenge.
It must be a super special rock.

I’d love for the quarry to be located. Scara Brae (sp?)?


To strongfp, I thought of the kings stone straight away.
Wouldn’t be the first time a big chunk of rock was given sentimental/theological significance.

a reply to: Freeborn

yous have a habit ae "borrowing" big stanes fae us hahhaah

a reply to: onestonemonkey

Why

because aww the best stanes come fae Scotland laddie

id imagine that the stone being taken from Scotland could only indicate that it was already a super important ceremonial stone alter from another possible earlier site
maybe the stone itself was taken from site to site as the seat of power of the builders moved

i remember the seat of power of the britons was at Dumbarton Rock and the vikings raided and then they moved up the Clyde to Govan.
Maybe something similar happened which required the seat of power of the builders to move to stonehenge
and they wanted to bring their ceremonial alter stone from the old site to this new one down south.

a reply to: BrucellaOrchitis

Id never thought of that before , its a meeting point of the tribes who have joined a Union
or pact of self defense or something , and they each bring a stone to the circle and they lay the stone
they raise the stones together in a ceremony of union
and this is where they meet to discuss their issues or agree to unite and go to war with a neighbouring enemy.

but what of the ley lines ? thats the thing that really does puzzle me all these standing stones are on ley lines
and the ley lines go from volcanic plug to volcanic plug etc.
ludovic mann wrote about them a lot and states that Glasgow was even founded on the ley lines

people always go on about tartarian mud flood and lost tech , if your looking for auld tech then why not look towards the stones and the ley lines , ive heard from someone on ATS that the leys are actually just dormant and need repaired "activated" so to speak. but this grid is built upon a much older grid

Stonehenge is "5000" years youtu.be...