Thread by @pittsmike

Must we rewrite #Stonehenge's history? No! But news that the Altar Stone came from NE Scotland is sensational. It widens horizons & suggests the monument was very much part of a Neolithic world spanning the UK.

My key takeaways in thread below... 1/6

1 source outcrops include Orkney, with stone circles and megaliths, and Rhynie, site of Dark Age inscribed standing stones 2/6

2 Scottish source fits pattern of north/south Neolithic connections:
• Lewisian Gneiss macehead from Hebrides buried at Stonehenge
• cattle & pigs brought from N England/Scotland to near Stonehenge
• Grooved Ware pottery, common in Wessex, originated in Orkney 3/6

3 link to Aberdeenshire recumbent stone circles?
• Altar Stone at SW side of Stonehenge, below 2 tallest megaliths, on line of midwinter setting sun
• Recumbent stone at SW side of circle, between 2 tallest uprights (an inverted trilithon?) on line of midsummer full moon 4/6

4 Overland journey, not sea (see map!)

5 future work will considerably narrow the search down to potential quarries

6 highlights how little we know about the Altar Stone: need for new work, including (re)excavation 5/6

And congratulations to the geologists.

Here is the Nature article: A Scottish provenance for the altar stone of Stonehenge


And much more with lot of photos in my blog here: 6/6
nature.com/articles/s4158…
mikepitts.wordpress.com/2024/08/14/wha…

If you have access to Nature's News you'll read that I appear to have dismissed a "rugged" land route: that is the opposite of what I actually said, I strongly favour a land route. I suspect subediting. In my blog I note that Nature could have usefully engaged with archaeologists