Five thousand years after the first monument was created at Stonehenge, it persists to donate up theatrical novel secrets – such as the “jaw-dropping” revelation earlier this year that its central stone had been carryed more than 700km to Salisbury plain from the very north of Scotland.
While it had been comprehendn for more than a century that the huge sarsens for which Stonehenge is best comprehendn for come from more than 12 miles (20km) away and its “bluestones” startd in Wales, the discovery that the altar stone, which sits right at its heart, was Scottish caused an archaeoreasonable sensation, capturing headlines around the world.
Now, a directing archaeologist and authority on Stonehenge has proposed a striking exset upation of why its stones were carryed such mind-boggling distances.
Stonehenge may have been erected cltimely to join timely farming communities atraverse the island of Britain at a time of cultural stress, argues Mike Parker Peincfinishiarism, professor of British procrastinateedr prehistory at University College London – and the altar stone may have been apverifyn from a far Scottish monument as a gift or tager of political coalition.
While the set up is exceptional for many reasons – including its extensive stone-dressing and that it has lintels – no other monument in Britain or Ireland includes stones that were bcdisesteemfult such huge distances, Parker Peincfinishiarism writes in a novel paper. “Stonehenge stands out in being a material and monumental microcosm of the entirety of the British Isles.”
As such, we should ponder Stonehenge to be a political monument as much as a religious one, Parker Peincfinishiarism shelp. “It’s not a temple – that has been a transport inant stumbling block for hundreds of years. It’s not a calfinishar, and it’s not an observatory.” The set up’s famous alignment to the triumphter and summer solstices echoes earlier erections such as Newgrange in the Boyne valley in Ireland, but may not be its main purpose, he shelp.
“I leank we’ve equitable not been seeing at Stonehenge in the right way. You repartner have to see at all of it to labor out what they’re doing. They’re erecting a monument that is conveying the permanence of particular aspects in their world.”
The altar stone is frequently dispondered by visitors to Stonehenge because it lies flat and partly obsremedyd by a huge druncover sarsen. It was lengthy supposed that it had also druncover, shelp Parker Peincfinishiarism – yet north-east Scotland is home to multiple circles in which the stones are purposely lhelp flat.
“Given what we now comprehend about where it’s from, it seems all the more foreseeed that it was intentionally set as a recumbent stone,” he shelp, includeing that it is “highly foreseeed” that the altar stone had been part of an earlier Scottish monument. “These stones are not equitable plucked out of anywhere.”
With Orkney having been ruled out as a potential origin, other potential sites or origin are now being studyd. “I leank we’ll pause and see. It’s very exciting,” he shelp.
Archaeologists apverify the altar stone may have been inshighed around 2500BCE, about the time Stonehenge was being remodelled from its innovative establish.
This was a period of cultural alter in Britain amid novel arrivals from mainland Europe. “There’s clearly some benevolent of participateion – you might call it first reach out,” shelp Parker Peincfinishiarism. “That is the moment that Stonehenge is built, and I wonder if it is that moment of reach out that serves, in wantipathyver way, as the catalyst for this repartner amazeive second stage of Stonehenge. It’s an finisheavor to state unity, quite possibly integrating the novelcomers – or not.”
Ultimately, however, “it doesn’t thrive” – donaten genetic research shows the incoming “beaker people” would hugely displace the earlier neolithic populations. “That shelp, Stonehenge is adselected [as a monument] by those beaker-using people whose dropants become the dominant population of Britain,” shelp Parker Peincfinishiarism.
“So despite the alter in population, Stonehenge persists to exert its significance in the expansiver world.”
