Stonehenge’s origin pinpointed in Preseli
Archaeologists and geologists are excavating Welsh quarries to discover the origin of Stonehenge’s bluestones, reports Martin Shipton
EXCAVATION of two quarries in Wales by a team of archaeologists and geologists has definitively confirmed they are sources of Stonehenge’s ‘bluestones’– and shed light on how they were quarried and transported.
New research by the team, led by academics from University College, London, published in the journal Antiquity, presents detailed evidence of prehistoric quarrying in the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire, helping to answer long-standing questions about why, when and how Stonehenge was built.
The team of scientists includes researchers from UCL, University of Manchester, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton, National Museum Wales, and Dyfed Archaeological Trust.
The very large standing stones at Stonehenge are made of sarsen, a local sandstone, but the smaller ones, known as ‘ bluestones’, come from the Preseli hills in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Geologists have known since the 1920s that the bluestones were brought to Stonehenge from somewhere in the Preseli Hills, but only now has there been collaboration with archaeologists to locate and excavate the actual quarries from which they came.
Director of the project Professor Mike Parker Pearson said: “This has been a wonderful opportunity for geologists and archaeologists to work together. The geologists have been able to lead us to the actual outcrops where Stonehenge’s stones were extracted.”
The Stonehenge bluestones are of volcanic and igneous rocks, the most common of which are