On 2009-02-03 11:05, mountainman wrote:
Just came across another interesting idea. Many of us have wondered about the use of the term "bluestone" -- when it was first used, and WHY it was used since the bluestones are not really blue at all. If truth be told, the colouring of most of the smaller monoliths at Stonehenge is not that different from the colouring of the sarsens. Geoff Kellaway has suggested that the term "blau stone" (later distorted into bluestone) is a medieval word, from the Anglo-Saxon, meaning special, different, exotic or unusual. It doesn't mean "blue" but indicates maybe that the early observers of Stonehenge recognized the smaller stones as somehow different, and maybe therefore from some distant place........ Makes a lot of sense, I think. I'm still pretty convinced that the builders of the monument didn't have a clue where they had come from either, but found them to the west of the site where they were hard at work. Because they were "different" they may thus have been looked on as special or even sacred.

On 2009-02-04 12:55, karloff wrote:
Hi
The term bluestone when applied to Stonehenge covers a range of actual rock types but in general it refers to the Dolerite blocks.

When clean and wet these rocks are indeed blue and so its likely that's why they are called bluestones.

I do like the ideas generated by SH, and Kellaway's theory is interesting but sometimes the elephant in the room looms very large indeed!