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Bournemouth Expert Solves Mystery of the Stonehenge Bluestones Wales

Submitted by vicky on Friday, 24 June 2005  Page Views: 6260

Stonehenge

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Country: Wales
Carn Meini
Carn Meini submitted by vicky : Some of the Blustones on Carn Meini - the spotted dolerite breaks up naturally into pieces perfect for use as standing stones. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Leading Stonehenge expert, Professor Tim Darvill of Bournemouth University, believes he has discovered the answer to one of the stone circle's oldest mysteries - the exact location in Wales where Stonehenge's 'magical' bluestones were quarried centuries ago.

Writing in the July/August issue of 'British Archaeology', Professor Darvill describes the very spot high in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire from where the bluestones - which form the inner circle of Stonehenge - were transported, some 240 miles west of Salisbury Plain.

What Professor Darvill and his colleague Geoff Wainwright believe they have found are the remains of a stone enclosure. Professor Darvill describes a "small crag-edged promontory with a stone bank across its neck" in one of the most elevated parts of Carn Menyn. The enclosure is small (less than half a hectare) but according to Professor Darvill it provides a veritable 'Aladdin's Cave' of made-to-measure pillars for aspiring circle builders.

"Within and outside the enclosure are numerous prone pillar stones with clear signs of working," he writes. "Some are fairly recent and a handful of drill holes attest to the technology used. Other blocks may have been wrenched from the ground or the crags in ancient times with simpler, but no less efficient, technologies that leave no trace.

"Three things are clear from just looking round the site," Prof Darvill concludes. "First, those outcrops have been exploited as a source of stone for a long time and much has been taken away. Second, our understanding of what a 'quarry' is perhaps needs to be modified because here the extraction of pillars simply involves levering suitably shaped but naturally detached blocks from the ground or a fractured outcrop. And third, the remoteness of the place and its mountain - top situation invite comparison with other known sources of prized stone, exploited for axeheads during the fourth and third millennia BC."

Source: Bournemouth University

Contributor Bio for vicky: Ex Megalithic Portal Editor, Co-author of 'Rock Around the Peak - Megalithic Monuments of the Peak District' and... More

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"Bournemouth Expert Solves Mystery of the Stonehenge Bluestones" | Login/Create an Account | 5 News and Comments
  
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Re: Bournemouth Expert Solves Mystery of the Stonehenge Bluestones by ryszard on Wednesday, 29 June 2005
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Thank you for the reference, tlunt, very interesting. Would be nice perhaps to have more science on this otherwise excellent site.
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Re: Bournemouth Expert Solves Mystery of the Stonehenge Bluestones by tlunt on Wednesday, 29 June 2005
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Some more info here on sources
http://www.rosiehardman.com/stonehenge.htm
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Re: Bournemouth Expert Solves Mystery of the Stonehenge Bluestones by ryszard on Tuesday, 28 June 2005
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Have no access to prof Darvill's article. Good to see exact source of some of the Blustones. However some work was done in the past. e.g.

A small brochure on Preseli published for the Pembs National Park some thirty years ago states quite categorically that the stones originated as follows:

1. Some sixty spotted dolerite stones from the south side of Carn Menyn & from Carn Ddafad-las (SN148329)
2. Three unspotted dolerite from the north side of Carn Menyn.
3. Five of volcanic ash from Foel Drygarn.
4. Four of dark blue rhyolite with white speckles from Carn Alw(SN139338).

Unfortunately no authority for these statements is given but it seems that somebody knowledgeable did some work sometime.

Also WFGrimes in the larger Pembs NatL Park guide published in 1973 writes that two of the stones came not from Preseli but from Mill Bay, Cosheston, at the head of Milford Haven. Grimes was the Director of the Institute of Archeology, University of London. One of these two stones is the "Altar" stone for certain. ( that the other is the "Slaughter" stone, is only hearsay).
Does prof Darvill give any refrences to any previous work about the stones?
The glaciation transport theory always seemed unlikely. The glacier would have to be very choosy to bring these stones from these places, and bring no others. Well yes, there is one Preseli Bluestone in the Bowles barrow & Bluestone chips were found in the Great Cursus, showing the stones were worked there. These structures date from around 3400BC, I am told, some 1000 years before there were any stones on site at Stonehenge.
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Re: Bournemouth Expert Solves Mystery of the Stonehenge Bluestones by Andy B on Sunday, 26 June 2005
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Again this is hardly news to dedicated Portal followers, as shown in Vicky's photos.
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Re: Bournemouth Expert Solves Mystery of the Stonehenge Bluestones by Thorgrim on Friday, 24 June 2005
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Interesting! Perhaps that will knock the glacial transport theory on the head now.
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