From Live Science and Science Advances:
Countless piggies likely trotted hundreds of miles to Stonehenge and other ancient monuments during the Neolithic, where they were devoured during giant feasts.
Now, 2,800 years later, researchers have collected jaw and tooth samples from the remains of 131 of these Neolithic pigs; from the samples, they analyzed the isotopes that hint at the animals' origins.
The isotopic results suggest that some of the piggies traveled hundreds of miles, coming from ... modern-day Scotland, northeast England and western Wales. Indeed, the isotopic values had a "staggering range" and came from all over the United Kingdom, said study lead researcher Richard Madgwick (Cardiff University). If these pigs are a good proxy for the humans who ate them, then it's likely that Neolithic people also traveled hundreds of miles from all over Britain to attend annual, momentous feasts at these sacred sites, Madgwick said.
... While the pig remains weren't found right at Stonehenge, they were found close by, about 1.8 miles away at another henge known as Durrington Walls. Pigs were also on the menu at three other U.K. Neolithic sites, dating back about 2,800 to 2,400 years: Mount Pleasant, a henge enclosure near the coast by Dorset; West Kennet Palisade Enclosures, which has the world's largest prehistoric stone circles; and Marden, a henge encompassing 35 acres (14 hectares).
These pigs may help answer a long-standing question over who built and used Stonehenge. The local food and water an animal consumes contain unique isotopes, and these isotopes end up in the animal's bones and teeth. ...It's easier to tell where pigs came from than it is humans, Madgwick said. Human teeth develop slowly, and if the human moved around a lot, it can be hard to pinpoint where the person came from. In contrast, pigs are "not very mobile animals, and their teeth develop really rapidly," Madgwick said. So, Madgwick and his colleagues looked at five different isotopes in the 131 recovered pigs: Strontium gave a geological signal, sulfur gave clues related to coastal proximity, oxygen gave a climatic signal, and carbon and nitrogen gave dietary signals.
This was no small undertaking. "This is the largest published multi-isotopes study using five systems," Madgwick said. ...
The nuance of the study: "Unquestionably, the biggest risk in this study was, 'Are pigs a good proxy?'" Madgwick said. "Ask any pig farmer and they will tell you that even moving a pig a couple hundred yards is a challenge."
But several clues suggest that the pigs were moved from their birthplaces to the Neolithic monuments, where they were then slaughtered. For instance, many pig skulls — which are heavy and have little meat — were found at these Neolithic monuments. So, if people were merely transporting slaughtered pig meat, it wouldn't make sense for them to bring the skulls, too, Madgwick said.
Sites like Durrington Walls could have hosted as many as 4,000 people at one time, so clearly, there was a need for pork, come mealtime. It's possible that these people came to build Stonehenge and to celebrate rituals, such as the midwinter solstice. "So, they're working all day on the stones and partying all night on the pig feast," Madgwick said.
"For me, it confirmed people and animals were coming from all over the place to Stonehenge and to the surroundings of Stonehenge," said Christophe Snoeck, (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) [whose study] published in 2018, showing that some of the cremated people found buried at Stonehenge weren't locals.
"People moved around the landscape, they were not just restricted to the Stonehenge environment."
For the complete article, see https://www.livescience.com/64983-ancient-pig-feast-at-stonehenge.html
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road