Stonehenge may have been first erected in Wales, study finds

Researchers have found evidence that Stonehenge may have originally been erected around 140 miles away from where it stands today and later dismantled and moved.

According to the study, published Monday in the journal Antiquity, the “blue stones,” which are the smaller ones in the structure, come from two quarries in the Preseli Hills in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in Wales. 

Since the 1920s, researchers have known that the bluestones on the ancient structure came from the Preseli Hills, but until recently the exact location of the quarries the stones came from remained a mystery, according to a statement from the University College London.

Carbon dating of burnt hazelnuts and charcoal found in the quarries reveal that the bluestones used in Stonehenge were pulled some 500 years before Stonehenge was actually built in Wiltshire, said Mike Parker Pearson, director of the project, in a statement.

Stonehenge was built between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago, according to Pearson, so the discrepancy in time could only mean one of two things.

“It could have taken those Neolithic stone-draggers nearly 500 years to get them to Stonehenge, but that’s pretty improbable in my view,” he said. “It’s more likely that the stones were first used in a local monument, somewhere near the quarries, that was then dismantled and dragged off to Wiltshire.”

Over the past five years, a team of researchers from the University College London, University of Manchester, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton, University of Leicester, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales and Dyfed Archaeological Trust have excavated the site.

Researchers think that the original site where Stonehenge once stood could lie between the two quarries where the stones were mined, according to the statement.

“We’ve been conducting geophysical surveys, trial excavations and aerial photographic analysis throughout the area, and we think we have the most likely spot,” said Kate Welham of Bournemouth University in a statement. “The results are very promising – we may find something big in 2016.”

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