The source of the sarsen stones of Stonehenge may be found in an area near the monument, possibly solving a centenary mistery.
It seems that experts solved the mistery the source of phenomenal Stonehenge massive sarsen stones. Archeologists and historians have long argued where this giant stone comes from. Then on 29th July, the researchers announced a breakthrough discovery.
Stonehenge ‘s giant sarsen stones source
The sarsen stone may come from the West Woods. It is a woodland area which is just 15 miles away from Stonehenge and close to the town of Marlborough.
English Heritage made an announcement on Twitter written, “MYSTERY SOLVED! We FINALLY (almost certainly…) know where Stonehenge’s giant sarsen stones come from!”
MYSTERY SOLVED! ?
We FINALLY (almost certainly…) know where Stonehenge’s giant sarsen stones come from!
THREAD ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Lnkb2vB32R
— English Heritage (@EnglishHeritage) July 29, 2020
The stone circle monument finds its roots in the Neolithic. It is largely made from two types of stone. Stonehenge has smaller slabs known as bluestones, which likely come from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales. The larger ones, defined megaliths, are made of sarsen, a local sandstone. They weigh up to 30 tonnes and stand up to 7 meters (nearly 23 feet) tall, and form the central horseshoe.
Experts were inclined to think that the stones could have originated from the Marlborough Downs, a group of hills north of the monument. However the truth had been “impossible to identify until now“.
The tipping point in the mistery
A man returned a missing piece of the stones last year and changed everything. “When Robert (the employee) decided to return the core last year, experts started piecing together a puzzle”, wrote English Heritage. Then, they examined all sarsen outcrops across England, from Norfolk to Devon, to compare those chemical compositions with the Stonehenge samples. The method is like “chemical fingerprint” as said in the journal Science Advances. The results discovered the best match in one location which is West Woods.
David Nash of the University of Brighton, who led the study, said “It has been really exciting to harness 21st century science to understand the Neolithic past, and finally answer a question that archaeologists have been debating for centuries.” However there are some questions unanswered. In fact, there are two stones that appear to have come from other source areas than the discovered Stonehenge sarsens.
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