Firstly, Gary sent a link to a You Tube film – on Doggerland. Lots of pictures. Doggerland [bottom of the southern basin of the North Sea] – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd3QpHSm-04 …
Then we have https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/stonehenge-mystery-deepens-as-new-findings-cast-doubt-on-origins-of-iconic-monument/ar-AA1q7ld7?rc … and https://www.msn.com/en-ie/money/technology/stonehenge-mystery-deepens-as-stone-altar-origins-are-questioned/ar-AA1qfFPk … a link that was also sent in. A few weeks later Current Archaeology 415 [https://www.archaeology.co.uk] the September/October issue of 2024, had an article – ‘The Scottish Origin for the Stonehenge Altar Stone?‘ [but note the question mark. In this article geophysicist from two universities in Australia, place the origin of the altar stone in the Orkneys, rather than somewhere in NE Scotland. It is grey green sandstone, but comes from a geological layer known as the Old Red Sandstone. This actually outcrops in Wales, overspilling into nearby English counties, as well as northern England, southern and northern Scotland. It continues into the Orkneys and is even found in parts of the Shetland Isles. Of course, all this was once dry land – even in the early Holocene. It is now defined as the continental shelf system. It was flooded at the same time Ireland became an island – as the land link was submerged.
The altar stone is much larger than the average bluestones – a term which is now defined as an exotic stone [with an origin outside the localities of Salisbury Plain]. It is a worked slab of rock, 5m by 1m – and 50cm thick. It lies prone and broken – but is located in the centre of the circle. There is no evidence it was used as an altar. That is due to the fertile imaginations of the 19th century.
The new study provides a specific location – the Orcadian Basin. Interestingly, it is alleged there is no known evidence of glacial erratics anywhere near Salisbury Plain. However, if there had been they would have been snapped up by megalith builders and may be in plain site on the Plain. The authors of the original article suggest it was transported by humans. How is not divulged. It just gives Stonehenge another bit of mysterious awe. How would they have sailed a big stone by boat from the Orkneys to the Bristol Channel and along the Avon river? No doubt somebody will come along and explain the mystery as a fairly easy process. If so, that would imply the Neolithic societies of the period were much more organised, or civilised, than archaeologists and historians have given them credit for. Having said that, Alexander Thom and Euan MacKie did think along those lines. In particular the latter, who wrote a couple of books on the subject when he was fairly young. The archaeological fraternity of the day did not like that idea. They were quickly sidelined over 40 years ago. Now, the idea is coming back to life – but was the altar stone really brought to Stonehenge by boat? Certainly, the recent archaeological investigations in Orkney would indicate an organised society – and Grooved Ware is common to the Orkneys, and to various locations in Britain and Ireland, including Salisbury Plain. One never knows.
The full paper is at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07652-1 … and good reading to one and all.