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Origins of the sarsen megaliths at Stonehenge.

Nash, D., Ciborowski, J., Ullyott, S., Parker Pearson, M., Darvill, T., Greaney, S., Maniatis, G. and Whitaker, K., 2020. Origins of the sarsen megaliths at Stonehenge. Science Advances, 6 (31), eabc0133.

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Official URL: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/31/eabc0...

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc0133

Abstract

The sources of the stone used to construct Stonehenge around 2500 BCE have been debated for over four centuries. The smaller “bluestones” near the center of the monument have been traced to Wales, but the origins of the sarsen (silcrete) megaliths that form the primary architecture of Stonehenge remain unknown. Here, we use geochemical data to show that 50 of the 52 sarsens at the monument share a consistent chemistry and, by inference, originated from a common source area. We then compare the geochemical signature of a core extracted from Stone 58 at Stonehenge with equivalent data for sarsens from across southern Britain. From this, we identify West Woods, Wiltshire, 25 km north of Stonehenge, as the most probable source area for the majority of sarsens at the monument.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:2375-2548
Group:Faculty of Science & Technology
ID Code:34351
Deposited By: Symplectic RT2
Deposited On:30 Jul 2020 10:03
Last Modified:14 Mar 2022 14:23

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