5,000-year-old monument in Salisbury, Stonehenge, has stood on the down lands of what is now southern England. With its origins and purpose shrouded in mystery, the massive prehistoric monument has long captivated the imagination of mankind.
A team of archaeologists, led by Mike Parker Pearson of University College London, has unearthed Britain’s third-largest stone circle in the Preseli Hills of western Wales that they believe was dismantled, moved 175 miles to England’s Salisbury Plain and rebuilt as Stonehenge.
Archaeologists working on the Stones of Stonehenge project have found buried holes that once were part of a ring of stones that closely matches the dimensions at Stonehenge—and is located just three miles at Wales mountain range that is home to the quarries where Stonehenge’s “bluestones” were originally mined.
Stonehenge is made up of two main types of rock. The sarsens, sandstone slabs weighing 25 tons on average, form the iconic central horseshoe, the uprights and lintels of the outer circle, as well as the outlying Station Stones, Heel Stone and Slaughter Stone. A variety of 2- to 5-ton igneous rocks known as bluestones, due to their bluish tinge when wet or freshly broken, form the smaller inner horseshoe.
The Stones of Stonehenge team first began looking at the site of Waun Mawn, which is home to four prehistoric monoliths, back in 2010. But further investigation was held off because the initial scans with remote-sensing technology did not show any signs of former stone holes. But when they returned for the excavation in 2017,archaeologists were surprised to find holes where stones had been removed in ancient times.
Archaeological excavations at Waun Mawn in 2018 uncovered six empty holes for missing monoliths, confirming that the four remaining standing stones were part of a former circle. The result of their research also showed the significant link between Waun Mawn and Stonehenge, suggesting that at least part of the former circle was brought from the Preseli Hills to Salisbury Plain.
Researcher found that Waun Mawn shares an identical diameter with the enclosing ditch of Stonehenge, that both sites are aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise and that one of Stonehenge’s bluestones has an unusual cross-section that matches one of the holes left at Waun Mawn and chippings in that hole are of the same rock type as the Stonehenge rock.