Stonehenge could have been constructed to unite the early individuals of Britain – lengthy earlier than there was a kingdom, a brand new research has urged.
Geological evaluation has revealed the stones had been delivered to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire from the far north, west and south of the island practically 5,000 years in the past.
The hassle to move them lots of of miles with solely primitive instruments should imply that they had a unifying function, based on analysis revealed within the journal Archaeology Worldwide.
Professor Mike Parker Pearson, lead researcher and an archaeologist at College School London, stated: “The fact that all of its stones originated from distant regions, making it unique among over 900 stone circles in Britain, suggests that [Stonehenge] may have had a political as well as a religious purpose – as a monument of unification for the peoples of Britain, celebrating their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos.”
Latest analysis on the six-tonne altar stone, which lies inside the circle, has given a brand new perception to the mysterious monument.
A workforce from Aberystwyth College confirmed it got here from northeast Scotland, not from west Wales, as had beforehand been thought.
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The altar stone, seen beneath two larger Sarsen stones.
Pic: Professor Nick Pearce / Aberystwyth College
The discovering may clarify why the alter stone is laid horizontally, with similarities to the “recumbent” stone circles solely present in that space of Scotland.
“The similarities in architecture and material culture between the Stonehenge area and northern Scotland now make more sense,” stated Prof Parker Pearson.
“It’s helped to solve the puzzle of why these distant places had more in common than we might have once thought.”
It’s believed historical farmers from throughout the land gathered close to Stonehenge for a feast over the winter solstice on 21 December, which marks the second the times begin to lengthen once more.
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Pic: Reuters
Heather Sebire, English Heritage senior properties curator, stated historical individuals had been extra interconnected than is commonly thought.
“These people were just like us,” she stated. “Although they had different technologies, they probably had people who wanted to leave their community and communicate with other people.
“We all know they had been buying and selling. There have been small objects coming that distance, however clearly this [transporting a large stone] is totally different.
“There is the whole issue over how they could have moved it all this way.”
