Fed-up Brits’ migrant ‘invasion’ fears might lastly reply Stonehenge thriller
Countless bonkers theories claim to know why Stonehenge was created, however after discovering the origins of the six-tonne alter rock, scientists think they’ve solved the mystery
Boffins believe they may have cracked a thousands-year old mystery that has been baffling Brits for centuries.
There are many theories speculating on why Stonehenge was created, however, now researchers think they have finally worked out the strange rock circle’s purpose. Scientists reason that the formation was created using rocks and boulders from across Britain as a symbol of unity against foreign invasion.
An ancient political monument of sorts, researchers think it aimed to unite Brits together, as European immigrants, chiefly from what it now Germany and the Netherlands, flooded into the country. The theory emerged after it was found that the colossal, six-tonne altar stone originates from north-east Scotland, not Wales, as previously thought. The massive stone travelled around 430 miles for Scotland’s Orcadian Basin, arriving in Somerset around 2,500BC, reports The Telegraph.
Study lead, Professor Mike Parker Pearson, from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, said Stonehenge’s design that features stones from numerous places in the country makes it “unique among over 900 stone circles in Britain”.
He theorised that “the stone circle 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”, adding: “Stonehenge stands out in being a material and monumental microcosm of the entirety of the British Isles.”
The stone circle’s 43 “bluestones” came from the Preseli Hills in west Wales around 140 miles away, while its larger “sarsen” stones were dragged from at least 15 miles away from the West Woods.
Professor Parker Pearson said: “We’ve known for a while that people came from many different parts of Britain with their pigs and cattle to feast at Durrington Walls, and nearly half the people buried at Stonehenge had lived somewhere other than Salisbury Plain.
“The similarities in architecture and material culture between the Stonehenge area and northern Scotland now make more sense.”
Study co-author, Professor Richard Bevins, from Aberystwyth University, said: “Our research is like forensic science. We are a small team of earth scientists, each bringing their own area of expertise; it is this combination of skills that has allowed us to identify the sources of the bluestones, and now the altar stone.”
It had been assumed that the alter stone had fallen due to it flat on the ground position, however, it’s now thought it was laid like that intentionally, as Scottish stone circles also had flat-laid stones.
Professor Parker Pearson said: “Given what we now know about where it’s from, it seems all the more likely that it was deliberately set as a recumbent stone.”
He added that it was “highly likely” the colossal stone was previously used in an earlier Scottish monument, and that “these stones are not just plucked out of anywhere.”
