Tracing the sources of the Stonehenge bluestones: applying modern analytical techniques to an old problem

It is over a century since geologist H.H. Thomas proposed that the Stonehenge bluestones were sourced from the Mynydd Preseli area in west Wales. We have applied a range of modern analytical techniques, not available to Thomas, to investigate the petrology, mineralogy and geochemistry of the bluestones. We have been able to pinpoint exact outcrops from which particular Preseli bluestones have been extracted. One ‘bluestone’, however, is anomalous in many ways when compared with the west Wales stones and a source in the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland has recently been proposed for this stone. This has ramifications for understanding interconnectivity between Neolithic communities in Britain and Ireland and indeed the significance of the monument itself. Our findings also have relevance to the long debated means of transport of the non-sarsen Stonehenge stones to Salisbury Plain.

Professor Richard Bevins, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University, joins us to discuss these exciting findings.

Image: Professor Richard Bevins at Craig Rhos-y-Felin courtesy of Christine Faulkner.