Scientists solve mystery of the origin of Stonehenge megaliths

By Will Dunham

 

General view of the Stonehenge stone circle, near Amesbury, Britain, as seen in this undated image provided to Reuters on July 29, 2020. English Heritage/A.Pattenden/Handout via REUTERS

 

(Reuters) - Scientists have solved an enduring mystery about Stonehenge, determining the place of origin of many of the megaliths that make up the famed monument in Wiltshire, England, thanks to a core sample that had been kept in the United States for decades.

 

Geochemical testing indicates that 50 of Stonehenge's 52 pale-gray sandstone megaliths, known as sarsens, share a common origin about 15 miles (25 km) away at a site called West Woods on the edge of Wiltshire's Marlborough Downs, researchers said on Wednesday.

 

The sarsens were erected at Stonehenge around 2500 BC. The largest stands 30 feet (9.1 meters) tall. The heaviest weighs about 30 tons.

 

"The sarsen stones make up the iconic outer circle and central trilithon (two vertical stones supporting a horizontal stone) horseshoe at Stonehenge. They are enormous," said University of Brighton geomorphologist David Nash, who led the study published in the journal Science Advances.

 

"How they were moved to the site is still really the subject of speculation," Nash added. "Given the size of the stones, they must have either been dragged or moved on rollers to Stonehenge. We don't know the exact route but at least we now have a starting point and an endpoint."

 

Stonehenge's smaller bluestones previously were traced to Pembrokeshire in Wales 150 miles (250 km) away, but the origin of the sarsens had defied identification.

 

A sarsen core sample, extracted during conservation work in the late 1950s when metal rods were inserted to stabilize a cracked megalith, provided crucial information. It was given as a souvenir to a man named Robert Phillips who worked for the company involved in the conservation work and was on-site during drilling.

 

Phillips took it with him with permission when he emigrated to the United States in 1977, living in New York, Illinois, California and finally Florida, Nash said. Phillips decided to return it to Britain for research in 2018. He died this year.

 

The researchers analyzed fragments of the sample - destructive testing being off limits for megaliths at the site - to establish the geochemical fingerprint of the sarsen from which it was taken. That fingerprint matched sandstone still at West Woods and all but two of the Stonehenge sarsens.

 

"I hope that what we have found out," Nash said, "will allow people to understand more about the enormous endeavor involved in constructing Stonehenge."

 

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-30

 

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43 minutes ago, webfact said:

The sarsens were erected at Stonehenge around 2500 BC.

Was been there 30 years ago and I was Impressioned with these megalithics Stones. A few years later, visited Luxus (Morocco) a ancient Roman city. But in the middle of the way, between Tanger and Larache someone show me another ancient place and saw another one megalithic construction, curiously older than Stonehenge (4.000 BC). Possibly made from same culture working on stones circle.

 

ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/mzora-stone-circle-0011778

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by Tarteso

Solved  what?

 

Nonsense and ignorance. I am talking about 3000 or 4000 BC. Try to learn something new today; 

 

 The first great European civilization flourished on the Greek island of Crete in 1700 BC, (The african stones dates back 3500 4000 BC). And it was initially Africans previously settled in the Nile Delta who civilized the Greeks.  Later, Greece would take this culture to Rome, with whose decline the Dark Age would begin, which would last 5 centuries.  Civilization returned to Europe at the hand, once again, of another group of African blacks, the Moors.

 

Gene tests on a sample of “indigenous” Englishmen have thrown up a surprise black ancestry, providing new insight into a centuries-old African presence in Britain.

The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, identified a rare West African Y chromosome in a group of men from Yorkshire who share a surname that dates back at least as far as the mid-14^th century and have a typical European appearance. They owe their unusual Y chromosome to an African man living in England at least 250 years ago and perhaps as early as Roman times, the researchers say.

Mark Jobling at the University of Leicester, UK, and colleagues recruited 421 men who described themselves as British and analysed their genes as part of a survey of British Y chromosome diversity. To the researchers’ surprise, they found that one individual in the study carried a very rare Y chromosome, called hgA1.

This particular variant has previously been identified in only 26 people worldwide, three African Americans and 23 men living in West African countries such as Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. “It’s so distinctive, it really sticks out like a sore thumb,” Jobling says of the chromosome’s unique sequence. He adds that it is virtually impossible for this sequence to have coincidentally evolved in Britain.

 

 

 

1 minute ago, Heppinger said:

hahaha you lost me at Africans civilizing Greeks.  Next you will be telling me Liberia is sending a probe to mars.

Move to zappy people forum . Ignore me

Two off topic troll posts removed

1 hour ago, Tarteso said:

Nonsense and ignorance. I am talking about 3000 or 4000 BC. Try to learn something new today; 

 

 The first great European civilization flourished on the Greek island of Crete in 1700 BC, (The african stones dates back 3500 4000 BC). And it was initially Africans previously settled in the Nile Delta who civilized the Greeks.  Later, Greece would take this culture to Rome, with whose decline the Dark Age would begin, which would last 5 centuries.  Civilization returned to Europe at the hand, once again, of another group of African blacks, the Moors.

 

Gene tests on a sample of “indigenous” Englishmen have thrown up a surprise black ancestry, providing new insight into a centuries-old African presence in Britain.

The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, identified a rare West African Y chromosome in a group of men from Yorkshire who share a surname that dates back at least as far as the mid-14^th century and have a typical European appearance. They owe their unusual Y chromosome to an African man living in England at least 250 years ago and perhaps as early as Roman times, the researchers say.

Mark Jobling at the University of Leicester, UK, and colleagues recruited 421 men who described themselves as British and analysed their genes as part of a survey of British Y chromosome diversity. To the researchers’ surprise, they found that one individual in the study carried a very rare Y chromosome, called hgA1.

This particular variant has previously been identified in only 26 people worldwide, three African Americans and 23 men living in West African countries such as Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. “It’s so distinctive, it really sticks out like a sore thumb,” Jobling says of the chromosome’s unique sequence. He adds that it is virtually impossible for this sequence to have coincidentally evolved in Britain.

 

 

 

 

Black soldiers and slaves would have been part of the Roman invasion and settlement of Britain. And again Africans would have been in Britain during the "slave years" as would captured Europeans being in the Ottoman Empire and other areas. 

 

I think we underestimate the mobility, chosen or forced, of our distant ancestors.

Time Team  Stonehenge from a few years ago has some good ideas too.

13 minutes ago, car720 said:

Stonehenge was actually a ride through McDonalds of the day.  I just cannot say what meat was used though. 

???????? joke apart, checking internet... there are another one stones circle under sea;  Atlit Yam is an ancient submerged Neolithicvillage off the coast of Atlit, Israel. It has been carbon-dated as to be between 8900 and 8300 years old. Among the features of the 10-acre site is a stone circle.

 

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by Tarteso

Stonehenge built by slaves???

 

Clearly, the ancient edifice must be "cancelled", must be toppled as soon as possible.  Generations of school-children visiting the site may well be traumatised to learn that slaves were used in its construction. 

 

 

aliens !  

Scientists drive 10 minutes and discover Stonehenge shaped hole on the ground. Shock horror.

1 hour ago, blazes said:

Stonehenge built by slaves???

 

Clearly, the ancient edifice must be "cancelled", must be toppled as soon as possible.  Generations of school-children visiting the site may well be traumatised to learn that slaves were used in its construction. 

 

 

haha i cant believe you actually think they would want to hide the fact, if that fact was true.  They want you to think Africans built it, and they want useful idiots to regurgitate this message.  Same with black vikings and cheddar man.   Its so obvious that they are replacing European history to include black people.  But people like you cant see past your white guilt to be able to see what they are doing, or you choose not to.  The people that decide your education media and science hate white european's, it's so obvious its not funny.

1 hour ago, blazes said:

Stonehenge built by slaves???

 

Clearly, the ancient edifice must be "cancelled", must be toppled as soon as possible.  Generations of school-children visiting the site may well be traumatised to learn that slaves were used in its construction. 

 

 

I am still waiting for the Italians to tear down the Colossium all those white Christian slaves died there ., i still wonder how i kept my sanity after visiting it and seeing how those slaves died ,i would have been traumatized now.

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by bert bloggs

2 hours ago, car720 said:

Stonehenge was actually a ride through McDonalds of the day.  I just cannot say what meat was used though. 

 

Forensic analysis has shown pIgs were driven to Stonehenge from all parts of neolithic Britain, including Scotland ... click: rites of bacon

 

Legend  has it the henge was known in the ancient tongue as "ye drive-pig with the arches,"

 

~o:37;

4 minutes ago, orang37 said:

 

Forensic analysis has shown pIgs were driven to Stonehenge from all parts of neolithic Britain, including Scotland ... click: rites of bacon

 

Legend  has it the henge was known in the ancient tongue as "ye drive-pig with the arches,"

 

~o:37;

umm pork is offensive

Scientists....pfffft ....  Everyone knows Obelix carried the stones there because he fell in to the cauldron of magic potion as a baby.

3 hours ago, Heppinger said:

haha i cant believe you actually think they would want to hide the fact, if that fact was true.  They want you to think Africans built it, and they want useful idiots to regurgitate this message.  Same with black vikings and cheddar man.   Its so obvious that they are replacing European history to include black people.  But people like you cant see past your white guilt to be able to see what they are doing, or you choose not to.  The people that decide your education media and science hate white european's, it's so obvious its not funny.

 

 

4 hours ago, blazes said:

Stonehenge built by slaves???

 

Clearly, the ancient edifice must be "cancelled", must be toppled as soon as possible.  Generations of school-children visiting the site may well be traumatised to learn that slaves were used in its construction

 

Oh dear, oh dear.....I can see I must stop using irony as a "weapon" on ThaiVisa.

I'm truly sorry if my simple attempt at humour is beyond your intelligence!!

 

[Memo to self: next time I put tongue in cheek, write Trigger Warning: IRONY AHEAD]

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by blazes
responder's failure to grasp irony

3 hours ago, Heppinger said:

haha i cant believe you actually think they would want to hide the fact, if that fact was true.  They want you to think Africans built it, and they want useful idiots to regurgitate this message.  Same with black vikings and cheddar man.   Its so obvious that they are replacing European history to include black people.  But people like you cant see past your white guilt to be able to see what they are doing, or you choose not to.  The people that decide your education media and science hate white european's, it's so obvious its not funny.

Guess the racist reply is ok?

2 minutes ago, mr336 said:

Guess the racist reply is ok?

what part upset you?

27 minutes ago, blazes said:

 

 

 

Oh dear, oh dear.....I can see I must stop using irony as a "weapon" on ThaiVisa.

I'm truly sorry if my simple attempt at humour is beyond your intelligence!!

 

[Memo to self: next time I put tongue in cheek, write Trigger Warning: IRONY AHEAD]

ok to be fair i took the word edifice to mean belief, as i was to lazy to look it up, i was sure that was the meaning. i see the irony. next time can you use secondary appropriate language, as your projecting privilege.

5 hours ago, blazes said:

Stonehenge built by slaves???

 

Clearly, the ancient edifice must be "cancelled", must be toppled as soon as possible.  Generations of school-children visiting the site may well be traumatised to learn that slaves were used in its construction. 

 

 

Make a baseless statement then argue with it.

4 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

I am still waiting for the Italians to tear down the Colossium all those white Christian slaves died there ., i still wonder how i kept my sanity after visiting it and seeing how those slaves died ,i would have been traumatized now.

You miss the point: It's OK to be enslaved as long as master and slave are the same color.

4 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

I am still waiting for the Italians to tear down the Colossium all those white Christian slaves died there ., i still wonder how i kept my sanity after visiting it and seeing how those slaves died ,i would have been traumatized now.

 

Just now, Mac98 said:

You miss the point: It's OK to be enslaved as long as master and slave are the same color.

They were white and Christian - what is your problem?

8 hours ago, Tarteso said:

Nonsense and ignorance. I am talking about 3000 or 4000 BC. Try to learn something new today; 

 

 The first great European civilization flourished on the Greek island of Crete in 1700 BC, (The african stones dates back 3500 4000 BC). And it was initially Africans previously settled in the Nile Delta who civilized the Greeks.  Later, Greece would take this culture to Rome, with whose decline the Dark Age would begin, which would last 5 centuries.  Civilization returned to Europe at the hand, once again, of another group of African blacks, the Moors.

 

Gene tests on a sample of “indigenous” Englishmen have thrown up a surprise black ancestry, providing new insight into a centuries-old African presence in Britain.

The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, identified a rare West African Y chromosome in a group of men from Yorkshire who share a surname that dates back at least as far as the mid-14^th century and have a typical European appearance. They owe their unusual Y chromosome to an African man living in England at least 250 years ago and perhaps as early as Roman times, the researchers say.

Mark Jobling at the University of Leicester, UK, and colleagues recruited 421 men who described themselves as British and analysed their genes as part of a survey of British Y chromosome diversity. To the researchers’ surprise, they found that one individual in the study carried a very rare Y chromosome, called hgA1.

This particular variant has previously been identified in only 26 people worldwide, three African Americans and 23 men living in West African countries such as Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. “It’s so distinctive, it really sticks out like a sore thumb,” Jobling says of the chromosome’s unique sequence. He adds that it is virtually impossible for this sequence to have coincidentally evolved in Britain.

 

 

 

Above  all good ! So discovering  the  biggest rocks  came from  just down the  (road)  has little relevance  to genetic origins  of those  that presumably also dragged smaller ones  all the way from Wales !

Patient and stubborn they apparently were  but really  not a match  for the  creators  of  entire  cities pre-dating that effort  by  many thousands  of years.

1 hour ago, mr336 said:

Guess the racist reply is ok?

is it racist cos race is mentioned? or.... maybe cos i don't think that african's built spaceships and were kings of wakanda?  or maybe its racist cos i don't demean whites?

Im waiting for this one, we are animals, therefore anyone owning an animal is guilty of slavery and owning a slave. If you ever bought or sold an animal your a slave trader.... 

 

Stonehenge is marvellous. Had and took the opportunity to sleep among the stones a good few times back in the late 70s as a teenager and stonehenge festival was legendary and great fun for a while though like most things festival, became too popular and the state got all anal about things.  So glad i was born when i was and not now. 

 

Cant get within 20 ft now and have to pay stupid money to just look from afar, ... id make it free for all British and just charge tourists. 

9 hours ago, Tarteso said:

Gene tests on a sample of “indigenous” Englishmen have thrown up a surprise black ancestry, providing new insight into a centuries-old African presence in Britain.

The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, identified a rare West African Y chromosome in a group of men from Yorkshire who share a surname that dates back at least as far as the mid-14^th century and have a typical European appearance. 

Ahhh.....  The Wellcome Trust,  legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome FRS^[1] (August 21, 1853 – July 25, 1936) was an American-born British pharmaceutical entrepreneur.  His father was a strong member of the Second Adventist Church. He was a freemason.^[3]

 

What a surprise research funded by the Wellcome Trust in the name of a Freemasonic crypto-jew is claiming the indigenous english man has a rare West African Y chromosome.  

 

Pathetic sad little freemasons.  They don't even hide the fact either with the 33 double l in wellcome.

 

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by Heppinger

38 minutes ago, Heppinger said:

Ahhh.....  The Wellcome Trust,  legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome FRS^[1] (August 21, 1853 – July 25, 1936) was an American-born British pharmaceutical entrepreneur.  His father was a strong member of the Second Adventist Church. He was a freemason.^[3]

 

What a surprise research funded by the Wellcome Trust in the name of a Freemasonic crypto-jew is claiming the indigenous english man has a rare West African Y chromosome.  

 

Pathetic sad little freemasons.  They don't even hide the fact either with the 33 double l in wellcome.

 

.

Great Britain was one of the pioneering nations in genetic studies, and also the first to use them to determine the origin of the population.  For a country with a very high rate of citizen descendants of emigrants from the colonies, knowing that its European population is a total mix of peoples could well help to mitigate the unreasons of racism and xenophobia.  And not only in Great Britain, but also in Ireland, where parallel studies have revealed two fundamental details: first, that the origin of the English is not as Anglo-Saxon as it is believed (just 38%), and that the Irish partially derive from  a great Bronze Age human migration originating from ... the Black Sea.

Europe is mixed. If we delve into our DNA we would find Celts, Romans, Latinos, Germans, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Phoenicians, North Africans ... We are a product of those mixtures, which not only made genetic inheritance richer (and with them diluted human genetic separation but  they formed more complete and resistant generations than the previous ones), but they conformed what today we commonly call “European”.  England is a good example.

 

21 minutes ago, Tarteso said:

.

Great Britain was one of the pioneering nations in genetic studies, and also the first to use them to determine the origin of the population.  For a country with a very high rate of citizen descendants of emigrants from the colonies, knowing that its European population is a total mix of peoples could well help to mitigate the unreasons of racism and xenophobia.  And not only in Great Britain, but also in Ireland, where parallel studies have revealed two fundamental details: first, that the origin of the English is not as Anglo-Saxon as it is believed (just 38%), and that the Irish partially derive from  a great Bronze Age human migration originating from ... the Black Sea.

Europe is mixed. If we delve into our DNA we would find Celts, Romans, Latinos, Germans, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Phoenicians, North Africans ... We are a product of those mixtures, which not only made genetic inheritance richer (and with them diluted human genetic separation but  they formed more complete and resistant generations than the previous ones), but they conformed what today we commonly call “European”.  England is a good example.

 

I have no doubt Great Britain is a pioneering nation in genetic studies, it's the people that are involved and infatuated with those studies that can't be trusted.  none of that pseudo science your spewing holds any weight when coming from the same filthy mouths that give you climate change and man on the moon.