• DOI:10.1126/sciadv.abc0133
• Corpus ID: 220937543

Origins of the sarsen megaliths at Stonehenge

@article{Nash2020OriginsOT,
  title={Origins of the sarsen megaliths at Stonehenge},
  author={David J. Nash and T. Jake R. Ciborowski and J. Stewart Ullyott and Mike Parker Pearson and Timothy Darvill and Susan Greaney and Georgios Maniatis and Katy A. Whitaker},
  journal={Science Advances},
  year={2020},
  volume={6}
}

• D. Nash, T. Ciborowski, +5 authors Katy A. Whitaker
• Published 1 July 2020
• Geology
• Science Advances

Geochemical evidence suggests the large sarsen stones at Stonehenge originate from the vicinity of West Woods, Wiltshire. The sources of the stone used to construct Stonehenge around 2500 BCE have been debated for over four centuries. The smaller “bluestones” near the center of the monument have been traced to Wales, but the origins of the sarsen (silcrete) megaliths that form the primary architecture of Stonehenge remain unknown. Here, we use geochemical data to show that 50 of the 52 sarsens at the monument share a consistent chemistry and, by inference, originated from a common source area. We then compare the geochemical signature of a core extracted from Stone 58 at Stonehenge with equivalent data for sarsens from across southern Britain. From this, we identify West Woods, Wiltshire, 25 km north of Stonehenge, as the most probable source area for the majority of sarsens at the monument.