• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Ancient Welshmen helped build Stonehenge, a new study found

Neolithic people from Preseli Mountains of west Wales transported huge stones and help build monument in Wessex

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2018-08-02 14:00
in News, Science
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

Ancient Welshmen helped build Stonehenge, a new study found.

While how and why the stone monument was built over 5,000 years ago has received much attention from scientists, who did the grafting has been overlooked until now.

While Stonehenge’s bluestones came from west Wales, who constructed the ring of standing stones which weighed up to 25 tons remained unknown.

The new study suggested a number of the people buried at the Wessex site had moved with and likely transported the bluestones used in the early stages of the monument’s construction, sourced from the Preseli Mountains of west Wales.

An analysis of 25 skull bones left over from being cremated at the site found at least 10 did not live near Stonehenge prior to their death.

Instead the highest strontium isotope ratios in the remains were consistent with living in western Britain, a region that includes west Wales.

RelatedPosts

Bye Bye Boris trends but he refuses to leave office after by-election catastrophe -reactions

Watch: 2016 Vote Leave video is compared to current state of Brexit Britain

Watch: Mick Lynch responds to dinosaur comment as spoof facts about union leader goes viral

Watch: Mick Lynch owning another Tory MP could be his best yet

Although strontium isotope ratios alone cannot distinguish between places with similar values, this connection suggests west Wales as the most likely origin of at least some of these people.

And the findings showed the movement of people between west Wales and Wessex in the Late Neolithic with some ending their days there.

The findings also showed the importance of inter-regional connections for moving both materials and people in the construction and use of Stonehenge.

The study was a collaboration between the University of Oxford, University College London, Université Libre de Bruxelles & Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris.

It combined radiocarbon-dating with new developments in archaeological analysis, pioneered by lead author Christophe Snoeck during his doctoral research in Oxford’s School of Archaeology.

The 25 skulls were originally excavated from a network of 56 pits in the 1920s, placed around the inner circumference and ditch of Stonehenge, known as ‘Aubrey Holes’.

Dr Snoeck, now at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, demonstrated cremated bone faithfully retains its strontium isotope composition.

This technique allowed archaeologists to use this technique to investigate where these people had lived during the last decade or so of their lives.

The cremated human bone came from an early phase of the site’s history around 3000 BC, when it was mainly used as a cemetery.

Dr Snoeck said: ‘The recent discovery that some biological information survives the high temperatures reached during cremation (up to 1000 degrees Celsius) offered us the exciting possibility to finally study the origin of those buried at Stonehenge.’

Lead author John Pouncett, spatial technology officer at Oxford’s School of Archaeology, said: ‘The powerful combination of stable isotopes and spatial technology gives us a new insight into the communities who built Stonehenge.

“The cremated remains from the enigmatic Aubrey Holes and updated mapping of the biosphere suggest that people from the Preseli Mountains not only supplied the bluestones used to build the stone circle, but moved with the stones and were buried there too.”

Lead author Associate Professor in Scientific and Prehistoric Archaeology Dr Rick Schulting at Oxford, explained: ‘To me the really remarkable thing about our study is the ability of new developments in archaeological science to extract so much new information ¬from such small and unpromising fragments of burnt bone.

‘Some of the people’s remains showed strontium isotope signals consistent with west Wales, the source of the bluestones that are now being seen as marking the earliest monumental phase of the site.’

Professor Julia Lee-Thorp, Head of Oxford’s School of Archaeology and an author on the paper, said: “This new development has come about as the serendipitous result of Dr Snoeck’s interest in the effects of intense heat on bones, and our realization that that heating effectively “sealed in” some isotopic signatures.”

The cremated remains from Stonehenge were first excavated by Colonel William Hawley in the 1920s, who reburied them at the site to be dug up at a later date.

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

 

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Daily Mail readers’ responses to 39 people who died in lorry is shocking

Video: Boris and Mogg used to be a joke – They now run the country and it’s not funny anymore

The UKIP Bogeyman

Hot chocolate: Thousands of Lion bars burned after lorry crashed and set fire

Fears fewer smokers could quit after ‘vital’ campaign axed after budget cuts

Thunderball Results for Saturday 12 February 2022 Tonight’s winning numbers

Chancellor faces calls to expand small business loan guarantees

Man who threw an egg at Jeremy Corbyn could face jail after admitting the offence

5 things you should know before using online dating in London

Barnier: ‘Just a few hours’ left for UK and EU to strike a trade deal

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.