Friday 25 February 2011

New Discovery ‘will rewrite Stonehenge’s history’

Researchers from Leicester and Wales have shed new light on the origins of bluestones at Stonehenge- long believed to have come from ‘sacred hills’ in Wales.

Geologists from the National Museum Wales, University of Leicester and Aberystwyth University, have uncovered new evidence of its origins - which brings into question how the rocks were brought to the Salisbury Plain.

One type of bluestone at Stonehenge, the so-called ‘spotted dolerite’, was convincingly traced to the Mynydd Preseli area in north Pembrokeshire in the early 1920s. However, the sources of the other bluestones - chiefly rhyolites (a type of rock) and the rare sandstones remained, until recently, unknown.
Now the team of geologists have further identified the sources of one of the rhyolite types, which also provides the opportunity for new thoughts on how the stones might have been transported to the Stonehenge area.
Their findings are published in the March 2011 edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science

Dr Richard Bevins, Keeper of Geology at Amgueddfa Cymru, in partnership with Dr Rob Ixer, University of Leicester and Dr Nick Pearce of Aberystwyth University, have been working on the rhyolite component of the bluestones, which leads them to believe it is of Welsh origin

Through standard petrographical techniques combined with sophisticated chemical analysis of samples from Stonehenge and north Pembrokeshire using laser ablation induction coupled mass spectrometry at Aberystwyth University, they have matched one particular rhyolite to an area north of the Mynydd Preseli range, in the vicinity of Pont Saeson.

The Bluestones are a distinctive set of stones that form the inner circle and inner horseshoe of Stonehenge. Much of the archaeology in recent years has been based upon the assumption that Neolithic Age man had a reason for transporting bluestones all the way from west Wales to Stonehenge and the technical capacity to do it.

Dr Ixer, who has been attached to the University of Leicester Department of Geology for two decades, said: “For almost 100 years the origins of the bluestones and how they got to Salisbury Plain from Southwest Wales has been matter of great debate but now due to a combination of expertise, abundant material and new techniques it is becoming possible to finally answer those questions

“From the 8,000 samples of rock available, the exciting part was to match the Stonehenge rocks with rocks in the field in order to find their geographical source - this was initially done microscopically. However this is difficult as rocks from every outcrop have to be described and matched and that takes detailed long term knowledge- Dr Richard Bevins from National Museum Wales has 30 years experience of sampling and collecting just these rocks in southwest Wales and once the very unusual mineralogy of some of the debitage was recognised microscopically he was able to identify the source of a major group of volcanics to Pont Season north of the Preseli Hills.

“The important and quite unexpected result based on microscopical work needed to be confirmed and this has been done recently based on very detailed mineralogical analysis with Dr Nick Pearce from the University of Aberystwyth.
“The first result was the recognition that the huge sandstone Altar stone does not come from Milford Haven but from somewhere between West Wales and Herefordshire and has nothing to do with the Preseli Hills. This calls into question the proposed transport route for the Stonehenge bluestones.
“The second unexpected result was that much of the volcanic and sandstone Stonehenge debris does not match any standing stones (so far only 2 stones out of thousands from the debris match)- it may be the debris is all that is left of lost standing stones- it is difficult to see what else it could be.

“The third is that the geographical origins for many of the Stonehenge rocks are not from impressive outcrops high on the hilltops but in less obvious places, some deep in valleys.”

Dr Ixer said that work already undertaken and more in progress suggests that, unlike the belief of the last 80 years, namely that all of the Stonehenge bluestones were from taken from the top of ‘sacred’ Preseli hills and moved southwards to the Bristol Channel and then onto Stonehenge, most or all of the volcanic and sandstone standing stones and much of the debris at Stonehenge comes from rocks in the low-lying ground to the north and northwest of the Preseli Hills and, if, they were moved by man, then they travelled initially in the Irish sea before heading south and east.

“But as ever Stonehenge asks more questions than it answers. These Stonehenge surprises will continue for a few years to come and once again the history of Stonehenge will have to be re-written.”

http://www.24dash.com/news/communities/2011-02-25-New-Discovery-will-rewrite-Stonehenge-s-history

Stonehenge Tour Guide

Monday 14 February 2011

The Slaughter Stone or Sacrificial Stone at Stonehenge

The Slaughter Stone - Photo taken on a recent Stonehenge
special accces tour
The Slaughter Stone - Lying within the entrance is an un-worked and now recumbent stone, stained a rusty red caused by rainwater acting on iron, and known as the Slaughter Stone. This stone is about 21-ft long, and although it was originally upright, it is now fallen and has now sunk so deep that only its upper end shows. Hawkins (3) makes note that while all the other stones were either bluestone or sarsen, the so called slaughter-stone is 'of fine-grained pale green sandstone, containing so many flakes of mica that its surface, wherever freshly exposed, shows the typical mica glitter'.


This stone seems to have come from the Cosheston Beds, composed of old red sandstone, at Milford haven on the coast of Wales, some 30miles to the southwest of the Prescilly quarries and is another example of the specific selection of stones by the builders of the European megaliths.

Stonehenge has three different types of stone in the overall structure: Over 80 5-10 ton 'Bluestones'' from Wales, The huge 20-50 ton Sarsens from 20km north near Avebury and the mica-sandstone 'Slaughter stone'.

Visit Stonehenge and find out if the slaughter stone really was used for human sacrafice or just Victorian romanticism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/feb/17/netnotes.sallybolton
http://www.stonepages.com/england/stonehenge.html
http://www.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/stonehenge-rituals.htm
http://www.stonehengetours.com/

Stonehenge Tour Guide

Saturday 5 February 2011

Stonehenge Tours from Salisbury City

Stonehenge Guided Tours from Salisbury  Journey back in time to discover Stonehenge, probably the most sophisticated stone circle in the world. Our hop-on hop-off tour picks up in Salisbury city centre and runs to Old Sarum, through the beautiful Wilshire countryside to the magnificent, magical henge.

You can buy an all-in-one ticket that gives you admission to Stonehenge as well as the tour, or just pay for the tour and enjoy the ride through the Wiltshire landscape.

Stonehenge evolved from a simple bank and ditch in the Neolithic period, some 5,000 years ago, to a very sophisticated stone circle built on the axis of the midsummer sunrise. The bluestones were brought 240 miles from the Preseli mountains in Wales.

Stonehenge
There are many stories about the significance of Stonehenge. It may have been an astronomical observatory or used for sacred rituals linked to the sun, successful crops or even the dead. We simply don’t know, but you can learn about them on the audio tour at the site - it’s in 10 different languages.
You can find out more about the history of the site, and view photos and videoclips, at the English Heritage Stonehenge page.
Old SarumThe tour takes you by Old Sarum, a huge earthwork raised in about 500BC by Iron Age settlers, and later occupied by Romans, Saxons and Normans. They built a castle and a royal palace, and by the mid-12th century it was a busy town with a fine new cathedral.

Lack of water and squabbles between church and military lead to the building of a new settlement by the river, now known as Salisbury. Old Sarum was abandoned and fell into ruin. If you want to take a look at the site, you can get off the tour and rejoin later on - your ticket lasts all day.
from 16 October
Winter timetable:Salisbury rail station 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400
Salisbury bus station 1010 1110 1210 1310 1410
Old Sarum 1016 1116 1216 1316 1416
Old Sarum 1025 1125 1225 1325 1425
Stonehenge arrive 1033 1133 1233 1333 1433
Stonehenge depart 1040 1140 1240 1340 1440 1540
Old Sarum 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600
Salibury Blue Boar Row 1106 1206 1306 1406 1506 1606
Salisbury rail station 1111 1211 1311 1411 1511 1611

Click here: http://www.thestonehengetour.info/

You can also organise private small group tours of Stonehenge and Wessex through
The Stonehenge Tour Company
The Stonehenge Website
Stonehenge and Salisbury Guided Tours
Histouries UK

Enjoy your visit to Stonehenge
Stonehenge Tour Guide