New Proof Melts the Stonehenge Glacier Idea

Stonehenge is likely one of the most iconic archaeological websites on the planet, however regardless of its superstar standing, we nonetheless don’t know precisely who built the stone monument, what it was for, and the way precisely all of its stones reached southern England’s Salisbury Plain.

New analysis addresses the final of those mysteries. In line with a study printed yesterday in Communications Earth & Surroundings, it most likely wasn’t glaciers.

“Ice virtually actually didn’t transfer the stones,” Anthony Clarke, lead creator of the examine and a geologist at Curtin College’s Timescales of Minerals Programs Group, stated in a college statement.

Human labor

If that appears like an uncommon reply, right here’s the story: Researchers nonetheless debate whether or not Stonehenge’s bluestones—the smaller (however nonetheless huge) two- to five-ton rocks—had been transported from Wales by people or carried by glaciers. The brand new examine exhibits there have been no glaciers at Salisbury Plain through the Pleistocene Epoch (2.5 million to 11,700 years in the past), strengthening the speculation that people did the heavy lifting. And if glaciers couldn’t have carried the bluestones as a result of they weren’t there, it appears apparent that they couldn’t have carried any of the opposite stones, both.

“How Stonehenge’s constructing blocks arrived on Salisbury Plain stays debated, with glacial and human transport mechanisms proposed,” the researchers wrote within the paper. “Collectively, our information present Salisbury Plain remained unglaciated through the Pleistocene, making direct glacial transport of Stonehenge’s megaliths unlikely.”

The researchers reached this conclusion after looking for the traces of potential historic glaciers in rivers close to Stonehenge. They analyzed tiny grains, together with tons of of zircon crystals, and, merely put, didn’t discover proof of glaciers on the web site, in accordance with Clarke.

Looking out by means of river sands

“If glaciers had carried rocks all the way in which from Scotland or Wales to Stonehenge, they’d have left a transparent mineral signature on the Salisbury Plain,” he defined within the assertion. “These rocks would have eroded over time, releasing tiny grains that we might date to know their ages and the place they got here from. We seemed on the river sands close to Stonehenge for a few of these grains the glaciers might need carried and we didn’t discover any.”

As for the query of how people moved the stones, we nonetheless don’t know. Sailboats and logs rolled over land are two prospects, although Clarke admitted that the reality would possibly by no means come to gentle.

I, nonetheless, nonetheless think about advancing know-how as a way to resolve this thriller. Simply have a look at how AI is unveiling texts from ancient, Vesuvius-burnt scrolls—nonetheless wrapped.