An archaeological discovery unearthed at England’s famous Stonehenge in 1924 has now been traced to a surprising source, which upends past thinking on its origins.
Past theories held that a long-debated stone, known as the “Newall boulder,” had been moved by glacial ice long before humans ever arrived to construct the iconic monument.
However, new evidence strengthens the case that Neolithic people transported the site’s mysterious bluestones, rather than the massive glaciers that covered parts of Earth during the last Ice Age.
The Mystery of Stonehenge’s Bluestones
Originally discovered during excavations in 1924 by Lt-Col William Hawley, the famous stone was later removed by his assistant, R.S. Newall. The new findings, published in a study in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, relied on petrographic, geochemical, and imaging analyses to identify the Newall boulder as a match for rhyolite found at Craig Rhos-y-Felin in north Pembrokeshire.
This refutes long-held ideas about the stone having been an erratic, which refers to when stones—and sometimes very large ones—are removed from their original geological context and carried over sometimes surprising distances. Although this process is most often associated with the glacial transportation of geologic materials, stones can also be moved by other means, including powerful tsunamis and even being carried by animals.
Now, the findings by an international team of researchers support the argument that the Stonehenge bluestones were deliberately quarried and moved over 200 kilometers by humans within a relatively short timeframe, rather than by glacial ice over the course of much longer periods.
Evidence for a Glacial Erratic is Lacking
Recent geochemical and petrographic tests, which include X-ray fluorescence and automated SEM-EDS imaging, revealed striking mineralogical “fingerprints” that include evidence of minerals such as stilpnomelane and titanite, whose precise alignment supports the correlation between the Newall boulder and its suspected site of origin.
Significantly, by contrast, the authors assert in their new paper that there is no evidence supporting the boulder being a glacial erratic, clarifying decades of confusion and misidentification surrounding the boulder, as well as errors in past studies and sample records.
To make this assessment, the authors raise questions about past claims of glacial abrasion on the boulder, arguing that wear patterns cited in previous studies as resulting from glacial movement could have actually been caused by natural weathering.
Furthermore, the presence of pedogenic carbonate coatings—which the authors similarly suggest were mistakenly attributed to the stone’s movement by glacial processes—is more likely to have accumulated over the millennia since the stone was buried in the chalky soil of Stonehenge.
Another significant point the study’s authors raise is that there is similarly little evidence for glacial erratics elsewhere on the Salisbury Plain. Analysis of thousands of stone samples from the vicinity of Stonehenge reveals a fairly limited source for these materials, which the authors say further points to the selective transport of certain stones—a process most reliably attributed to Neolithic human activity.
Enriching the Human Story Behind Stonehenge
Altogether, the team’s findings showcase the famous Newall boulder as a testament to the planning and Neolithic engineering of the ancient builders of Stonehenge, rather than their opportunistic use of foreign materials moved by nature—thus affirming again the remarkable human story behind the enduring mystery of one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites.
The paper, “The enigmatic ‘Newall boulder’ excavated at Stonehenge in 1924: New data and correcting the record,” by Richard Bevins, et al, appeared in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.