The Altar Stone beneath two bigger sarsen stonesProfessor Nick Pearce, Aberystwyth University
Posted on 08/16/2024 10:56:15 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Cosmos Magazine reports that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge, which weighs more than six tons, may have been transported to southwestern England from Scotland. The Altar Stone currently rests under two toppled sarsen stones at the site. Anthony Clarke of Curtin University and his colleagues analyzed the composition of the minerals in the Altar Stone with mass spectrometry, and found that it has a distinct chemical fingerprint matching rocks in Scotland's Orcadian Basin, which is located more than 460 miles away. "Given its Scottish origins, the findings raise fascinating questions, considering the technological constraints of the Neolithic era, as to how such a massive stone was transported over vast distances around 2600 B.C.," Clarke said. Team member Chris Kirkland of Curtin University suggests that the stone was transported on a marine shipping route along the coast of Britain. "This implies long-distance trade networks and a higher level of societal organization than is widely understood to have existed during the Neolithic period in Britain," Kirkland explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature. To read about the source of Stonehenge's bluestones, go to "Quarrying Stonehenge"
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
The Altar Stone beneath two bigger sarsen stonesProfessor Nick Pearce, Aberystwyth University
A gift between former enemy tribes?
So are we to assume that some ‘Karen’ of a cave-woman demanded that the stone only from 460 miles away because she ‘liked’ the way it looked for a dining table?
The one element that rarely gets discussed, is why primitive people would go through all the effort to build these monuments. Especially considering the precision and effort needed for many of these sites: Gobleki Tepe, Cuzco, etc. and just the quarrying, transporting, and assembling; but also the precision of their alignments?
Granted, The didn’t have social media to waste their time on. But it would be a major struggle if not low probability that we could replicate their efforts today.
Could’ve been blown that way by a winter storm.
Or carried by a colony of swallows (African).
They found the FEDEX receipt...
LOL!
That small ensemble of players casts a long shadow!
There’s a tidbit in the Arthur stories (pretty much all of which date from the middle ages) that Merlin swiped one, some, or all the stones from Ireland. Mary Stewart uses that in “The Crystal Cave”, referencing the much older legend that Apollo raised the walls of Troy using music. :^)
“They found the FEDEX receipt...”
That is an interesting take.... Of course it wasn’t Fedex. But what if it was a neighboring tribe that were skilled masons and had the proper stones to make this. And they send over someone to say, “HEY, we need a stone, 40 thumbs, by 20 thumbs, by 10 thumbs” and they placed an order with delivery.
But WE ALL KNOW. It was ALIENS
Trade, or war booty, my guess is, the former.
In ancient Mesopotamia, city-states would carry off the main idol of a defeated rival city and display it as a subject to their own main idol. If this altar stone was carried off due to war, it could be something like that.
The Stone of Scone (’skoon’) was used for a few centuries as the place where the kings of Scotland were crowned. Probably an earlier succession of other stones had served that purpose prior to that. In the 1950s Scot separatists cut the stone out from under the throne used during UK coronations since the 17th century. The stone had been carried off in the late 13th century and used for English, then UK coronations thereafter. While trying to rely on the Old Gray Cranium, I wound up loading the wikipedia page on this, and it’s pretty fascinating, btw.
Superstition — Stevie Wonder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_tmeHCO1IM
“Nobody knows who they were, or what they were doing.”
One of the lintel stones was begun to be carved, then this was stopped, apparently for some cosmetic problem, and flipped and recarved, leaving the original unfinished work visible. But yeah, no one knows who they are, other than they were probably the same population that has been found buried in the vicinity.
How much was next day delivery?
:^)
There’s an old site, folkloric name “Arthur’s Seat”, in Scotland. While hunting around for something else I thought of it and found a brief 1995 report of a dig. They found nothing that would help them date it, but found it was built in different phases probably at greatly varied times.
And it ain’t from King Arthur. :^)
Indeed they do. Sublime.
OK, silly.
But, Scotland, Ireland what's the difference?
:grin dunk and RUN!:
Heh... I saw a folk performer, in some stage patter, tell about an experience he had in a club/pub/bar in I think Toronto, back when that Scottish “aboot” type accent was still widely heard (not sure how it is now). During one of his numbers, a loud bellow from one patron to another, “aw, shut ya gob!”, followed by some more semi-comprehensible back-and-forth bellows, then the brawl started.
The performer said, “Scots spend their lives struggling with their sworn enemies, other Scots.” I laughed, hard, but it’s okay, those are some of my roots.
Perhaps of interest - experts now claim the opposite.
Thanks! Perhaps the Orcadian Basin was the source of Orkney’s standing stones as well. :^) As more geological work gets done on Britain’s megaliths, could be more surprises.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
