How did the bluestones get from the Preseli Hills to Salisbury Plain?
Most likely: people quarried the stones in Preseli and carried them to Wessex, overland or with a water stage, around 3000…Ahead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.
Where it stands
Three answers have been proposed. People quarried the stones in Preseli and carried them to Wessex, overland or with a water stage, around 3000… leads, with evidence 4 for, 1 against: supported by its tests. Two are still possible.
Answers 3
History
- Kellaway puts forward: irish Sea ice carried the stones to or near Salisbury Plain and the builders collected erratics.
- Bevins et al.: most dolerite bluestones match Carn Goedog and the rhyolite debris matches Craig Rhos-y-felin to within…For: People quarried the stones in Preseli and carried them to Wessex, overland or with a water stage, around 3000…
- Snoeck et al.: some people cremated at Stonehenge had lived in western Britain, consistent with west Wales.For: People quarried the stones in Preseli and carried them to Wessex, overland or with a water stage, around 3000…
- Parker Pearson et al. puts forward: people quarried the stones in Preseli and carried them to Wessex, overland or with a water stage, around 3000…
- Parker Pearson et al.: no route, trackway or lost stone between Wales and Wessex has been found.Against: People quarried the stones in Preseli and carried them to Wessex, overland or with a water stage, around 3000…
- Parker Pearson et al.: extraction recesses, platforms, wedges and hammerstones at Craig Rhos-y-felin and Carn Goedog, dated about…For: People quarried the stones in Preseli and carried them to Wessex, overland or with a water stage, around 3000…
- Parker Pearson et al.: the bluestones derive from a small number of outcrops with quarrying evidence, not a dispersed erratic train.Against: Irish Sea ice carried the stones to or near Salisbury Plain and the builders collected erratics.
- John: the Newall boulder was proposed as a glacial erratic.For: Irish Sea ice carried the stones to or near Salisbury Plain and the builders collected erratics.
- Bevins et al.: the Newall boulder shows no glacial features and is read as a worked monolith fragment; no glacial deposits…For: People quarried the stones in Preseli and carried them to Wessex, overland or with a water stage, around 3000…
- Bevins et al.: re-examination found no striations or glacial shaping on the boulder.Against: Irish Sea ice carried the stones to or near Salisbury Plain and the builders collected erratics.
- Clarke & Kirkland: river sands draining Salisbury Plain carry local recycled zircons; one grain in 401 is near the 464 Ma…Against: Irish Sea ice carried the stones to or near Salisbury Plain and the builders collected erratics.
- Asked on this site