Mystery of how Stonehenge was built might finally be solved

The sun over Stonehenge (Foto: Toby Melville / Reuters).

It’s the great mystery of Stonehenge – how did Stone Age people carry the huge stones used to build the site from more than 100 miles away?

New research suggests that ancient people may have moved the rocks along a ‘stone highway’, using rafts and hauling them with animals, after they were mined in quarries in Wales.

Experts have debated for decades over how the gigantic stones were transported to the site – especially the six-tonne main Altar Stone.

Richard Bevins of the Museum of Wales and Rob Ixer of the University of Leicester now believe the stone was transported from the Senni Beds in Wales, The Times reports.

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The researchers believe it was hauled to Monmouth using animals and rollers, and may have been rafted down to Avon.

Previous theories suggesting that the stones were moved by sea, proposed by geologist H H Thomas, are wrong.

The researchers write, ‘New analytical techniques, alongside transmitted and reflected light microscopy, have recently prompted renewed scrutiny of Thomas’ work

‘While respectable for its time, the results of these new analyses, combined with a thorough checking of the archived samples consulted by Thomas, reveal that key locations long believed to be sources for the Stonehenge bluestones can be discounted in favour of newly identified locations at Craig-Rhos-y-felin and Carn Goedog.’