The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales

The discovery of a dismantled stone circle—close to Stonehenge's bluestone quarries in west Wales—raises the possibility that a 900-year-old legend about Stonehenge being built from an earlier stone circle contains a grain of truth. Radiocarbon and OSL dating of Waun Mawn indicate construction...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAntiquity Vol. 95; no. 379; pp. 85 - 103
Main Authors Pearson, Mike Parker, Pollard, Josh, Richards, Colin, Welham, Kate, Kinnaird, Timothy, Shaw, Dave, Simmons, Ellen, Stanford, Adam, Bevins, Richard, Ixer, Rob, Ruggles, Clive, Rylatt, Jim, Edinborough, Kevan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.02.2021
Subjects
Anthropological research
Archaeology
Carbon dating
Cromlechs
Discovery
Discovery and exploration
Excavation
Grain
Historic artifacts
Laboratories
Memorials & monuments
Mesolithic
Neolithic
Neolithic period
Sediments
Stone
Truth
United Kingdom
Wales
United Kingdom > UK
Stonehenge
Preseli
Britain
stone circle
megaliths
Stonehenge
Neolithic
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Summary:The discovery of a dismantled stone circle—close to Stonehenge's bluestone quarries in west Wales—raises the possibility that a 900-year-old legend about Stonehenge being built from an earlier stone circle contains a grain of truth. Radiocarbon and OSL dating of Waun Mawn indicate construction c. 3000 BC, shortly before the initial construction of Stonehenge. The identical diameters of Waun Mawn and the enclosing ditch of Stonehenge, and their orientations on the midsummer solstice sunrise, suggest that at least part of the Waun Mawn circle was brought from west Wales to Salisbury Plain. This interpretation complements recent isotope work that supports a hypothesis of migration of both people and animals from Wales to Stonehenge.
ISSN:0003-598X
1745-1744
DOI:10.15184/aqy.2020.239