The researchers unveiled in 2019 the stones come from an old quarry on the north side of the Preseli hills west of Wales, meaning the 43 large bluestones have been moved a staggering distance of 150 miles.
Now archaeologists have said they believe some of the bluestones first formed another rock circle near the same area as the quarries and were demolished and rebuilt as part of Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain.
The identical diameters of 110 meters of the stone circle, known as Waun Mawn, and the surrounding ditch of Stonehenge, indicate that at least a portion of the circle from its place in Wales to Salisbury Plain, according to new research published in the journal Antiquity.
In addition, both stone circles are in line with the sunrise of midsummer, and one of the blue stones at Stonehenge has an unusual diameter that matches one of the holes left behind at Waun Mawn, the newspaper said.
Chips in that hole are of the same rock type as the Stonehenge stone, he added.
Narrative klipgate
Stonehenge is made of two types of stone: larger sarsen stones and smaller bluestone monoliths.
About 43 bluestone stones survive today at Stonehenge, although many of these remain buried under the grass.
They are thought to have been the first to be erected at Stonehenge five years ago, centuries before the larger sarsen stones were brought just 15 kilometers from the monument.
The Stones of Stonehenge research project is led by Mike Parker Pearson, a professor at University College London.
The discovery of the broken stone circle at Waun Mawn took place through trial and error, according to the news release.
Only four stones were visible on the site. They were thought to be part of a rock circle in 2010, but initial geophysical studies were unconvincing and the team decided to focus their forces elsewhere.
A trial excavation at the site in 2017 found two empty rock holes, but ground-based radar surveys were still unsuccessful, and the team had no choice but to do it and dig in the old-fashioned way.
Excavations in 2018 revealed empty stone holes, confirming that the four remaining stones form part of a former circle.
The study said charcoal and sediments were found in the holes. The Waun Mawn stone circle was erected around 3400 BC.
The newspaper also suggested that the stones could be moved while people migrated from that part Wales, with the first people buried in Stonehenge, would probably have lived in this region once.
“I think Waun Mawn was not the only rock circle that contributed to Stonehenge,” Parker Pearson said in a news release.
‘Maybe there’s more in Preseli waiting to be found. Who knows? Someone will be happy to find them. ‘