Stonehenge Altar Stone may have reached England via glacial transport

Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University and Curtin University in Australia have proposed that the six-ton Altar Stone at Stonehenge was initially carried from Scotland by ancient glaciers before prehistoric humans moved it to southern England, ScienceDaily reported. [1][2]

According to ScienceDaily, the new hypothesis suggests that natural ice movement transported the massive rock from Scotland to Dogger Bank, an area now beneath the North Sea. Humans may have then retrieved the stone and moved it hundreds of kilometers across land to Salisbury Plain. [1]

Stonehenge sits on the chalk downland of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, approximately 13 kilometers north of Salisbury. The site occupies an elevation of roughly 100 meters above sea level on undulating terrain formed by Cretaceous chalk deposits. [3]

The research team noted that this multistage journey suggests remarkable social organization among ancient human populations. ScienceDaily reported that the finding raises the possibility that the Altar Stone held cultural or symbolic value long before builders incorporated it into the monument. [1]