Scientists May Have An Answer To The Mystery Surrounding Stonehenge


British researchers claim to have settled a puzzle involving the Stonehenge , the world-renowned stone landmark in Wiltshire, England. The researchers revealed that they have recognized where a significant number of huge stones of Stonehenge, called megaliths, have originated from.

An eternity ago, individuals utilized such stones to manufacture markers, landmarks and different structures. British researchers have also said that some portion of the megaliths has helped reveal the secrets of the structure. 

A little bit of the stone had been kept in the United States for a few decades. The Chemical testing proposes that the vast majority of Stonehenge’s stone monuments, known as sarsens, originated from a zone called West Woods. It is around 25 kilometres from the antiquated landmark, the researchers stated.

This has been a two-year investigation led by Professor David Nash, the physical geography professor at the University of Brighton. He revealed that most of the sarsen stones came from West Woods on the edge of the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire, around 15 miles north of Stonehenge.

A few decades ago, the conservation work at Stonehenge had resulted in a part of the core of the rock being extracted from Stone 58 to be taken under observation for research purposes. The location of this core was a mystery but last year, engineer Robert Phillips – a representative of the conservation company who was in charge of conducting the drilling work, returned it to the UK from his hometown in Florida. 

English Heritage allowed authorization to the University of Brighton to commence the examination into the starting points of the sarsens, and in 2018, researchers started the chemical and synthetic investigation of the stones. Utilizing non-intrusive procedures such as an X-ray, the Brighton research group demonstrated that 50 out of 52 sarsen stones shared a reliable science and thus originated from a typical source zone.

“We’re so pleased that the core from Stone 58, which the Phillips family returned to Stonehenge last year, has enabled the team to undertake a small amount of destructive sampling, adding a crucial piece of evidence to the jigsaw,” Susan Greaney, the senior properties historian for English Heritage, the charitable organisation that concerns itself with the preservation of heritage, stated.

The researchers responsible utilized nondestructive (like noninvasive testing for a human) surface tests at the Stonehenge site. This helped them list down which stones were likely made of a similar stone from a similar source.

Further Reading:

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