Stonehenge’s purpose may have been to unite ancient Britain after scientists make discoveries about stone’s origins | News about science, climate and technology

Stonehenge may have been built to unite the early peoples of Britain – long before there was a kingdom, a new study has suggested.

Geological analysis has revealed that the stones were brought to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire from the extreme north, west and south of the island almost 5,000 years ago.

The effort to transport them hundreds of kilometers with only primitive tools must mean they had a unifying purpose, according to research published in the journal Archeology International.

Professor Mike Parker Pearson, lead researcher and archaeologist at University College London, said: “The fact that all its stones come from remote areas, making it unique among over 900 stone circles in Britain, suggests that (Stonehenge) may have had a political as well as a religious purpose – as a monument of union for the peoples of Britain, celebrating their eternal connections with their ancestors and the cosmos.”

Recent research on the six-ton ​​altar stone, which lies within the circle, has given new insight into the mysterious monument.

A team from Aberystwyth University showed that it came from north-east Scotlandnot from west Wales as previously thought.

The find could explain why the altar stone is laid horizontally, with similarities to the “recumbent” stone circles found only in that area of ​​Scotland.

“The similarities in architecture and material culture between the Stonehenge site and northern Scotland now make more sense,” Professor Parker Pearson said.

“It has helped solve the puzzle of why these distant places had more in common than we might once have thought.”

It is believed that old farmers from all over the country gathered nearby Stonehenge for a winter solstice celebration on December 21, which marks the moment the days begin to grow longer.

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Heather Sebire, curator of English Heritage, said ancient people were more connected than is often thought.

“These people were just like us,” she said. “Although they had different technologies, they probably had people who wanted to leave their society and communicate with other people.

“We know they acted. There were little things that got this far, but obviously this (transporting a big rock) is different.

“There’s the whole question of how they could have moved it all this way.”