Stonehenge was built by Welsh people who dragged the monuments 140 miles, says breakthrough study
A groundbreaking new analysis of the 25 cremated remains buried at the prehistoric monument in Wiltshire has revealed that 10 of them lived nowhere near the bluestones.
Three of the cremated cranial bone fragments from Stonehenge used in the study
The iconic site of Stonehenge was built in several stages, starting 5,000 years ago
Instead they came from western Britain, and half of those 10 possibly came from 140 miles away in Southwest Wales (where the earliest Stonehenge monoliths have also been traced back to).
The remaining 15 could be locals from the Wiltshire area or other descendants of migrants from the west.
He said that "about 40% of the cremated individuals did not spend their later lives on the Wessex chalk where their remains were found."
The cremated remains from Stonehenge were first excavated by Colonel William Hawley in the 1920s from a network of 56 pits dotted around the inner circumference and ditch of the monument, known as Aubrey Holes.
Hawley then reburied them at the site to be dug up at a later date.
A groundbreaking new analysis of the 25 cremated remains buried at the prehistoric monument in Wiltshire has revealed that 10 of them lived nowhere near the bluestones.
Three of the cremated cranial bone fragments from Stonehenge used in the study
The iconic site of Stonehenge was built in several stages, starting 5,000 years ago
Instead they came from western Britain, and half of those 10 possibly came from 140 miles away in Southwest Wales (where the earliest Stonehenge monoliths have also been traced back to).
The remaining 15 could be locals from the Wiltshire area or other descendants of migrants from the west.
He said that "about 40% of the cremated individuals did not spend their later lives on the Wessex chalk where their remains were found."
The cremated remains from Stonehenge were first excavated by Colonel William Hawley in the 1920s from a network of 56 pits dotted around the inner circumference and ditch of the monument, known as Aubrey Holes.
Hawley then reburied them at the site to be dug up at a later date.
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