Historians may have finally figured out what Stonehenge was built for

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For centuries the function of Stonehenge, that bizarre rock monolith in Wiltshire, England, has baffled the world. What is it? What purpose was it built for? What does it do?

Finally, after many years of careful study and intensive research, historians think they’ve figured out that the gigantic, beguiling stone structure was…

…some sort of unity monument?

A team of researchers shared evidence in August suggesting that the Altar Stone, an iconic monolith at the heart of Stonehenge, was transported hundreds of miles to the site in southern England nearly 5,000 years ago from what’s now northeastern Scotland. Just a month later, a report led by the same experts ruled out the possibility that the stone came from Orkney, an archipelago off Scotland’s northeastern coast that’s home to Neolithic sites from that time frame, and the search for the monolith’s point of origin continues.

Now, research building on the two previous studies suggests that Stonehenge may have been reconstructed in England around 2620 to 2480 BC to help unify ancient Britons as newcomers arrived from Europe.

So it was basically the Statue of Liberty for ancient England??

Well, that’s somewhat less exciting than 4,000 years’ worth of speculation would have led us to believe! But I guess that’s how things are sometimes.

What’s more interesting is just how they moved those unbelievably heavy stone blocks as far as they did:

This show of unity — transporting giant stones long distances — would not have been easy for Neolithic people. The study authors don’t think boats at the time would have been strong enough to carry anything like the Altar Stone across coastal waters.

‘Though the wheel had been invented elsewhere, it hadn’t quite reached Britain yet, so the massive stone blocks would likely have had to be dragged by wooden sledge sliding atop wooden rails that could be continuously lifted and re-laid,’ Parker Pearson said.

The wooden sledge could have had shock absorbers made from vegetation to cushion the stone, which would have been susceptible to cracking on the long journey, the study authors said.

Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people would have been needed to help move the stone over land, and the journey may have taken about eight months, the researchers noted in the paper.

…

Moving the massive stone from Scotland to southern England suggests there was a network between two distant groups fostered by collaboration and cooperation — something the researchers think existed due to striking cultural similarities in both locations.

Researchers are now turning their attention to determine the exact location from where the monument’s famed “Altar Stone” originated in Scotland to better understand the likely unification purposes of the structure.