Transporting a six-tonne megalith nearly 500 miles to Wiltshire is quite a feat. How was it achieved 4,000 years ago?
Sat 17 Aug 2024 02.00 EDT
Even by “modern” standards, John o’Groats to Wiltshire is a bit of a trek: nearly 500 miles, 13 hours by car or a 10-day walk – and that is without having a six-tonne block of stone in tow. So the revelation this week that Stonehenge’s altar stone came from the north-east of Scotland prompts the question of how on earth this feat was achieved more than 4,000 years ago.
[sarcastic quotes ⇑ and bracketed material ⇓ added]
“When you’re trying to move something weighing six tonnes in excess of 750km, it is an enormous undertaking,” said Prof Nick Pearce, a geologist [working the interdisciplinary angle from the Department of Understatement] at Aberystwyth University and the co-author of the research.
That’s too easy. They broke the stone into smaller pieces for transport and then reassembled it on site. Who is they, you ask? Well, I’m not saying it was aliens…
After building the Giant’s Causeway Irish giants had a direct route to Scotland. Would have been pretty easy to ask one of them who holidayed there to pop down to Wiltshire with a pebble in their pocket
