Stonehenge mystery is SOLVED after 5,000 years – as scientists finally crack why the mysterious monument was built

Why the mighty Stonehenge was built about 5,000 years ago has long been one of the great mysteries.

But according to a new study, we may finally have an answer.

Scientists say Wiltshire’s famous stone circle was built as a symbol of unification between three different corners of Britain.

We know that the rock slabs of Stonehenge were transported this far away from south-west Wales and north-east Scotland.

So the scientists, from the University London and Aberystwyth University, theorize Scottish and Welsh people brought their own local stones to Wilshire as a well-meaning contribution to the erection of the structure.

In this sense it represented a powerful – and very early – symbol of British unity.

The builders of Stonehenge had sought to “bring about political unification and shared identity across much, if not all, of Britain,” the authors say in their paper, published in Archeology International.

They add: ‘The bringing together of these extraordinary and otherworldly rocks… symbolized and embodied distant and remote communities within a complex material.

‘[Stonehenge was a] monumental expression of unity between people, land, ancestors and heaven.’

In the article, the researchers say Stonehenge’s long-distance connections add weight to the theory that the Neolithic monument may have had a unifying purpose in ancient Britain, coupled with its symbolic value.

“The fact that all of its stones came from distant regions, making it unique among the more than 900 stone circles in Britain, suggests that the stone circle may have had both a political and a religious purpose,” said lead author Professor Mike Parker Pearson . UCL’s Institute of Archaeology.

‘[It was] a monument of unification for the peoples of Britain, honoring their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos.’

Although England, Scotland and Wales as concepts did not yet exist when Stonehenge was built some five thousand years ago, we know that the structure is indeed representative of all three countries.

Stonehenge is famous for its large sandstone slabs, known as sarsens, which were quarried locally – probably taken from West Woods in Wiltshire, about 15 miles north.

But in addition to the tall Sarsen stones that define Stonehenge’s distinctive appearance, the world-famous site is also home to around 80 ‘bluestones’: smaller stones that have a bluish tint when freshly broken or when wet.

It is generally agreed among Stonehenge experts that the bluestones came from Craig Rhos-y-Felin in the Preseli Hills of south-west Wales (although exactly how they ended up in Wiltshire is hotly debated).

However, the Altar Stone, the largest bluestone at the center of Stonehenge, actually came from northern Scotland – up to 1,000km away, scientists revealed earlier this year.

The six-ton, five-meter-long rectangular Altar Stone lies flat at the heart of Stonehenge and is a gray-green sandstone, much larger and different in composition from the other bluestones.

At the time, the research team (which included two authors of this new paper) analyzed the age and chemistry of minerals from fragments of the Altar Stone.

They found a remarkable similarity to the ancient red sandstone of the Orcadian Basin in northeastern Scotland.

The team concluded ‘with 95 percent accuracy’ that the stone came from this area – which includes parts of Inverness, Thurso, Orkney and parts of Shetland – although they have since ruled out Orkney as a location.

In this new follow-up article, the team say that the Altar Stone was brought by the Neolithic people of northern Scotland as a contribution or gift to the southerners.

‘[This was] perhaps to forge an alliance or to engage in the extraordinary long-distance collaboration that the construction of Stonehenge represented and embodied,” the authors say.

Likewise, the bluestones could have been transported by people from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales as their own contribution – illustrating ‘a political unification or a sacred peace’.

This follow-up article now identifies the construction of Stonehenge ‘as an island-wide monument of unification, epitomized in part by the distant and diverse origins of the stones’.

‘Unusually strong similarities in house layout between Late Neolithic houses in Orkney and the Durrington Walls settlement near Stonehenge also provide evidence of close connections between Salisbury Plain and northern Scotland,’ the team says.

In early history, Stonehenge was used as a cremation cemetery for mainly adult men and women for about five centuries.

Almost half of the people buried at Stonehenge had lived somewhere other than Salisbury Plain, experts say – showing that people historically flocked there from afar.

‘The similarities in architecture and material culture between the Stonehenge area and northern Scotland now make more sense,’ added Professor Pearson.

“It helped solve the puzzle of why these far-flung places had more in common than we ever imagined.”

The new research comes a day before the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year when thousands of people flock to Stonehenge.

During the winter solstice, the setting sun sinks below the horizon, above the center of the Altar Stone and between the two largest upright stones (one of which has now fallen).

For thousands of years, it is thought that people gathered at Stonehenge during both the midsummer and midwinter solstices to perform rituals and ceremonies related to the changing seasons, the sun and the sky.

During the winter, Neolithic people also feasted near Stonehenge in the nearby settlement village of Durrington Walls.

Largely because it is a whopping 5,000 years old, the origins of Stonehenge, including why and how it was built, are still a source of frenzied debate.

Professor Timothy Darvill, an archaeologist at Bournemouth University who died earlier this year, said Stonehenge served as an ancient solar calendar and helped people keep track of the days of the year.

The British researcher said the sarsens each represented one day in a month, turning the entire site into a huge time-keeping device.

Other theories include that it was a cult center for healing, a temple, a place where ancestors were worshiped or even a cemetery.