The researchers unveiled it in 2019 stones came from an old quarry on the north side of the Preseli Hills in west Wales, which meant that the 43 huge bluestone had been moved a staggering 150 miles away.
Now archaeologists have said they think some of the bluestone first formed another stone circle near the same area as the quarries and were dismantled and rebuilt as part of Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain.
The identical 110-meter diameter of the stone circle, known as Waun Mawn, and the surrounding trench of Stonehenge, suggest that at least part of the circle was taken from the site in Wales to Salisbury Plain, according to new research published in the journal Antiquity.
What’s more, both stone circles are aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise, and one of the bluestone at Stonehenge has an unusual cross-section that matches one of the holes left at Waun Mawn, the paper said.
Crushed stone in that hole is from the same rock as the Stonehenge stone, he added.
Telltale stone holes
Stonehenge is made of two types of stone: larger sarsenstones and smaller bluestone monoliths.
About 43 bluestone survive in Stonehenge today, although many of these are still buried under the grass.
They were thought to be the first to be built at Stonehenge 5,000 years ago, centuries before the larger sarsen stones were transferred just 25 miles from the monument.
The Stones of Stonehenge research project is led by Mike Parker Pearson, a professor at University College London.
Discovering the decommissioned stone circle at Waun Mawn happened by trial and error, the news statement said.
Only four stones were visible at the site. In 2010 they were thought to be part of a stone circle, but initial geophysical studies were inconclusive, and the team decided to focus their energies elsewhere.
A pilot dig at the site in 2017 found two empty rock holes, but ground radar surveys were still unsuccessful, leaving the team with no choice but to do it the old-fashioned way and dig.
Excavations in 2018 revealed empty stone holes, confirming that the four remaining stones were part of a former circle.
The dating of charcoal and sediments in the holes showed that the Waun Mawn stone circle was built around 3400 BC, the study said.
The newspaper also suggested that the stones may have been moved while people were out of that part of it Wales, where the first people to be buried in Stonehenge probably once lived in this region.
“I suspect Waun Mawn was not the only stone circle to contribute to Stonehenge,” Parker Pearson said in a news report.
“There may be more waiting in Preseli to be found. Who knows? Someone is lucky to find them. ‘