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  "path": "/science/stonehenge-altar-may-have-travelled-hundreds-of-miles-away-scientists-believe",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-04T20:46:07.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "Metal detectorists uncover 'spectacular' Bronze Age arm rings under planned electric substation site",
    "Scientists left astonished by groundbreaking phenomenon on faraway planets",
    "Bible mystery finally solved as geologists make major Garden of Eden river discovery",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nScientists now believe that Stonehenge's Altar Stone may have been carried partway from Scotland by glacial movement.\n\nResearchers at Sheffield Hallam University and Curtin University in Perth, Australia, have developed models indicating Ice Age glaciers could have shifted rocks from Scotland as far south as Dogger Bank in the North Sea.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThis glacial transport would have occurred during the late Devensian glaciation.\n\nThe period spanned roughly 33,000 to 11,700 years ago.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe six-tonne sandstone megalith originated near Orkney, meaning it travelled approximately 460 miles to reach Wiltshire.\n\nThe region now submerged beneath the North Sea was once home to Mesolithic and Neolithic communities.\n\nThey abandoned the area as rising waters and landslides engulfed their homeland.\n\nDr Remy Veness, co-lead author of the paper from Sheffield Hallam University, said: \"What is exciting about these findings is that they could imply that the people of Doggerland attached cultural significance to the Altar Stone long before it was incorporated into Stonehenge.\"\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nShe added: \"The Altar Stone must have been significant enough to be willing to move the stone at least twice; first to save it from being submerged by rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age and then again to its final resting place on Salisbury Plain.\"\n\nHowever, the modelling found no evidence that glacial activity could have deposited the stone any closer to Stonehenge than Dogger Bank, leaving a distance of roughly 200 miles still to be covered by human effort.\n\nDr Anthony Clarke, of Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said: \"This stone was likely moved in stages, potentially combining overland hauling with river or coastal transport where possible.\"\n\nHe added: \"Transporting a stone of this size over such a long distance would have required planning, coordination and a deep understanding of the landscape not to mention tremendous determination.\"\n\n### LATEST DEVELOPMENTS\n\n\n\n\n  * Metal detectorists uncover 'spectacular' Bronze Age arm rings under planned electric substation site\n  * Scientists left astonished by groundbreaking phenomenon on faraway planets\n  * Bible mystery finally solved as geologists make major Garden of Eden river discovery\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe Berkshire Ridgeway, an ancient route passing near Stonehenge, may have served as part of this final journey.\n\nThe stone's Scottish origins were confirmed in 2024.\n\nArchaeologists established =the heart of the Neolithic monument came from the vicinity of Orkney.\n\nFor years, researchers had assumed the Altar Stone shared Welsh origins with Stonehenge's bluestones, which were transported from the Preseli Mountains, but no geological match was found among Welsh outcrops.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nAustralian experts eventually solved the mystery.\n\nThey analysed mineral and uranium readings to produce a geological fingerprint, which corresponds to red sandstone formations in the Orcadian Basin of north-east Scotland.\n\nEarlier theories had dismissed glacial transport because ice sheets in that region flowed northwards, but the new modelling challenges this assumption.\n\nThe findings appear in the Journal of Quaternary Science.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Stonehenge altar may have travelled hundreds of miles away, scientists believe"
}