Editing Stonehenge (section)

===Origin of sarsens, bluestones and other modern developments===
[[File:Stonehenge stones plan by Nash et al 2021.png|thumb|Map of Stonehenge monument and detailed plan of individual numbered sarsen stones, bluestones and Altar Stone]]

In July 2020, a study led by David Nash of the [[University of Brighton]] concluded that the large sarsen stones were "a direct chemical match" to those found at [[West Woods]] near [[Marlborough, Wiltshire]], some 15 miles (25&nbsp;km) north of Stonehenge.<ref name="BBC53580339">{{cite news |title=Mystery of origin of Stonehenge megaliths solved |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53580339# |access-date=29 July 2020 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=29 July 2020 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729182329/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53580339 |url-status=live }}</ref> A core sample, originally extracted in 1958, had recently been returned. First the fifty-two sarsens were analysed using methods including [[x-ray fluorescence spectrometry]] to determine their chemical composition which revealed they were mostly similar. Then the core was destructively analysed and compared with stone samples from various locations in southern Britain. Fifty of the fifty-two megaliths were found to match sarsens in West Woods, thereby identifying the probable origin of the stones.<ref name="BBC53580339" /><ref name="ITVMarlborough">{{cite news |last1=Evelyn |first1=Rupert |title=Origin of Stonehenge's huge standing stones discovered after part of monument found in US |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2020-07-29/origin-of-stonehenges-huge-standing-stones-discovered-after-part-of-monument-found-in-us |access-date=29 July 2020 |work=ITV News |date=29 July 2020 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729182050/https://www.itv.com/news/2020-07-29/origin-of-stonehenges-huge-standing-stones-discovered-after-part-of-monument-found-in-us |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250287-weve-finally-figured-out-where-stonehenges-giant-boulders-came-from/# |title=We've Finally Figured Out Where Stonehenge's Giant Boulders Came From |first1=Donna |last1=Lu |work=[[New Scientist]] |date=July 30, 2020 |access-date=30 July 2020 |archive-date=30 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730112044/https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250287-weve-finally-figured-out-where-stonehenges-giant-boulders-came-from/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

During 2017 and 2018, excavations by professor [[Mike Parker Pearson|Parker Pearson's]] team at [[Waun Mawn]], a large stone circle site in the Preseli Hills, suggested that the site had originally housed a {{convert|110|m|adj=on}} diameter stone circle of the same size as Stonehenge's original bluestone circle, also orientated towards the midsummer solstice.<ref name=Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12>
{{cite journal
 |last1=Pearson  |first1=Mike Parker |author-link1=Mike Parker Pearson
 |last2=Pollard  |first2=Josh      |last3=Richards  |first3=Colin
 |last4=Welham   |first4=Kate      |last5=Kinnaird  |first5=Timothy
 |last6=Shaw     |first6=Dave      |last7=Simmons   |first7=Ellen
 |last8=Stanford |first8=Adam      |last9=Bevins    |first9=Richard
 |last10=Ixer    |first10=Rob      |last11=Ruggles  |first11=Clive
 |last12=Rylatt  |first12=Jim      |last13=Edinborough |first13=Kevan
 |display-authors=6
 |date=2021-02-12
 |title=The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales
 |journal=Antiquity
 |volume=95 |issue=379 |pages=85–103
 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2020.239 |doi-access=free
 |quote=Waun Mawn is the third largest of Britain's great stone circles with diameters over 100&nbsp;m.
}}
</ref><ref name=Curry-2021-02-11>
{{cite news
 |first=Andrew |last=Curry 
 |date=11 Feb 2021
 |title=England's Stonehenge was erected in Wales first
 |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]
 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/england-s-stonehenge-was-erected-wales-first
 |url-status=live  |access-date=13 February 2021
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213005049/https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/england-s-stonehenge-was-erected-wales-first
 |archive-date=13 February 2021
}}
</ref>

The circle at Waun Mawn also contained a hole from one stone which had a distinctive pentagonal shape, very closely matching the one pentagonal stone at Stonehenge  (stonehole&nbsp;91 at Waun Mawn / stone&nbsp;62 at Stonehenge).<ref name="Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12" /><ref name="Curry-2021-02-11" /> [[Luminescence dating|Soil dating]] of the sediments within the revealed stone holes, via [[optically stimulated luminescence]] (OSL), suggested the absent stones at Waun Mawn had been erected around 3400–3200 BC, and removed around 300–400 years later, a date consistent with theories that the same stones were moved and used at Stonehenge, before later being reorganised into their present locations and supplemented with local [[sarsen]]s as was already understood.<ref name="Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12" /><ref name="Curry-2021-02-11" /> Human activity at Waun Mawn ceased around the same time which has suggested that some people may have migrated to Stonehenge.<ref name="Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12" /><ref name="Curry-2021-02-11" /> It has also been suggested that stones from other sources may have been added to Stonehenge, perhaps from other dismantled circles in the region.<ref name="Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12" /><ref name="Curry-2021-02-11" />

Further work in 2021 by Parker Pearson's team concluded that the Waun Mawn circle had never been completed, and of the stones which might once have stood at the site, no more than 13 had been removed in antiquity.<ref name=Pearson-Casswell-2022-01-12>
{{cite web
 | last1 = Pearson   | first1 = Mike Parker  |author1-link=Mike Parker Pearson
 | last2 = Casswell  | first2 = Chris     | last3 = Rylatt  | first3 = Jim
 | last4 = Stanford  | first4 = Adam      | last5 = Welham  | first5 = Kate
 | last6 = Pollard   | first6 = Josh
 | date = 2022-01-12
 | title = Waun Mawn and Gernos-fach: The Welsh origins of Stonehenge project Interim report of the 2021 season
 | website = sarsen.org
 | series = Musings and bookmarks about Stonehenge and related stuff.
 | publisher =
 | url =http://www.sarsen.org/2022/01/waun-mawn-and-gernos-fach-welsh-origins.html
 | access-date = 2022-01-30
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220113075127/http://www.sarsen.org/2022/01/waun-mawn-and-gernos-fach-welsh-origins.html
 | archive-date = 2022-01-13
}}
</ref>{{efn|
"In summary, the 2021 excavations provide evidence that only 30% of Waun Mawn's stone circle was ever completed, leaving large gaps on the west and south sides. [...]  if Waun Mawn provided some of the bluestones for Stonehenge, these can only have been a small portion of the total."<ref name=Pearson-Casswell-2022-01-12/>
}}

In February 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of "vast troves of Neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts"<ref name="Art News"/> while conducting excavations for the proposed highway tunnel near Stonehenge. The find included Bronze Age graves, late neolithic pottery and C-shaped enclosure on the intended site of the [[Stonehenge road tunnel]]. Remains also contained a shale object in one of the graves, burnt flint in C-shaped enclosure and the final resting place of a baby.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Morris |first=Steven |date=2021-02-04 |title=Archaeologists unearth bronze age graves at Stonehenge tunnel site |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/04/archaeologist-unearth-bronze-age-graves-stonehenge-a303-tunnel-site |access-date=2021-02-05 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205144522/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/04/archaeologist-unearth-bronze-age-graves-stonehenge-a303-tunnel-site |url-status=live }}</ref>

In January 2022, archaeologists announced the discovery of thousands of [[prehistoric]] pits during an electromagnetic induction [[field survey]] around Stonehenge. Based on the shape of the pits and the artifacts found inside, the study's lead author, Philippe De Smedt, assumed that six of the 9 large pits excavated were made by prehistoric humans. One of the oldest was about 10000 years old and contained hunting tools.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=De Smedt |first1=Philippe |last2=Garwood |first2=Paul |last3=Chapman |first3=Henry |last4=Deforce |first4=Koen |last5=De Grave |first5=Johan |last6=Hanssens |first6=Daan |last7=Vandenberghe |first7=Dimitri |date=2022 |title=Novel insights into prehistoric land use at Stonehenge by combining electromagnetic and invasive methods with a semi-automated interpretation scheme |url= http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/160422299/Pages_from_accepted.pdf|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=143|page=105557 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2022.105557 |bibcode=2022JArSc.143j5557D |s2cid=248688037 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author1=Owen Jarus |date=2022-05-19 |title=Thousands of prehistoric pits discovered around Stonehenge |url=https://www.livescience.com/thousands-pits-found-around-stonehenge |access-date=2022-08-13 |website=livescience.com |language=en}}</ref>

In August 2024, the journal [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] published research from a team at [[Curtin University]] in Australia identifying the origin of the Altar Stone, which is partially buried by a collapsed sarsen stone, as having come from the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland, some 700 km away.<ref name=Curtin-2024-08>
{{cite journal
 | last1 = Bates   | first1 = Emily  |author1-link=Emily Bates
 | date = 2024-08-14
 | title = A Scottish origin for Stonehenge's Altar Stone
 | journal = Nature
 | series = Nature Video
 | publisher = Springer Nature Limited
 | doi = 10.1038/d41586-024-02651-8 | pmid = 39143289 | url = https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02651-8
 | access-date = 2024-08-14
 }}</ref>