Editing Stonehenge (section)

===Stonehenge 3 I (c. 2600 BC)===
[[File:Stonehenge dagger.jpg|thumb|[[Graffiti]] on the sarsen stones include ancient [[Stone carving|carvings]] of a dagger and an axe.]]

Archaeological excavation has indicated that around 2600 BC, the builders abandoned timber in favour of stone and dug two concentric arrays of holes (the [[Q and R Holes]]) in the centre of the site. These stone sockets are only partly known (hence on present evidence are sometimes described as forming 'crescents'); however, they could be the remains of a double ring. Again, there is little firm dating evidence for this phase. The holes held up to 80 standing stones (shown blue on the plan), only 43 of which can be traced today. It is generally accepted that the [[bluestone]]s (some of which are made of [[dolerite]], an igneous rock), were transported by the builders from the [[Preseli Hills]], {{convert|150|mi}} away in modern-day [[Pembrokeshire]] in Wales. Another theory is that they were brought much nearer to the site as [[glacial erratics]] by the [[Irish Sea Glacier]]<ref>{{cite press release |title=Stonehenge: glacial transport of bluestones now confirmed? |publisher=University of Leicester |last=John |first=Brian|author-link=Brian John |date=26 February 2011 |url=http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/pdf-files/uploaded-to-ebulletin-2011/Bluestones%20press%20release.pdf |access-date=22 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120904112857/http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/pdf-files/uploaded-to-ebulletin-2011/Bluestones%20press%20release.pdf |archive-date=4 September 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> although there is no evidence of glacial deposition within southern central England.<ref name="Antiquity">{{cite journal |last1=Parker Pearson |first1=Michael|display-authors=etal |date=December 2015 |title=Craig Rhos-y-felin: a Welsh bluestone megalith quarry for Stonehenge |journal=Antiquity |volume=89 |issue=348 |pages=1331–1352 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2015.177|doi-access=free}}</ref> A 2019 publication announced that evidence of Megalithic quarrying had been found at quarries in Wales identified as a source of Stonehenge's bluestone, indicating that the bluestone was quarried by human agency and not transported by glacial action.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Megalith quarries for Stonehenge's bluestones |year=2019 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2018.111 |last1=Pearson |first1=Mike Parker |last2=Pollard |first2=Josh |last3=Richards |first3=Colin |last4=Welham |first4=Kate |last5=Casswell |first5=Chris |last6=French |first6=Charles |last7=Schlee |first7=Duncan |last8=Shaw |first8=Dave |last9=Simmons |first9=Ellen |last10=Stanford |first10=Adam |last11=Bevins |first11=Richard |last12=Ixer |first12=Rob |journal=Antiquity |volume=93 |issue=367 |pages=45–62 |s2cid=166415345 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

The long-distance human transport theory was bolstered in 2011 by the discovery of a megalithic bluestone quarry at [[Craig Rhos-y-felin]], near [[Crymych]] in Pembrokeshire, which is the most likely place for some of the stones to have been obtained.<ref name="Antiquity"/> Other standing stones may well have been small [[sarsen]]s (sandstone), used later as lintels. The stones, which weighed about two tons, could have been moved by lifting and carrying them on rows of poles and rectangular frameworks of poles, as recorded in China, Japan and India. It is not known whether the stones were taken directly from their quarries to Salisbury Plain or were the result of the removal of a venerated stone circle from Preseli to Salisbury Plain to "merge two sacred centres into one, to unify two politically separate regions, or to legitimise the ancestral identity of migrants moving from one region to another".<ref name="Antiquity"/> Evidence of a {{convert|110|m|ft|adj=on}} stone circle at [[Waun Mawn]] near Preseli, which could have contained some or all of the stones in Stonehenge, has been found, including a hole from a rock that matches the unusual cross-section of a Stonehenge bluestone "like a key in a lock".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Alberge |first=Dalya |date=2021-02-12 |title=Dramatic discovery links Stonehenge to its original site – in Wales |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/12/dramatic-discovery-links-stonehenge-to-its-original-site-in-wales |access-date=2021-02-12 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212220821/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/12/dramatic-discovery-links-stonehenge-to-its-original-site-in-wales |url-status=live }}</ref> Each monolith measures around {{convert|2|m|ft|order=flip}} in height, between {{convert|1|and|1.5|m|ft|abbr=on|order=flip}} wide and around {{convert|0.8|m|ft|order=flip}} thick. 

What was to become known as the [[Altar Stone (Stonehenge)|Altar Stone]] was believed to have been derived from the [[Senni Beds]], perhaps from {{convert|50|mi|km|abbr=off}} east of the Preseli Hills in the Brecon Beacons.<ref name="Antiquity"/> Work announced in 2024 by a team from [[Curtin University]], who analysed the chemical composition of fragments of rock that had fallen off the Altar Stone, and dated them, found that the best match was with rocks in the [[Orcadian Basin]] (which includes [[Caithness]], [[Orkney]], and the [[Moray Firth]] regions of north-eastern Scotland). The researchers stated that this implies the stone was transported some {{convert|430|mile}}, and thus demonstrates cultural links between Southern England and Northern Scotland.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clarke |first1=Anthony J. I. |last2=Kirkland |first2=Christopher L. |last3=Bevins |first3=Richard E. |last4=Pearce |first4=Nick J. G. |last5=Glorie |first5=Stijn |last6=Ixer |first6=Rob A. |title=A Scottish provenance for the Altar Stone of Stonehenge |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |date=15 August 2024 |volume=632 |issue=8025 |pages=570–575 |doi=10.1038/s41586-024-07652-1|pmid=39143341 |pmc=11324516 |bibcode=2024Natur.632..570C }}</ref>

The north-eastern entrance was widened at this time, with the result that it precisely matched the direction of the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset of the period. This phase of the monument was abandoned unfinished, however; the small standing stones were apparently removed and the Q and R holes purposefully backfilled.

The [[Heel Stone]], a [[Tertiary]] sandstone, may also have been erected outside the north-eastern entrance during this period. It cannot be accurately dated and may have been installed at any time during phase 3. At first, it was accompanied by a second stone, which is no longer visible. Two, or possibly three, large [[portal stones]] were set up just inside the north-eastern entrance, of which only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, {{convert|4.9|m|order=flip}} long, now remains. Other features, loosely dated to phase 3, include the four [[Station Stones]], two of which stood atop mounds. The mounds are known as "[[Tumulus|barrows]]" although they do not contain burials. [[Stonehenge Avenue]], a parallel pair of ditches and banks leading {{convert|2|mi|km|0|spell=in}} to the [[River Avon, Hampshire|River Avon]], was also added.