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The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales
The discovery of a dismantled stone circle—close to Stonehenge's bluestone quarries in west Wales—raises the possibility that a 900-year-old legend about Stonehenge being built from an earlier stone circle contains a grain of truth. Radiocarbon and OSL dating of Waun Mawn indicate construction c. 3000 BC, shortly before the initial construction of Stonehenge. The identical diameters of Waun Mawn and the enclosing ditch of Stonehenge, and their orientations on the midsummer solstice sunrise, suggest that at least part of the Waun Mawn circle was brought from west Wales to Salisbury Plain. This interpretation complements recent isotope work that supports a hypothesis of migration of both people and animals from Wales to Stonehenge.
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The identification and excavation of bluestone megalith quarries at Craig Rhos-y-felin and Carn Goedog in the Preseli Hills, which yielded evidence suggesting that they date to c. 3400–3000 cal BC, narrows the search for a dismantled stone circle to a setting of former standing stones at Waun Mawn (Figure 1; Parker Pearson et al. 2015a, 2019). These four monoliths—three now recumbent—originally stood in an arc, and were identified a century ago as remnants of a stone circle (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales 1925: 258–59). Later researchers, however, classified this site as ‘doubtful or negative’ and ‘destroyed or unrecognisable’ (Grimes 1963: 150; Burl 1976: 371).
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In September 2018, we extended excavations beyond each end of the arc of surviving stones. We also opened up further small trenches to the west, south-west and south, following the projected circumference of the circle (Figure 3). Of the 12 sub-surface features located, six (including the two detected in 2017) were stoneholes with emptied sockets from which standing monoliths had been removed. We also excavated the stoneholes of two of the fallen stones at the ends of the arc; together, these indicate that the diameter of this former stone circle was 110m (Figure 4). Many of the stoneholes had a shallow ramp up to 0.50m long. The six stoneholes and four surviving standing stones (ten in total) may have originally formed part of a circle of 30–50 stones, although further excavation is required to refine this estimate.
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Isotopic analysis of the cremations reveals a chronological pattern entirely consistent with the migration of first-generation settlers, followed by local origins for their descendants living on the chalk and its environs. This pattern of migration to Stonehenge may also have included livestock. Dating to 3350–2920 cal BC, the mandible of an elderly cow found in Stonehenge's enclosing ditch has tooth enamel with a strontium isotope ratio consistent with having been reared in Wales (Evans et al. 2019).
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/original-stonehenge-a-dismantled-stone-circle-in-the-preseli-hills-of-west-wales/B7DAA4A7792B4DAB57DDE0E3136FBC33
...
The identification and excavation of bluestone megalith quarries at Craig Rhos-y-felin and Carn Goedog in the Preseli Hills, which yielded evidence suggesting that they date to c. 3400–3000 cal BC, narrows the search for a dismantled stone circle to a setting of former standing stones at Waun Mawn (Figure 1; Parker Pearson et al. 2015a, 2019). These four monoliths—three now recumbent—originally stood in an arc, and were identified a century ago as remnants of a stone circle (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales 1925: 258–59). Later researchers, however, classified this site as ‘doubtful or negative’ and ‘destroyed or unrecognisable’ (Grimes 1963: 150; Burl 1976: 371).
...
In September 2018, we extended excavations beyond each end of the arc of surviving stones. We also opened up further small trenches to the west, south-west and south, following the projected circumference of the circle (Figure 3). Of the 12 sub-surface features located, six (including the two detected in 2017) were stoneholes with emptied sockets from which standing monoliths had been removed. We also excavated the stoneholes of two of the fallen stones at the ends of the arc; together, these indicate that the diameter of this former stone circle was 110m (Figure 4). Many of the stoneholes had a shallow ramp up to 0.50m long. The six stoneholes and four surviving standing stones (ten in total) may have originally formed part of a circle of 30–50 stones, although further excavation is required to refine this estimate.
...
Isotopic analysis of the cremations reveals a chronological pattern entirely consistent with the migration of first-generation settlers, followed by local origins for their descendants living on the chalk and its environs. This pattern of migration to Stonehenge may also have included livestock. Dating to 3350–2920 cal BC, the mandible of an elderly cow found in Stonehenge's enclosing ditch has tooth enamel with a strontium isotope ratio consistent with having been reared in Wales (Evans et al. 2019).
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/original-stonehenge-a-dismantled-stone-circle-in-the-preseli-hills-of-west-wales/B7DAA4A7792B4DAB57DDE0E3136FBC33
Press coverage: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/12/dramatic-discovery-links-stonehenge-to-its-original-site-in-wales
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