The Scottish Altar of Stonehenge?
New discoveries, Grooved Ware and the Neolithic empire of Orkney
The announcement that the altar stone of Stonehenge actually originated in northern Scotland stunned the world this week. The paper, published in Nature, used geological sourcing to establish that the 6-tonne altar stone was incredibly similar to the Old Red Sandstone of the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland. This implies a journey of around 750km, moving a piece of stone from one end of the country to the other. Naturally the question is why? and how? It had already been established that the interior ring of bluestones originated in the Preseli hills of Pembrokeshire, Wales, and now we have to add another long-distance connection into the mix. Truly Stonehenge was a collaboration from across the British Isles. But what can we say about these connections and collaborations?
Very briefly - the construction of Stonehenge occurred in multiple phases, stretching over millennia. Around 3500 - 3100 BC the earliest circular bank and ditch was dug out, forming the shape of the monument. Curated animal bones were buried in the ditches, and a ring of holes spanned the interior which may have held timber posts or early megaliths. Then in 2900 BC more timber posts were added on the inside. The structure seemed to function as a large cemetery for cremated individuals, as something like 100 people have been identified from bone fragments. Then around 2600 BC two sets of stone megaliths were erected inside the circle. Some of these were bluestones from the Preseli hills in Wales, over 200km away. It is thought that a migration of people also brought with them an entire stone circle, dismantled and mingled into Stonehenge. Between 2600 and 2400 BC the iconic sarsen stones were brought and put up using special joints. These were local stones, and must have involved huge amounts of labour and time. Around this time an entirely new wooden circle was constructed at Durrington Walls, and another at Woodhenge. The landscape became ritualised with avenues, and potentially the River Avon acting as a liminal barrier between two worlds. Solstice feasts were celebrated and animals brought great distances for the celebrations. Alongside this the great demographic shift from British Neolithic farmers to Continental Bronze Age Bell Beakers was underway, and by 2400 BC Stonehenge may have been in the hands of new owners, who nonetheless incorporated something of the power of the site into their own mythologies.
The Altar Stone arrived around 2600 BC, during the same phase that saw the Welsh bluestones introduced. Clearly long-distance connections between southern England and the coastal peripheries of the island were well established. But even without the stones this phase also saw the introduction of a new kind of pottery, one in which we can glimpse a strange maritime power in Neolithic Britain.
Grooved ware pottery takes its name from the grooved decorations incised into the walls of distinctive flat-bottom vessels. It first appeared in Orkney, and was initially named ‘Rinyo-Clacton’ Ware after the Neolithic settlement of Rinyo. Despite Orkney being as peripheral as can be, the spread of Grooved Ware across Britain between 3200 and 2800 BC was extensive.
Along with the pottery also came a cultural ‘package’, including oblique arrowheads, discoidal polished knives, stone maceheads, enigmatic clay balls, similar domestic architecture and possibly stone and timber monumental circles.
The influence of the Orcadian Grooved Ware folk can be seen most clearly in Wessex, where sites such as Durrington Walls, West Kennet and Marden Henge were found to be full of Grooved Ware pottery sherds. In some cases even the houses were constructed in the Orkney style. Similar pottery was also found at Stonehenge. Residue analysis of the vessels shows they contained high amounts of pork fat, consistent with pig bones findings at ceremonial sites during the Late Neolithic. Interestingly there have been arguments over whether people even farmed at all during this period. Some have suggested that the Late Neolithic saw a population crash and a move away from cereal farming towards pastoralism, pig keeping and hazelnut gathering. Perhaps it was into this economic downturn that the Orcadians took advantage, and assumed control of what was already an ancient monument in the form of Stonehenge.
Whether the altar stone was directly from Orkney is still under debate. A paper released just a few days ago ruled out the islands directly, but still placed Scotland as a contender for the stone’s origins.
Through a glass darkly. The past of our islands keeps astonishing... and we will never, can never perhaps, know most of the answers.
Fascinating. As a complete amateur, it does seem to me that the impetus for such labours must have been largely or substantially religious. But I'm also (painfully) aware of the dangers of imposing our own ideas on the past.