Overview
- A paper published in the Journal of Quaternary Science on June 4 confirms the Altar Stone’s geological match to sandstone beds in the Orcadian Basin of northeast Scotland.
- Ice‑sheet and ice‑flow models show glaciers from that region could plausibly have carried the stone southeast to Dogger Bank but provide no viable route that would deposit it on Salisbury Plain.
- Because glacial deposition could only explain part of the journey, researchers conclude people must have transported the stone the remaining several hundred kilometres in multiple stages.
- The team proposes a scenario in which Mesolithic or Neolithic communities may have recovered the stone from Doggerland before rising seas submerged that area and later moved it south by a mix of overland hauling and river or coastal transport.
- Authors say next steps are denser sampling in northeast Scotland to pinpoint the exact outcrop and to reconstruct likely prehistoric routes, a line of work that reframes Stonehenge as the product of long‑distance networks and deliberate logistical planning.