Stonehenge - Complexities Continue

The more you look at it the more difficult it is to decipher! The main controversy is how all the various types of stone got there. Were they brought by glaciers or by people?

In THIS ARTICLE ( based on THIS ACADEMIC PAPER) the author looks at the presence of the bluestones. These are believed to come from Ordovician volcanics in Pembrokeshire. The assumption of the academic writers is that if the large stones came because of ice transport, the till which brought them would have small grains with the same provenance. So they collected river sands from Salisbury Plain and separated out zircon and apatite grains.

Zircon and apatite are minerals which preserve evidence of their age. This is especially true of the zircon. 550 zircons were analysed, only 1 has an age similar to the bluestones. Which puts paid to the glacial transport theory - or does it?

Welsh glaciers reached Somerset - could the bluestones have been erratics in Somerset?

No doubt the controversy will continue. In the meantime here is a pretty picture of Stonehenge.