Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:05:41.011Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beyond Stonehenge: Carn Menyn Quarry and the origin and date of bluestone extraction in the Preseli Hills of south-west Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Timothy Darvill  and
Geoff Wainwright
Timothy Darvill
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole BH12 5BB, UK (Email: tdarvill@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Geoff Wainwright
Affiliation:
March Pres, Pontfaen, Fishguard SA65 9TT, UK (Email: geoff@bluestone.eu.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent investigations at Stonehenge have been accompanied by new research on the origin of the famous ‘bluestones’, a mixed assemblage of rhyolites and dolerites that stand among the much taller sarsens. Some of the rhyolite debitage has been traced to a quarry site at Craig Rhosyfelin near the Pembrokeshire coast; but fieldwork on the upland outcrops of Carn Menyn has also provided evidence for dolerite extraction in the later third millennium BC, and for the production of pillar-like blocks that resemble the Stonehenge bluestones in shape and size. Quarrying at Carn Menyn began much earlier, however, during the seventh millennium BC, suggesting that Mesolithic communities were the first to exploit the geology of this remote upland location.

Keywords

BritainPreseli HillsStonehengeMesolithicNeolithicmegalithicbluestonedoleritemeta-mudstoneprehistoric quarrying
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 342 , December 2014 , pp. 1099 - 1114
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bevins, R.E., Ixer, R.A. & Pearce, N.J.G.. 2014. Carn Goedog is the likely major source of Stonehenge doleritic bluestones: evidence based on compatible element geochemistry and Principal Component Analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 42: 179–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.11.009 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjarke Ballin, T. & Ward, T.. 2013. Burnetland Hill chert quarry: a Mesolithic extraction site in the Scottish Borders. The Quarry 9: 3–23.Google Scholar
Bowen, D.Q. 2005. South Wales, in Lewis, C.A. & Richards, A.E. (ed.) The glaciations of Wales and adjacent areas: 145–64. Logaston: Logaston Press.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 2000. An archaeology of natural places. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2013. OxCal radiocarbon calibration program v4.2. Oxford: Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Burrow, S. 2011. The Mynydd Rhiw quarry site: recent work and its implications, in Davis, V. & Edmonds, M. (ed.) Stone axe studies III: 247–60. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Clark, C.D., Gibbard, P.L. & Rose, J.. 2004. Pleistocene glacial limits in England, Scotland and Wales, in Ehlers, J. & Gibbard, P.L. (ed.) Quaternary glaciations extent and chronology. Part I: Europe: 47–82. London: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Cleal, R., Walker, K.E. & Montague, R.. 1995. Stonehenge in its landscape. Twentieth-century excavations (English Heritage Archaeological Reports 10). London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Cummings, V. & Richards, C.. 2014. Exploring Neolithic construction at Garn Turne. Current Archaeology 286: 32–35.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. 2006. Stonehenge: the biography of a landscape. Stroud: Tempus.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. & Wainwright, G.. 2002. SPACES—exploring the Neolithic landscapes in the Strumble-Preseli area of southwest Wales. Antiquity 76: 623–24.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. & Wainwright, G. 2009. Stonehenge: excavations in 2008. The Antiquaries Journal 89: 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S000358150900002X Google Scholar
Darvill, T. & Wainwright, G. 2011. The stones of Stonehenge. Current Archaeology 252: 28–35.Google Scholar
Darvill, T., Evans, D.M., Fyfe, R. & Wainwright, G.. 2005. Strumble-Preseli Ancient Communities and Environment Study (SPACES): fourth report 2005. Archaeology in Wales 45: 17–23.Google Scholar
Darvill, T., Wainwright, G., Armstrong, K. & Ixer, R.. 2008. Strumble-Preseli Ancient Communities and Environment Study (SPACES): sixth report 2007–08. Archaeology in Wales 48: 47–56.Google Scholar
Darvill, T., Marshall, P., Parker Pearson, M. & Wainwright, G.. 2012a. Stonehenge remodelled. Antiquity 86: 1021–40.Google Scholar
Darvill, T., Wainwright, G., Lüth, F. & MüLler-Scheessel, N.. 2012b. Strumble-Preseli Ancient Communities and Environment Study (SPACES): seventh report 2009–11. Archaeology in Wales 51: 27–44.Google Scholar
Edmonds, M., Johnson, R., La Trobe-Bateman, E., Griffith, J. & Warren, G.. 2004. Bardsey Island. Archaeology in Wales 44: 146–47.Google Scholar
Gaffney, V., Fitch, S., Ramsey, E., Yorston, R., Ch’ng, E., Baldwin, E., Bates, R., Gaffney, C., Ruggles, C., Sparrow, T., Mcmillan, A., Cowley, D., Fraser, S., Murray, C., Murray, H., Hopla, E. & Howard, A.. 2013. Time and a place: a luni-solar ‘time-reckoner’ from 8th millennium BC Scotland. Internet Archaeology 34. http://dx.doi.org/10.11141/ia.34.1 Google Scholar
Green, C.P. 1997. The provenance of rocks used in the construction of Stonehenge. Proceedings of the British Academy 92: 257–70.Google Scholar
Houlder, C.H. 1961. The excavation of a Neolithic stone implement factory on Mynydd Rhiw in Caernarvonshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 27: 108–43.Google Scholar
Insoll, T. 2006. Shrine franchising and the Neolithic in the British Isles: some observations based upon the Tallensi, northern Ghana. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16(2): 223–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959774306000138 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ixer, R. & Bevins, R.. 2011a. The detailed petrology of six orthostats from the Bluestone Circle, Stonehenge. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 104: 1–14.Google Scholar
Ixer, R. & Bevins, R.. 2011b. Craig Rhos-y-Felin, Pont Saeson is the dominant source of the Stonehenge rhyolitic ‘debitage’. Archaeology in Wales 50: 21–32.Google Scholar
Jacques, D., Phillips, T. & Lyons, T.. 2012. Vespasian’s Camp: cradle of Stonehenge? Current Archaeology 271: 28–33.Google Scholar
John, B. 2008. The bluestone enigma. Stonehenge, Preseli and the Ice Age. Newport: Greencroft.Google Scholar
Jones, F. 1992. The holy wells of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Kellaway, G.A. 1971. Glaciation and the stones of Stonehenge. Nature 233: 30–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/233030a0 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, H.K., Murray, J.C. & Fraser, S.M.A.. 2009. A tale of the unknown unknowns: a Mesolithic pit alignment and a Neolithic timber hall at Warren Field, Crathes, Aberdeenshire. Oxford: Oxbow.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, G., Stanford, A., Therriault, I. & Wellicome, T.. 2012. Transcending ritual boundaries from dolmen to menhir: the excavation of the Trefael Stone, south-west Wales. Archaeology in Wales 51: 51–62.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M. 2012. Stonehenge: exploring the greatest Stone Age mystery. London: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. 1941. The sources of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The Stonehenge story. Antiquity 15: 305–19.Google Scholar
RCHME Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. 1979. Stonehenge and its environs. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M. & Van Der Plicht, J.. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/azujsrc.55.16947 Google Scholar
Richards, J. 1990. The Stonehenge environs project (HBMCE Archaeological Reports 16). London: English Heritage Google Scholar
Scourse, J.D. 1997. Transport of the Stonehenge bluestones: testing the glacial hypothesis. Proceedings of the British Academy 92: 271–314.Google Scholar
Thomas, H.H. 1923. The source of the stones of Stonehenge. The Antiquaries Journal 3: 239–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500005096 Google Scholar
Thorpe, R.S., Williams-Thorpe, O., Jenkins, D.G. & Watson, J.. 1991. The geological sources and transport of the bluestones of Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 57: 103–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00004527 Google Scholar
Tingle, M. 2013. A new Mesolithic pit site and Beaker features at Little Dartmouth Farm, Devon. Past 74: 5–6.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. 1989. The henge monuments. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. & Longworth, I.H.. 1971. Durrington Walls: excavations 1966–1968 (Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 29). London: Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar