Analysis of strontium isotopes reveals new insight into who built Stonehenge

Results of a School led, collaborative study published in Nature Scientific Reports this week emphasise the importance of inter-regional connections involving the movement of both materials and people in the construction and use of Stonehenge. The study combined radiocarbon-dating with new developments in archaeological analysis, pioneered by lead author Christophe Snoeck during his doctoral research in the School of Archaeology at Oxford. John Pouncett, a lead author on the paper said: ‘the cremated remains from the enigmatic Aubrey Holes and updated mapping of the biosphere suggest that people from the Preseli Mountains not only supplied the bluestones used to build the stone circle, but moved with the stones and were buried there too.’.

Nature article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28969-8

Press coverage

Oxford University Press Release: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-08-02-new-light-shed-people-who-built-stonehenge

Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/who-built-stonehenge-ancient-druids-britons-pre-roman-a8474381.html

Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/aug/02/revealed-stonehenge-buried-welsh

USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/videos/tech/science/2018/08/02/stonehenge-built-help-people-wales-study-says/37260053/

Cambrian News: http://www.aberystwyth-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=123164&headline=Welshmen%20helped%20build%20Stonehenge,%20study%20finds&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2018

BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45046354

The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/6925764/stonehenge-cremated-remains-welshmen-mystery/

Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6018799/Ancient-WELSHMEN-helped-build-Stonehenge-5-000-years-ago-using-vast-bluestones.html

Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/08/02/stonehenge-builders-welsh-oxford-university-finds/

Radio: BBC Radio Wales, Good Evening Wales 02/08/2018, 16:03