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

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.

Craig Rhos-y-felin: a Welsh bluestone megalith quarry for Stonehenge

“…The discovery that the dominant bluestone sources (so far provenanced) lie on the north side of Mynydd Preseli removes one of the main lines of evidence for the healing theory proposed to explain the bluestones’ transportation, for as yet there is no convincing geological evidence that Carn Menyn provided pillars for Stonehenge (Bevins et al 2014). Associations with medieval holy wells and healing-related springs on the south side of Preseli (Darvill 2007; Darvill & Wainwright 2009: 17–18; 2014: 1112) are thus no longer sustainable on the current evidence. Similarly, the relevance of the infirmities of the Beaker-period Amesbury Archer and Early Bronze Age trepanned individuals from the Stonehenge environs (Darvill 2007), all of them a thousand years after the Middle Neolithic quarrying at Craig Rhos-y-felin, can now be called into question.…”

Retracing the footsteps of H.H. Thomas: a review of his Stonehenge bluestone provenancing study

“…It was concluded that Carn Goedog (see Figure 2) was in fact the source of the majority of the Stonehenge samples, while the neighbouring dolerite outcrops Carn Breseb, Carn Gyfrwy, Cerrig Marchogion or Craig Talfynydd, crags adjacent to Carn Alw, and an un-named outcrop west of Carn Ddafad-las may have provided some of the stones. Interestingly, despite suggestions by Darvill and Wainwright (2014, 2016), no direct match to Carn Meini was identified. Thomas provides no direct evidence for Carn Meini being the source of the spotted dolerites from Stonehenge, and thin-section petrography is too imprecise in distinguishing between these dolerite outcrops.…”

“…In contrast, this ‘spherulitic rhyolite’ might in fact be an accretionary lapilli horizon within an argillitic rock (Bevins & Ixer 2013). Interestingly, we have identified a nearly identical sample (sample SH08-390) as a fragment from Darvill and Wainwright's 2008 excavation at Stonehenge (Darvill & Wainwright 2014).…”

“…Finally, Thomas identified the spotted dolerites as coming from Carn Meini, whereas geochemical analysis shows that Carn Goedog is the actual source of much of the spotted dolerite present at Stonehenge. Despite possible archaeological evidence for quarrying (Darvill & Wainwright 2014), no exact geochemical match with Carn Meini dolerite has been determined.…”

Roll Me a Great Stone: A Brief Historiography of Megalithic Construction and the Genesis of the Roller Hypothesis

“…In contrast, the builders of megalithic monuments regularly had to extricate enormous monoliths from inaccessible quarries and transport them much further, often over very uneven terrain (Parker Pearson et al . ; Darvill and Wainwright ; Kalb ; Ogburn ). Those responsible for building Stonehenge, for example, needed to transport about 80 sarsen stones some 20 miles over rolling downland from their probable source on the Marlborough Downs (Parker Pearson ).…”