The builders of the Waun Mawn monument in Wales may have dismantled parts of it and used the stones to construct Stonehenge centuries later. This theory could explain why the bluestones, believed to be the first monoliths at Stonehenge, were brought from so far away. The link may lend credence to an ancient myth in which the wizard Merlin led men to Ireland to capture a stone circle called the Dance of the Giants and rebuilt it in England.
Around 3,300 BC, Neolithic people in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire, Wales erected a circle of bluestone monoliths, quarried from a nearby quarry. They buried them upright to align with the midsummer solstice sunrise at a site known as Waun Mawn, in a configuration very similar to that of the better-known Stonehenge, about 150 miles (240km) away.
Now, researchers think that descendants of those builders may have dismantled parts of the Waun Mawn monument and used the stones in the construction of Stonehenge several centuries later, perhaps as inhabitants of the Preseli region migrated south to what is now Wiltshire, England. and took the bluestones with him as a reminder of their ancestral identity.
Exploring the Mystery of Stonehenge:
Archaeologists say this theory could explain why the bluestones, believed to be the first monoliths erected at Stonehenge, were brought from so far away. Most of the stone circles were built within easy reach of their quarries.
A series of stone holes in the 360-foot (110 m) outline of the Waun Mawn circle corresponds to the construction of Stonehenge. One bears an imprint that matches the unusual cross section of a Stonehenge blue stone “like a key in a lock,” archaeologists said.
The link may lend credence to an ancient myth in which the wizard Merlin led men to Ireland to capture a stone circle called the Dance of the Giants and rebuilt it in England. Waun Mawn Circle would have been considered part of Ireland at the time.
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