Lost bluestone circle did not exist, archaeologists now admit

Here is a simple summary of the more recent findings (or lack of them) and the background to the research, for those who may not already be in possession of all the details.

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A supposed giant circle of bluestones in West Wales, referred to in TV programmes and in the media as “The Lost Circle”, never actually existed. This is the conclusion drawn by archaeologists after three seasons of excavations at Waun Mawn, in the western part of the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire.

It was postulated by Professor Mike Parker Pearson and his colleagues (1) that the bluestones at Stonehenge once stood in a giant stone circle with a diameter of 110m on a bleak expanse of moorland before it was dismantled, stone by stone, and hauled off to Stonehenge during the Neolithic period. Further, it was postulated that the stones came originally from two “bluestone quarries”, one at Craig Rhosyfelin and the other at Carn Goedog. In a number of articles in the specialist literature, Parker Pearson developed the hypothesis that the bluestones from these sites had some special ritual value which led to their use in a local “venerated stone circle” — which was then uprooted so that the bluestones could be carried as tributes or offerings to the powerful tribe that controlled the territory around Stonehenge. He argued that 80 bluestones were carried or dragged overland approximately along the route of the A40 road, across the Severn estuary and then overland again to Salisbury Plain).

This narrative was heavily criticised in 2015 by geomorphologists Dr Brian John and Dr Dyfed Elis-Gruffydd and geologist John Downes, who studied the evidence from Rhosyfelin and Carn Goedog and argued (2) (3) that there was no trace of Neolithic quarrying at either site. Further, they argued that the rock types involved, namely foliated rhyolite and spotted dolerite, were not used preferentially in any local megalithic structures, indicating that they were not deemed “special” in any way. They pointed out that there were no traces of those rock types at Waun Mawn, and that any stones used there were obtained from glacial erratics in the immediate vicinity (4).

Further criticism of the Parker Pearson hypothesis came in 2020 from archaeologists Gordon Barclay and Kenneth Brophy, when they accused him of “interpretative inflation” with respect to the evidence on the ground and of promoting the idea that Stonehenge was the cultural “beating heart” of Britain (5).

The Lost Circle hypothesis received huge media attention last year through TV programmes and popular media articles, in spite of the fact that at Waun Mawn today there is only one standing stone and three recumbent stones, irregularly spaced and on an approximate NW-SE alignment. It’s not at all obvious that the stones lie on the circumference of a giant circle. Geophysical research in 2011 gave no grounds for any belief that there were any sockets that had genuinely held bluestone monoliths, but during three digging seasons Parker Pearson and his colleagues persisted with their increasingly desperate hunt for recumbent monoliths and stone sockets.

Finally, with the publication of the interim Report on the 2021 digging season (6), Parker Pearson and his colleagues have had to admit that there never was a “lost stone circle” at Waun Mawn. However, they insist on referring to the site as “an unfinished and dismantled stone circle”. They claim to have found at least eight sockets from which stones had been removed, as well as other features pointing to Neolithic occupation, including artefacts, a fire pit and a number of post-holes. However, archaeologist Mike Pitts (7) has pointed out that the supposed stone sockets at Waun Mawn are far too small and too shallow ever to have held bluestone monoliths, and most of them appear to be simple indentations in the natural undulating surface of glacial deposits. Others who have studied the prehistory of western Preseli argue that traces of prehistoric occupation are found everywhere across a landscape which is rich in Neolithic and Bronze Age remains. No rock fragments or artefacts have been found that might link this site in any way with Stonehenge.

Commenting on the latest developments, Dr Brian John said: “I hope that we have now seen the back of TV presenters going on about “astonishing discoveries” at Waun Mawn (8). There never was a giant stone circle at Waun Mawn, either complete or incomplete, that was dismantled and shipped off to Stonehenge. The hypothesis promoted by Mike Parker Pearson (9) is unsupported either by geological or archaeological evidence. There were no Neolithic bluestone quarries. And at Stonehenge the bluestones are now known to have come from around 30 different locations. Most of the 43 remaining monoliths there are heavily abraded and weathered boulders and slabs that look like glacial erratics; the idea that they were quarried and then hauled off to Salisbury Plain is simply a fantasy.” (10)

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NOTES 

(1) Mike Parker Pearson, Josh Pollard, Colin Richards, Kate Welham, Timothy Kinnaird, Dave Shaw, Ellen Simmons, Adam Stanford, Richard Bevins, Rob Ixer, Clive Ruggles, Jim Rylatt & Kevan Edinborough. 2021. The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the
Preseli Hills of west Wales. Antiquity, Vol 95, No 379, 12 Feb 2021, pp. 85-103.
https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.239
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345177590_Waun_Mawn_and_the_search_for_Proto-_Stonehenge [accessed Jan 13 2022].

(2) John, B.S. 2019b. Carn Goedog and the question of the "bluestone megalith quarry”. Researchgate: working paper. April 2019, 25 pp.
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12677.81121
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332739336_Carn_Goedog_and_the_question_of_the_bluestone_megalith_quarry

(3) John, B.S., Elis-Gruffydd, D. & Downes, J. 2015b. Observations on the supposed “Neolithic Bluestone Quarry” at Craig Rhosyfelin, Pembrokeshire. Archaeology in Wales 54, pp 139-148. (December 2015)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286775899_OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_SUPPOSED_NEOLITHIC_BLUESTONE_QUARRY_AT_CRAIG_RHOSYFELIN_PEMBROKESHIRE

(4) John, Brian. 2021. Waun Mawn and the search for "Proto- Stonehenge”. Working Paper No 4. Researchgate, updated September 2021.32 pp.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345177590_Waun_Mawn_and_the_search_for_Proto-_Stonehenge

(5) Barclay, G. J., and K. Brophy. 2020. “‘A Veritable Chauvinism of Prehistory’: Nationalist Prehistories and the ‘British’ Late Neolithic Mythos.” Archaeological Journal 1–31.
doi:10.1080/00665983.2020.1769399

(6) The Interim Report can be found here: https://www.sarsen.org/2022/01/waun-mawn-and-gernos-fach-welsh-origins.html?showComment=1642027777014#c2520553829533807025

(7) Pitts, M. 2021. Comment thread on Twitter, relating stone socket dimensions.
https://twitter.com/pittsmike/status/1361298920979238915/photo/1

(8) Alice Roberts. 2021. BBC TV. Stonehenge: the Lost Circle Revealed.; 12 February 2021.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s5xm/ad/stonehenge-the-lost-circle-revealed

(9) UCL Press Release: Stonehenge may be dismantled Welsh stone circle. 11 February 2021
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/feb/stonehenge-may-be-dismantled-welsh-stone-circle

(10) It is well established that on at least one occasion in the Quaternary Ice Age the ice of the Irish Sea Glacier flowed across Pembrokeshire, up the Bristol Channel and into Somerset. It carried with it glacial erratics from areas subjected to ice erosion. What is not currently known is the location of the ice edge further to the east.
Brian John. 2018. The Stonehenge Bluestones. Greencroft Books, Newport. 256 pp. ISBN 97800905559-94-0