Photo of a cow's tooth....... not the one used in the study
Well, it is the silly seaon, and we expect assorted bits of nonsense to be making the headlines. What we don't expect is to find an august (and supposedly very scientific) body like the British Geological Survey (BGS) at the centre of a piece of pseudo-science, promoting it heavily to a gullible media.
The big story today (in the Guardian, Mail, and Independent) has been promoted by the BGS press office, which is presumably accepted by all editors as highly reliable and respectable source. The press release, reproduced below, is quite extraordinary and highly irresponsible.
The story is all about the analysis of a single cattle tooth, taken from a cow's jawbone found near the "entrance" to Stonehenge in 1924. According to legend, this jawbone was "carefully placed" and was therefore of great significance. Now where have we heard that sort of thing before?
Let's just make this point. The article which is being hyped here is a rather dry and dusty one, of interest to those who are keen on cow's teeth, but it provides no evidence whatsoever that the famous cow which might have spent some of its time in an area of older rocks had anything to do with Wales, let alone Pembrokeshire and let alone the Mynydd Preseli area. The article itself makes no extravagant claims, but it is seized on by Evans, Parker Pearson and Madgwick who pretend that it makes some major contribution to the "established" Stonehenge bluestone narrative.
It's all completely bonkers.
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BGS news
https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/scientists-uncover-secrets-of-stonehenges-mysterious-cattle/Scientists uncover secrets of Stonehenge’s mysterious cattle
Cutting-edge analysis of a Neolithic cow tooth dating back to the construction of the famous landmark provides evidence of Welsh origins.
20/08/2025 By BGS PressThe mysteries of Stonehenge have baffled scientists for centuries. In the 2010s, archaeologists and geologists identified two quarries in Wales as the sources of Stonehenge’s legendary standing bluestones. Now, new evidence published by scientists in August 2025 consolidates this connection.
A century ago, in 1924, archaeologists discovered a cow’s jawbone that had been carefully placed beside Stonehenge’s south entrance and dated it to the monument’s very beginning in 2995 to 2900 BCE. The discovery has intrigued historians ever since. Why had it been placed there? Why was this animal considered special? Researchers from BGS, Cardiff University and University College London have used isotope analysis to bring this artifact to life, helping to reveal further tantalising glimpses into the origins of the historic landmark.The scientists sliced the cow’s third molar tooth, which records chemical signals from the animal’s second year of life, into nine horizontal sections. They were then able to measure carbon, oxygen, strontium and lead isotopes, which each offer clues about the cow’s diet, environment and movement.
The oxygen isotopes revealed that the tooth captured roughly six months of growth, from winter to summer, whilst the carbon isotopes showed the animal’s diet changed with the seasons: woodland fodder in winter and open pasture in summer. Additionally, the strontium isotopes indicated the seasonal food sources came from different geological areas, suggesting that the cow either moved seasonally or that winter fodder was imported.
The lead isotopes revealed composition spikes during the late winter to spring, pointing to a lead source that was older than the lead in the rest of the tooth. The composition suggests the cow originated from an area with Palaeozoic rocks, such as the bluestones found in Wales, before moving to Stonehenge.
This is the first time that scientists have seen evidence linking cattle remains from Stonehenge to Wales, adding further weight to theories that cows were used in the transportation of the enormous rocks across the country.
This study has revealed unprecedented details of six months in a cow’s life, providing the first evidence of cattle movement from Wales as well as documenting dietary changes and life events that happened around 5000 years ago. A slice of one cow tooth has told us an extraordinary tale and, as new scientific tools emerge, we hope there is still more to learn from her long journey.
Prof Jane Evans, BGS Honorary Research Associate.
In addition to this discovery, researchers also concluded that the unusual lead signal could not be explained by local contamination or movement alone. Instead, there was another explanation: that lead stored in the cow’s bones had been remobilised during the stresses of pregnancy. If true, this would mean the cow was female and pregnant or nursing during the tooth’s formation. To test the hypothesis, the team applied a peptide-based sex determination technique at the University of Manchester, which showed there was a high probability that the animal was female.
This research has provided key new insights into the biography of this enigmatic cow whose remains were deposited in such an important location at a Stonehenge entrance. It provides unparalleled new detail on the distant origins of the animal and the arduous journey it was brought on. So often grand narratives dominate research on major archaeological sites, but this detailed biographical approach on a single animal provides a brand-new facet to the story of Stonehenge.
Richard Madgwick, professor of archaeological science at Cardiff University.
Stonehenge has many secrets left to be uncovered. However, this latest research helps fill in just a few more of those gaps as we learn more about this legendary landmark.
This is yet more fascinating evidence for Stonehenge’s link with south-west Wales, where its bluestones come from. It raises the tantalising possibility that cattle helped to haul the stones.
Michael Parker Pearson, professor of British later prehistory at University College London.
The research paper, Sequential multi-isotope sampling through a Bos taurus tooth from Stonehenge, to assess comparative sources and incorporation times of strontium and lead, is now available to read.
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440325001189?via%3Dihub
AbstractThe aim of this paper is to use the sequential nature of enamel deposition in hypsodont teeth to study the relationship, in time and source, of strontium and lead isotopes to better understand the use of this pairing of elements for studies of movement and migration. Carbon and
oxygen isotope analysis were included to place the data in their seasonal and dietary context. The study was undertaken on an M3 from a Neolithic cattle tooth excavated from Stonehenge. The animal was female based on peptide analysis. The tooth records c. six months of enamel deposition from winter to summer, based on δ18OcarbVSMOW compositions, and changes in δ13CcarbVSMOW that reflect a shift from forest to grassland food sources. 87Sr/86Sr varies from a winter value of 0.7144 to 0.7110 in summer. Lead concentrations and isotope composition shows peaks and troughs which contrast with the unidirectional change in the 87Sr/86Sr. We suggest that whereas the Sr is wholly derived from dietary sources the Pb represents a balance between diet and skeletal reservoirs, the latter being scavenged during a time of
metabolic stress attributed to calving and lactation. It is thus important to consider skeletal reservoirs as a source of Pb when using this element to track movement and migration. This study demonstrates the value of using the complementary isotope systems of lead and strontium in tandem, but also highlights that their integration must be undertaken with caution and with full consideration of alternative drivers of variation.
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The wildly extravagant claims made by Evans, Madgwick and Parker Pearson in the press release are quite at odds with the contents of the paper. In fact the text urges caution in the interpretation of the isotope analyses, warning against over-interpretation and against the assumption that the seasonal changes found in the tooth have anything at all to do with migration or travel over large distances. The changes suggest a dietary change from woodland to grassland, which suggests that the animal might have moved between one season or another -- or alternatively that woodland fodder was collected by humans and moved to the animal when grass was in short supply in the winter. The strontium and lead isotope "signatures" certainly do not suggest a west Wales source, and could just as well be associated with an animal that was grazing at one time in Devon or Cornwall, or even in the Mendips.
Quote from the text:
This study has revealed some important considerations when looking at multi-isotope variation in tooth enamel. By linking the changes in carbon and oxygen with those in strontium we can see that the Sr isotope terrain changes are related to vegetation type and seasonality and while the shift in Sr from c. 0.7144 to <0.711 might previously have been see as indication a significant migratory event, new studies show that this could be either localized movement or simply movement of feed rather that the animal itself. The discrepancies between strontium (unidirectional composition change down the tooth) and Pb isotope composition (peaks and troughs) highlights the different metabolic pathways of Sr and Pb and show that care must be taken, if the two isotopes are used together as a migration tracker, to ensure that both isotopes are monitoring coeval and consanguineous isotope sources. Finally, fluctuations in Pb concentration and isotope composition may be indicative of birth induced skeletal stress in female animals.
How anybody can interpret that as indicating that the cow travelled to Stonehenge from SW Wales, goodness knows..........
