Scottish stone at Stonehenge empowers our ancient ancestors

AFP via Getty Images

The discovery that Stonehenge’s monumental six-tonne altar stone came from Scotland, and not Wales as previously thought, adds another thrilling dimension to an already thrilling Neolithic landscape.

Hailing from the Orkney Basin, a geological grouping in the north and north east, the stone was moved some 500 miles to the landmark in Wiltshire.

While we know that Orkney’s Neolithic civilization was super advanced and mobile, the thought of the giant stone being transported - likely by sea, it is believed - conjures up a myriad of impressions of what mattered to our ancient ancestors and their place in Neolithic society.

It is perhaps not too far to imagine that any ceremony surrounding the stone’s journey and arrival at such an important point must have been steeped in spectacle.

Long before Stonehenge was built, Skara Brae in the north of the Orkney mainland was a thriving village, constructed some 5,000 years ago. The nearby Ness of Brodgar, a walled complex of buildings of an unparalleled scale and status, is known to have attracted people from all around as a ‘new world order’ was developed in the far north and status was built.

While we perhaps should not be totally surprised that the altar stone came from Scotland, its presence further signals that our Neolithic ancestors were deeply connected across the landscape, ever sophisticated -and truly revered.