At https://phys.org/news/2025-07-humans-glacial-brought-bluestones-stonehenge.html … the bickering between archaeologists and some geologists over the origin of the bluestones is still rumbling away – mostly out of sight. Now and again it resurfaces with a fresh study. One of the reasons advanced is that this is because Stonehenge has become a huge visitor attraction for tourists. It therefore keeps a lot of people in employment and a lot of ink spilt keeping the narrative alive and thriving. The idea they were brought from Wales by humans is therefore a useful part of the Stonehenge background story – as espoused at the visitor centre.
In the new study by an Aberystwyth University team we are told that they have proved they must have been carried by human traction. The proof revolves around what is known as the Newall boulder found at Stonehenge – which must have been transported by Neolithic people. Not by glaciers. Columns of foliated rhyolite can be found at Craig Rhos-y-Fein in northern Pembrokeshire. Two sides of an argument. One says human transport, and the other, glacial ice as a carrier. No other method is considered. The Newall boulder is a discrete hand sized fragment of stone with a known excavation history. Not exactly a boulder, then, more a piece of rock Newall put in his pocket, or satchell. Petrographic evidence shows the rock matches Rhyolite C at Craig Rhos-y-Fein, 200 km away. Geochemical analysis confirmed the match. Morphological comparison showed the Newall boulder profile matches the tops of in situ rhyolite pillars – suggesting it had been broken off the top of one of the columns. No glacial striations were found on the boulder. In fact, field investigation across Salisbury Plain has found no trace of glaical deposits, anywhere. No erratics – with bluestone characteristics. I’ve no doubt the geologists will now get their heads down and look at some of this again.