Jun 24, 2026 · 10 min · 4 segments
Want to hear something weird about stonehenge? Here's the paper here, if you want to have a read. 👀 WHO ARE WE? Weird Tech is a Weird Tech…
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Rae JohnstonHost
Tegan JonesHost
And I think it's a really great example of archaeologists using modern technology to investigate a question that has been around for centuries.
which is how did a six-ton stone end up in the middle of Stonehenge? The stone in the middle, which you may be aware of, is the altar stone, and it's now thought to have come from northeast Scotland, about 700 kilometres away from Stonehenge.
The big question is whether people moved it all that way themselves or what is being investigated, whether glaciers exist helped transport it during the Ice
Oh, so it originated there, then it ended up closer to Stonehenge and then was used for the altar stone, essentially.
So to investigate this, the researchers combined geology with computer modelling.
Zircons are really useful because they give you a lot of clues as to where a rock was formed.
So scientists can compare the zircons in one rock with zircons found in rocks from other locations.
And by doing that, they found that the altar stone is a very close match to sandstone found in parts of northeast Scotland.
So once they had their starting point, they were able to use computer models to test whether glaciers could have carried that stone south.
And the models were based on reconstructions of Britain's ancient ice sheets during the last ice age.
But instead of looking at simply where the ice was, the models show how the ice moved over thousands of years.
And I think it's a really great example of archaeologists using modern technology to investigate a question that has been around for centuries.
which is how did a six-ton stone end up in the middle of Stonehenge? The stone in the middle, which you may be aware of, is the altar stone, and it's now thought to have come from northeast Scotland, about 700 kilometres away from Stonehenge.
The big question is whether people moved it all that way themselves or what is being investigated, whether glaciers exist helped transport it during the Ice
Oh, so it originated there, then it ended up closer to Stonehenge and then was used for the altar stone, essentially.
So to investigate this, the researchers combined geology with computer modelling.
Zircons are really useful because they give you a lot of clues as to where a rock was formed.
So scientists can compare the zircons in one rock with zircons found in rocks from other locations.
And by doing that, they found that the altar stone is a very close match to sandstone found in parts of northeast Scotland.
So once they had their starting point, they were able to use computer models to test whether glaciers could have carried that stone south.
And the models were based on reconstructions of Britain's ancient ice sheets during the last ice age.
But instead of looking at simply where the ice was, the models show how the ice moved over thousands of years.
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