Stone circle, identical to Stonehenge, discovered in Wales

“Second-hand” Stonehenge a reconstructed version of its Welsh pioneer

The theory alleges that the Stonehenge was dismantled and dragged 140 miles to its current site at Wiltshire

One ancient myth on the Stonehenge, which was recorded 900 years ago, talks of how the Wizard Merlin led some men into Ireland to capture a magical stone circle ‘the Giant’s Dance’, and having it rebuilt in England as a memorial to the deceased. The account of Geoffrey of Monmouth has been dismissed as he gave out wrong historical facts. 

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However, the bluestones in the monument originate from a region of Wales where a stone circle has been discovered that brings us back to the 12th-century legend. The stone circle is believed to have been created in the neolithic period with very peculiar features to the current Stonehenge. 

A 110-meter diameter makes it identical to the ditch enclosing the Stonehenge ensuring it remains aligned to the midsummer solstice sunrise. A series of buried stone-holes that follow the circles’ outline with shapes that are linked to the midsummer solstice sunrise.

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Several buried stone holes that follow the circle’s outline have also been unearthed. The shapes are fairly related to Stonehenge’s bluestone pillars. One bears a base imprint that matches the cross-section of a Stonehenge bluestone.

In comments shared with The Guardian, Professor Mike Parker Pearson at the University College of London narrated how exciting this new find is, after having researched on the Stoneheandge for over two decades.  

The new evidence revives an old theory that the nation’s oldest monument was built in Wales, where it was venerated, before being deconstructed and dragged to the present site at Wiltshire. Parker believes there might have found a trinket of truth in the ancient Stonehenge account. He even seemed to recollect Geoffrey’s description of “stones of a vast magnitude” in his historical account on the Kings of Britain. Antiquity, a peer-reviewed archeology journal, will publish the new discovery, and BBC Two will explore the new developments in a documentary presented by Prof Alice Roberts.

Over 100 years ago, geologist Herbert Thomas discovered that the spotted dolerite bluestones present at the Stonehenge came from the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire. He even suspected they could have originally formed a “venerated stone circle”.

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The new circle is one of the largest ever constructed in Britain and rests 3 miles from the Preseli quarries where the Bluestone is extracted before being dragged 140 miles to the Salisbury Plain 5000 years ago. 

In 2015, Parker Pearson’s team found several recesses in the rocky outcrops of Craig Rhos-y-felin and Carn Goedog where similar stones that extractors excavated and left behind. Other items uncovered were Carbonised hazelnut shells dating back to 3300 BC.

This showed that bluestones had been quarried for four centuries before the Stonehenge was constructed. This development convinced Parker in 2015 that this was the original Stonehenge and what we see today at Wiltshire is the “second-hand monument.” To spot what remained invincible to the naked eye, Parker Pearson and his team of professional archeologists, volunteers, and students, used highly advanced scientific techniques to explore every area of the site. 

He believes they were able to identify the site as four stones still remained of the original circle. In addition, traces of ancient sunlight lingering in the soil was analyzed giving a construction date of 3300 BC.