Archaeologists have discovered the long-lost prehistoric tools used to quarry the original standing stones from the earliest stone-built phase of Stonehenge.

Excavations in an ancient quarry in southwest Wales have so far yielded 15 sandstone wedges that were used to break off natural stone columns from the bedrock.

They also discovered V-shaped slots in two columns that had been earmarked for use – but never removed.

The archaeologists – led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson of University College London’s Institute of Archaeology – also found a number of hammer stones, potentially used to force in the wedges.

All the tools appear to have been made elsewhere from stones that could not have been found in or around the quarry itself.

Stonehenge: Origins of those who built world-famous monument revealed Show all 6 1 /6 Stonehenge: Origins of those who built world-famous monument revealed Stonehenge: Origins of those who built world-famous monument revealed A new scientific research collaboration is, for the first time, revealing who built Stonehenge. The cutting-edge study sheds a remarkable light on the geographical origins of the Neolithic community that first constructed the ancient site. Complex tests carried out on 25 Neolithic people who were buried at or following the time of the initial construction of the now world-famous monument, have revealed that 10 of them lived nowhere near Stonehenge, but in western Britain, and that half of those 10 potentially came from southwest Wales (where the earliest Stonehenge monoliths came from). AFP/Getty Images Stonehenge: Origins of those who built world-famous monument revealed Three of the cremated cranial fragments used in the study Up until now, it has always been assumed that it was not possible to carry out place-of-origin tests on burned bones – but recent research at Oxford University by Belgian scientist, Dr Christophe Snoeck of the Free University of Brussels, has now discovered that the act of cremation actually crystallises a bone’s structure and prevents the crucial origin-indicating isotope evidence from being contaminated by isotopic signals in the surrounding soil. Christie Willis, UCL Stonehenge: Origins of those who built world-famous monument revealed Aubrey Hole 7 during excavation in 2008 Although the geographically intermediate examples hint at there being a well-worn prehistoric land route between west Wales and Stonehenge, nobody yet knows exactly how the stones (and the cremated remains) were transported. Sea and land routes are both possible. Christie Willis, UCL Stonehenge: Origins of those who built world-famous monument revealed Aubrey Hole 7 following excavation in 2008 Geologically, previous research has shown that the stones (so-called bluestones or dolerite, used for the early phase of Stonehenge) also came from western Britain (in this case, the Preseli mountains in southwest Wales). Archaeological investigations have now pinpointed the quarries they actually came from – and when they were quarried (some time between the 34th and the 32nd century BC). Christie Willis, UCL Stonehenge: Origins of those who built world-famous monument revealed Excavations at one of the recently identified bluestone quarries, at Carn Goedog, Pembrokeshore, west Wales. The recent scientific analysis of the Stonehenge cremated bones (that appear to have been buried adjacent to the newly re-erected stones) is now helping to reveal the origins of the community, which appears to have actually built the earliest version of the monument. It is the strontium and carbon isotopic signatures in the cremated bone material that suggest a western British origin for the 10 individuals – and definitely not from the Stonehenge area. The carbon signal, absorbed into the bones from the timber used in the funerary pyre, also suggests a Western or non-local origin. Adam Stanford, Aerial-Cam Ltd Stonehenge: Origins of those who built world-famous monument revealed The ever-increasing body of evidence suggesting Stonehenge and the original Stonehenge community’s western British origins has substantial implications for our understanding of British prehistory. Christie Willis, UCL

Scientists know the Stonehenge early phase standing stones (known as “bluestones”, rather than the later more famous and much larger “sarsen” stones) come from this and other Pembrokeshire prehistoric quarries – because of chemical identification tests they have carried out on the rocks.

So far, only two quarries have been identified – both on the northern slopes of the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales – but geologists, who have studied the Stonehenge bluestones, think it is likely there were at least three or four other quarries that have yet to be found.

The discovery of the tools is likely to rekindle one of archaeology’s biggest debates – how did the builders of Stonehenge transport the bluestones (an estimated 79 of them, each weighing approximately 2 tons) from southwest Wales to Salisbury Plain.

There are three major potential methods – by land, by land and river, and by sea and land and/or river.

The most practical way would have been predominantly by sea – but the most ritually, politically and ideologically impressive method would have been predominantly by land. Only very detailed future archaeological research will stand a chance of finding the route and cracking that particular mystery.

In the first, more maritime scenario, the stones would potentially have been moved by raft (or catamaran) down Pembrokeshire’s river Taf into the Bristol Channel and then along England’s river Avon to within 20 miles of the Salisbury Plain site earmarked for Stonehenge.

In the second scenario, the stones would have had to be carried by stretcher or hauled on sledges (or possibly rollers) for long distances over often extremely challenging terrain (with only limited opportunities for river transport).

This second method would certainly have had ostentatious political and ideological advantages – but it would have required vast amounts of manpower, time, effort and intertribal or interclan acquiescence.

The discovery of the stone quarrying tools, which date to the approximate time of the construction of the first stone phase of the monument (c 2900BC), proves beyond reasonable doubt for the first time that Neolithic people quarried the Welsh stones that ended up being used to build the world’s most famous prehistoric temple.

But why did the builders of Stonehenge want to get their standing stones from 175 miles away when they could have used perfectly good local stones from Salisbury Plain?

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The answer is probably genealogical. Chemical signatures found in the bones of early Stonehenge people suggest many of those individuals were originally from western Britain, not from Salisbury Plain. It is therefore conceivable that the stones of early Stonehenge were brought to Salisbury Plain from the area associated with the builders’ ancestors.

Fascinatingly, in much later (medieval) Arthurian literature, the stones of Stonehenge are said to have been brought by the magician Merlin from the far west (although, in the legend, from Ireland, rather than southwest Wales).

The fact that the stones were brought from Pembrokeshire to Salisbury Plain raises another key mystery. If indeed they were transported to their new home as clan or tribal heirlooms, then it suggests they already possessed great significance. And that implies the possibility that they had already functioned as a ritual monument (ie as standing stones) in Wales, long before they were taken to Salisbury Plain.

So the big archaeological question is whether the initial stones of Stonehenge were second hand or freshly quarried for use so far away. If the former theory is correct, then the original Stonehenge was actually in Pembrokeshire – not in England. The hunt is therefore now on for the original site of this potential Welsh proto-Stonehenge.

Without doubt Salisbury Plain’s world-famous prehistoric temple still holds many secrets – but archaeological research over the coming years is likely to reveal them.

The discovery of the quarrying tools – published today in the British archaeological journal Antiquity – has been made by a team of archaeologists and geologists from UCL, Bournemouth University, the University of Southampton, the University of the Highlands and Islands and the National Museum of Wales.

Professor Pearson said: “What’s really exciting about these discoveries is that they take us a step closer to unlocking Stonehenge’s greatest mystery – why its stones came from so far away.