Researchers now think Stonehenge's six-ton Altar Stone may have arrived via a multistage journey that began with a glacier. The stone likely broke from a Scottish outcrop, then was dragged by ice to the now-submerged land known as Dogger Bank. From there, the study suggests, prehistoric people transported it hundreds of kilometers south to Stonehenge.
If correct, the route implies a more complex logistics network than previously assumed. The possible glacier-assisted start also helps explain how such a heavy block could cross the landscape without direct quarrying at its final source. The authors note that the journey would have required remarkable organization among the people who moved the stone.
The interpretation remains a hypothesis, as the evidence supports glaciers as a possible first carrier but does not prove the full route. The study raises the possibility that other Stonehenge stones also took indirect paths, though this has yet to be examined.