Turns out the Scots built Stonehenge. Or at least part of it. The altar stone, apparently, did not originate in either England or Wales, but came from Scotland.

It had been assumed that this stone, like the bluestones, came from Wales. But its new provenance is now being used to support claims that the structure represents a feat of cooperation across a much wider area than had been previously thought. Lugging this lump of rock four hundred or so miles would require a great deal of effort and coordination and this would speak to a more sophisticated society that could support such a logistics exercise.

Or not.

There is an agency that was in existence then that could have done it quite easily.

Ice.

The most recent ice age started about 2.6 million years ago and lasted until roughly 11,000 years ago. During that time the ice advanced several times.

Each wave of glaciation will scour the land surface as it advances. Repeated freezing and thawing at the leading edge of the advancing pack can crack and split rock so that boulders can be broken off and carried forward under the pack.

The result after the retreat of that wave of gelation is chunks of rock left stranded far from home. Hundreds of miles from where they were picked up. Ice does that to a young boulder. Picks you up, promises you the world on its white sleigh, and then dumps you without so much as bus fare home.

Building Stonehenge took a long time. We’re talking generations here. But. The people who did it were different. They didn’t have mobile phones and telly. Probably never watched football or Strictly. They would have know about other things. About trees and plants. About rivers and the land.

And about rock.

They would immediately recognised a large slab of rock, different from all the rock types they knew and used. They would have seen it as alien, special. How did it get there? Where did it come from? And why?

Now, I am not going to get soppy and immediately declare that this would be a  religious item, an altar. But, in the absence of Starbucks, you might arrange to meet someone at “The Odd Rock”, something recognisable in the landscape. It could become a recognised meeting point.

A thing that has always bothered me about Stonehenge is its location. Why there? Why precisely that spot. I mean, if you wanted to build an enormous monument, requiring tremendous effort over long periods, wouldn’t you put it in a prominent place? A hilltop? A river crossing? Something like that?

It is located at 51^o 10’ 43.7” W, 1^o 49’ 34.38” W. There may be some significance to this location for reasons of astronomy or calendar events. I don’t know about that. I would expect such alignments to be available on a locus across the land. Possibly two such loci intersect at this precise point.

It certainly isn’t on a hilltop – if you visit it, it will not come into view until you have crossed one of the ridges that surround it. Pretty much from all directions, you have to descend, overall, to reach it.

Odd place for a site of cultural and/or religious significance.

Unless, that precise location is already of significance because of that damn great chunk of alien rock lying there.

Seems as  good a reason as any.