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      Archaeology and legend: investigating Stonehenge

      research-article
      1 ,
      Archaeology International
      UCL Press
      Neolithic, Stonehenge, stone circles, Britain, legend

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          Abstract

          Stonehenge is one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments, built 4,500–5,000 years ago during the Neolithic in a time long before written history. The recent dramatic discovery of a dismantled stone circle near the sources of some of Stonehenge’s stones in southwest Wales raises the fascinating possibility that an ancient story about Stonehenge’s origin, written down 900 years ago and subsequently dismissed as pure invention, might contain a grain of truth. This article explores the pros and cons of comparing the legend with the archaeological evidence.

          Most cited references66

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          The Beaker Phenomenon and the Genomic Transformation of Northwest Europe

          Bell Beaker pottery spread across western and central Europe beginning around 2750 BCE before disappearing between 2200–1800 BCE. The forces propelling its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, with support for both cultural diffusion and migration. We present new genome-wide data from 400 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans, including 226 Beaker-associated individuals. We detected limited genetic affinity between Iberian and central European Beaker-associated individuals, and thus exclude migration as a significant mechanism of spread between these two regions. However, migration played a key role in the further dissemination of the Beaker Complex, a phenomenon we document most clearly in Britain, where the spread of the Beaker Complex introduced high levels of Steppe-related ancestry and was associated with a replacement of ~90% of Britain’s gene pool within a few hundred years, continuing the east-to-west expansion that had brought Steppe-related ancestry into central and northern Europe 400 years earlier.
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            Ancient genomes indicate population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain

            The roles of migration, admixture and acculturation in the European transition to farming have been debated for over 100 years. Genome-wide ancient DNA studies indicate predominantly Aegean ancestry for continental Neolithic farmers, but also variable admixture with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Neolithic cultures first appear in Britain ca. 4000 BCE, a millennium after they appear in adjacent areas of continental Europe. The pattern and process of this delayed British Neolithic transition remains unclear. We assembled genome-wide data from six Mesolithic and 67 Neolithic individuals found in Britain, dating from 8500-2500 BCE. Our analyses reveal persistent genetic affinities between Mesolithic British and Western European hunter-gatherers. We find overwhelming support for agriculture being introduced to Britain by incoming continental farmers, with small, geographically-structured levels of hunter-gatherer ancestry. Unlike other European Neolithic populations, we detect no resurgence of hunter-gatherer ancestry at any time during the Neolithic in Britain. Genetic affinities with Iberian Neolithic individuals indicate that British Neolithic people were mostly descended from Aegean farmers who followed the Mediterranean route of dispersal. We also infer considerable variation in pigmentation levels in Europe by ca. 6000 BCE.
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              The Source of the Stones of Stonehenge

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                ai
                Archaeology International
                UCL Press (UK )
                2048-4194
                30 December 2021
                : 24
                : 1
                : 144-164
                Affiliations
                [1 ]UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK
                Author notes
                Article
                10.14324/111.444.ai.2021.09
                72185a6e-98d0-4033-8fb0-6d7c55147ea2
                Copyright © 2021, Mike Parker Pearson

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                Page count
                Figures: 5, References: 60, Pages: 21
                Categories
                Research Articles and Updates

                Archaeology,Cultural studies
                legend,Britain,stone circles,Stonehenge,Neolithic
                Archaeology, Cultural studies
                legend, Britain, stone circles, Stonehenge, Neolithic

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