West Woods and the Secrets of Stonehenge's Stones
Hidden among the trees of Wiltshire, England, lies a woodland whispering tales of giants and ancient puzzles. West Woods, once an unassuming site, has shot to fame in recent years as the likely source of the colossal sarsen stones that make up Stonehenge, the iconic prehistoric monument. For centuries, the origin of these massive stones, weighing up to 25 tons, remained a mystery. Theories pointed to distant locations, with speculations ranging from Wales to even Africa. But in 2020, a scientific breakthrough changed everything. Geochemical analysis of a core drilled from a Stonehenge sarsen stone matched perfectly with samples from West Woods. This confirmed what many archaeologists had suspected for years: this unassuming woodland held the key to Stonehenge's construction. But West Woods is more than just a quarry. Evidence suggests it was a place of human activity long before the sarsens were extracted. Stone tools dating back to the Mesolithic period (7,000 - 4,000 BCE) have be...