In 1958, a workman named Robert Phillips, took the hollow sarsen cylinder from the site and returned it last year before his 90th birthday, according to reports.
A chunk of Stonehenge, which was returned to scientists last year after 60 years missing, has now helped solve a long mystery about the British prehistoric monument. A new analysis of the returned hollow cylinder from the monument helped scientists explain where the giant stones were quarried, Live Science reported.
Experts say that the bluestones around Stonehenge came from Wales but the sandstone, which is not native to that part of the world, has always been a mystery and baffled archaeologists. The “sarsens,” which is the sandstone, are thought to be the first standing stones put in place at the site about 4,500 years ago.
In 1958, a workman took the hollow sarsen cylinder from the site and returned it last year before his 90th birthday, according to reports.
As scientists studied the returned piece and used special methods to understand its foundation, they determined that the stone came from nearby West Woods in Wiltshire, just 15 miles from Stonehenge.
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